Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

Rock Art Research in Cuba / 73
surfaces, prehistoric artisans also produced sculptural pictographs that incorporate
the physical shape of the rock as a design element. The images depicted
in Cueva de Ramos, located on the north coast of the Sancti Spiritus Province,
provide an unusual example of painting that overlays incised imagery
(Dacal Moure and Rivero de la Calle 1996:37). Smoke was used to create some
images on cave walls, and at times smoked areas also contain incisions.
Two colors (black and red) occur most frequently in the images. Two others
(grey and white) are rare (Núñez Jiménez 1990:425). Analysis of the mineral
pigments used to produce some of the pictographs indicate that the red images
were produced with iron oxides and the black ones with manganese
(Dacal Moure and Rivero de la Calle 1996:37). 2 In addition, researchers have
identi¤ed the use of organic substances, including vegetal carbon, oils, and
¤bers, in some pictographic media (Guarch Delmonte and Rodríguez Cullel
1980:55). Early Cuban painters produced a wide variety of images, ranging
from simple, abstract or geometric images to ¤gurative and apparently narrative
scenes.
Petroglyphs (motifs carved into rock) and engravings produced by incising
occur with less frequency in the Cuban archipelago than do pictographs. As
with painted images, most of the petroglyphic images are located in caves and
may incorporate natural cave formations (frequently stalagmites) (Núñez
Jiménez 1975, 1985).
Analyses of prehistoric rock art in Cuba may also involve artifacts no
longer found in situ (Núñez Jiménez 1985) but are museum pieces of known
provenience. Other engraved or sculpted stone artifacts are sometimes considered
in the context of rock art analyses, particularly when they share elements
of style with the images found in caves (Núñez Jiménez 1985).
EARLY ROCK ART DISCOVERIES
Perhaps because most Cuban rock art sites are located deep inside caves, early
discoveries were sporadic (Núñez Jiménez 1980:97). The earliest historic account
of Cuban cave art appeared in 1839 in Sab, a novel by the Cuban poet
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, who relates her discovery of the pictographs
of the Cueva de María Teresa, in the province of Camagüey (Dacal Moure
and Rivero de la Calle 1996:27). During that same year, these pictographs
were also featured in the ¤rst published report of Cuban rock art, which appeared
in Memorias de la Real Sociedad Patriótica de La Habana (Núñez
Jiménez 1967:ix–x). Geographers of the era described the images as “the rich-