Experts to re-explore Cuban archeological sites

Havana, Jan 17 (Prensa Latina) Cuban scientists willassess the state of preservation of archeological sites inPinar Del Rio here, where evidence exists of the presence ofindigenous communities 4,500 years ago.

Marta Rosa Gonzalez told Prensa Latina that the upcomingresearch will aim at updating the inventory of those findingsand searching for possible risks or vulnerability.

The exploration, which might take more than a year, willinclude the areas of Sierra de los Organos and theGuanahacabibes peninsula, one of the last refuges of Cubanindigenous people, said an expert working for the Research andEnvironmental Services Center, ECOVIDA.

Pinar del Rio, some 140 kilometers (87 miles) fromHavana, holds hundreds of archeological sites, most linked tothe culture of the Guanahatabey people, a word that meansrough man in the Arawakan language.

The Guanahatabey were hunters, fishers and gatherers, andlived in caves and other natural environments in the region.

Recent research showed that the pictographs and petroglyphsmade by those primitive societies might be endangered bynatural phenomena and human activity.

In Guanahacabibes alone, on Cuba''s westernmost tip,experts have found some 135 archeological sites, some of whichhave been damaged or altered by hurricanes.

Caves hold rustic work instruments and fragments of humanbone, along with other valuable artifacts that prove theexistence of indigenous groups in the region.

Local caves and other sites also show signs of thepresence of black slaves who rebelled and ran away fromslavery, as well as other evidence from the Spanish colonialperiod.

The Cape, as that area is known, also treasures abundantelements from the activities of corsairs and pirates in the16th, 17th and 18th centuries. (Prensa Latina)