Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

106 / Chapter 8.
have been excavated from below a 2- m- deep deposit of fossil bat guano in an
entrance chamber. At Potoo Hole (CC22) “surface fossil guano” was dated to
950 ± 50 b.p. (a.d. 1000 ± 50 uncalibrated). Obviously no definite relationship
can be established between these dates and the petroglyphs or pictographs, and
therefore they are of uncertain relevance. But the age range is not incompatible
with that suggested by Roe for the petroglyphs and pictographs in Puerto Rico
at Maisabel, Caguana, and the Cueva de La Mora (Roe 1991a, 1991b, 1999).
Nature of the Images
The 24 sites mapped by Lee include several where only one glyph was observed.
Others have one “principal carving” and “a few smaller or less well done
efforts.” Then there are “clusters.” The one best known to him, and painfully
recollected because it had been destroyed, was Canoe Valley (MC1), which did
possess about 30 images (Appendixes 12, 13, 14, 15). Other multiple glyphs
were reported from Jackson Bay (CC2), Warminster (EC15), and Kempshot
(JC1). Worthy Park #1 (SC6) was said to contain two “very minor” pictographs
as well as some petroglyphs. Elsewhere, the pictographs are always multiple,
at Spot Valley Cave (JC7), Mountain River Cave (SC1), and Potoo Hole
(CC22). Thus, according to Lee, at Spot Valley Cave there were about a dozen
poorly preserved pictographs, applied to the cave wall in black pigment, in the
same style as those at Mountain River Cave. They were partly obscured by dirt,
dust, or smoke. His illustration is at Appendix 41. It is not too clear what these
figures represent, but as so often they seem to have both zoomorphic and anthropomorphic
characteristics.
By far the most common petroglyph motif, as Lee put it, is a simple oval face,
incised by a continuous line, with three circular or oval depressions to represent
eyes and mouth. Four such faces are illustrated from Coventry (AC1) (Appendix
17). One such figure, from Pantrepant East (TC2), has long been known,
since it was first illustrated by Duerden (1897:Figure XVII) (Appendix 21).
The “sloping narrow eyes” on one of the heads from God’s Well Junction #2
(CC10) (Appendix 37) were compared with the “mask motifs” found on some
pottery handles. One of the three illustrated heads from Gut River #1 (MC6)
is “ heart- shaped” (Appendix 38), whereas the one from Cuckold Point Cave
(MC5) has tear lines streaming from the eyes (Appendix 36). The figures from
Milk River (CC1) are somewhat enigmatic (Appendix 39), and it might be
thought that the same goes for the figure from Reynold Bent (EC19) (Appendix
40). Lee thought that the “haloes” around this head might represent “hair or