Good morning!
As you may know, hiking the Reef Bay Trail takes you on a journey back in time, past crumbling sugar mills, and onto an extraordinary window into St. John’s pre-Columbian past.
If you’ve veered off the main trail about 1.6 miles into the hike, you know the awe of witnessing the subtropical forest open out to a waterfall, feeling your eyes adjust to the change in light, and catching your breath as ancient faces carved into the rock become immediately clear.
Seeing the Reef Bay petroglyphs firsthand is like nothing else. But it raises three enduring questions: Who made them? How old are they? And, what do they mean?
Who made the petroglyphs on St. John?
Petroglyphs—named from the Greek words petra, meaning stone, and glyphe, meaning carving—have been found on every continent except Antarctica.
But while everyone’s sure that St. John’s petroglyphs are pre-Columbian—from 1000 to 1400 AD—they don’t all agree on how they got to be there.
Some believe pre-Columbian Africans carved the petroglyphs, but the most widely supported idea is that they were created by the indigenous Taíno people.
Who were the Taíno ?
The ancient Taíno were the Arawakan-speaking indigenous Caribbeans who lived on St. John and other islands before European colonization.
For an in-depth exploration of Taíno culture, check out our article on the subject here.
The pre-Columbian African belief comes from the theory that Africans arrived in the Americas before Columbus, and some carvings looking similar to African symbols.
In 1974, two male skeletons with traits more characteristic of African people than indigenous Caribbean were discovered on neighboring St. Thomas, and artifacts found with them dated back to 1250 AD, but the skeletons appear more modern.
The Taíno Connection
While there are still mysteries surrounding St. John’s Reef Bay petroglyphs, the strongest evidence points to the petroglyphs being made by the Taíno. Here’s why:
St. John’s petroglyphs share striking similarities with Taíno pre-Columbian art.
Some of the Reef Bay petroglyphs show the double spiral symbol, which is typical of confirmed Taíno pre-Columbian cultures. It’s so typical that you can find it in local logos and island souvenirs.
The large, round eyes carved into the rock are another giveaway. They’re the same as the eyes carved into Taíno artifacts found in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. You can see these on the Reef Bay petroglyph of a body that’s been wrapped in a hammock in preparation for burial.
St. John’s petroglyphs are almost identical to known Native American carvings
In Puerto Rico, rock carvings on ancient plaza boundaries have been identified as Taíno creations. Back in the 1500s, a Spanish priest attributed these carvings to the Taíno. Given the timeframe, it’s likely that he learned this from the Taíno themselves, as ‘pure Indians’ were recorded in Puerto Rico’s census until 1787.
The Puerto Rico plaza petroglyphs are quite different to St. John’s petroglyphs, but thanks to Ken Wild finding an old photograph in the 1980s, a crucial link. The photograph shows plaza petroglyphs at a site in St. Croix that are nearly indistinguishable from those at Reef Bay.
Speaking about the Reef Bay petroglyphs following this discovery, Ken Wild said, “It appeared evident by the plaza carvings that Native Americans were responsible for the carvings.”
Adding even more weight to this connection are the many Taíno artifacts that have been found at the same St. Croix site.
St. John’s petroglyphs align with known Taíno traditions
Many of the Taíno practices we now know about surround death and spiritual beliefs. The round-eyed, hammock-wrapped petroglyph is an excellent example. It shows the practice of wrapping the deceased in a hammock using a pole to carry them to their burial.
Like the Reef Bay petroglyphs, petroglyphs in Puerto Rico are at water pools. If you’ve been at a waterpool at dusk, you might have seen bats swoop down to drink from it. This is significant because bats hold deep symbolic meaning in Taíno culture. Imagery of human-like faces with a fruit bat nose represent the connection between bats and the spirits of the dead.
Designs similar to the Reef Bay petroglyphs are also remarkably similar to those found ceremonial pottery used to make offerings to ancestors.
When National Park Service archaeologist and ranger Roy Reeves examined a carved hole in the rock opposite the Reef Bay carvings, he concluded it was a metate—a stone bowl used to grind plants for ritualistic uses.
When you put all this together, it doesn’t take much to imagine the pre-Columbian Taíno people gathering at the Reef Bay petroglyphs, grinding sacred plants and preparing to communicate with their ancestors, or perhaps enter a spiritual world.
While I don’t rule out the theory that Pre-Columbian Africans did make it across the Atlantic, I’m convinced St. John’s petroglyphs were carved by the Taíno.
Which theory do you agree with? Or, maybe you have one of your own? Let us know in a comment below.