TAINO PETROGLYPHS IN TUFA-COATED SERPULID MOUNDS FROM ENRIQUILLO VALLEY, SOUTHWESTERN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Tufa-coated serpulid mounds cap a mid-Holocene coral reef succession along the paleo- shoreline of Lago Enriquillo in SW Dominican Republic. This hypersaline lake formed by closure of a Caribbean seaway ~4000 ybp and its evaporation to ~40 m below present sea level. Serpulid mounds are up to 2 m tall aggregates of calcareous worm tubes that formed under variable environmental conditions during and after seaway closure. With decreasing lake levels, serpulid mounds were covered by 5-20 cm thick microbially induced tufa precipitates. Lake evaporation ended tufa formation and exposed the mounds, which provided an unusual substrate for Taino petroglyphs ~500-1500 AD. At Las Caritas (Little Faces), a natural rock shelter formed in serpulid-tufa bioherms along steep northern slopes above the lake, some petroglyphs may also have been made between 1519 and 1533 when Chief Enriquillo led Tainos into this inhospitable desert region during a revolt against Spanish rule.

The Las Caritas site has the greatest concentration and largest variety of petroglyphs in the area. Most petroglyphs represent anthropomorphic motifs, and many are simple face-shaped figures, ~20-50 cm in diameter, carved as single 2-11 cm deep grooves in the porous tufa using locally available tools such as <em>Acropora cervicornis</em> coral branches. Carved surfaces and the surrounding tufa substrate have similar reddish-brown color. Despite some damage by modern graffiti, distinguished by the light gray to brown color of freshly exposed tufa, preservation of the petroglyphs is enhanced by the region’s semi-arid climate.

The petroglyphs are rare archaeological evidence of Taino presence in the area because the dry climate likely prevented extensive agriculture and establishment of permanent settlements. The Taino utilized Lake Enriquillo for food (fish, iguanas, crocodiles, birds), but relied on springs for freshwater. Exposed between Miocene limestone bedrock and serpulid-tufa mounds at Las Caritas are unique elliptical structures of laminated travertine interpreted as spring precipitates. The Taino may have chosen this site for its proximity to springs, which were likely related to the same system of freshwater discharge into the lake that provided conditions for development of large serpulid mounds and thick tufa precipitate several millennia earlier.