Mysterious rock art uncovered in caves on uninhabited Caribbean island (Report)

Indigenous rock art from Mona island. Note how the artist uses the contrast between the darker cave wall and the white design (Project El Corazon del Caribe)

Experts have uncovered a vast array of mysterious pre-Columbian rock art in the caves of a remote uninhabited Caribbean island.

Archaeologists explored around 70 cave systems on Puerto Rico’s Mona island. The thousands of designs, created centuries ago, comprise the largest concentration of indiginous pre-Columbian rock art in the Caribbean, according to experts.

A paper, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, describes the incredible art in the labyrinthine cave network, spanning human, animal and “meandering” designs. While some of the designs are painted or drawn, others have been scratched with fingers into the soft walls of the cave, a similar technique to that used in the Palaeolithic rock art of Southern Europe.

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