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Excerpted from St. John Off The Beaten
Track ©
2006 Gerald Singer
In the lower section of the Reef Bay Valley, there is a fresh
water pool fed by an intermittently flowing stream called the
Living Gut. It is surrounded by large, smooth rocks onto which
dozens of drawings and symbols have been carved. These rock
carvings, as well as the pool itself, are known as the petroglyphs.
High above the pool a waterfall cascades down a forty-foot
cliff where strangler figs and wild orchids have taken root
using cracks and crevices in the rock face as footholds. The
fresh water provides an environment for shrimp, frogs, small
fish, dragonflies and hummingbirds and at night bats zip back
and forth above the pool searching for a cool drink.
The natural moisture of the area promotes lush, tropical vegetation
and the ambiance is serene and tranquil. There is an air of
magic and spirituality here that undoubtedly inspired the unknown
artists who long ago created these carvings.
Today this petroglyph-lined pool lies at the end of a spur
off the Reef Bay Trail. It has become a popular place for hikers
to pause and contemplate their surroundings while enjoying
a snack or picnic lunch.
If you're coming down the Reef
Bay Trail from Centerline Road, the Petroglyph Trail
will head off to your right at a point 1.6 miles from the
trailhead. Coming up from the sugar mill, it is 0.8 miles
to the Petroglyph Trail, which will be on your left. From
the intersection of the two trails it only requires an easy
half-mile walk over flat terrain in order to reach the petroglyphs.
An often-asked question by visitors
is "Who carved the
petroglyphs?"
Although no one knows for certain, the most likely answer
to this question is that the petroglyphs were created by the
pre-Columbian inhabitants of St. John known as the Taino.
Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, and the
subsequent annihilation of the native population, the Tainos
inhabited the islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea. Archeological
excavations, such as the one being conducted at Cinnamon Bay
under the direction of National Park Archeologist Ken Wild,
have shown that St. John was once a major settlement site of
this society.
One characteristic of Taino culture was the carving of petroglyphs
in caves and along rivers, streams and rocky coastlines. Petroglyphs
have not only been found on St. John, but also on many other
islands formerly inhabited by the Taino such as Puerto Rico,
Hispaniola, Cuba and the Bahamas.
The designs of the petroglyphs are similar to each other and
are artistically comparable to the images found on other Taino
artifacts such as on pottery and on carved representations
of spiritual beings called zemis.
However, there are other theories.
One hypothesis is that Africans carved the petroglyphs. In
1971 the visiting ambassador from Ghana noticed a striking
similarity of one of the pictographs to an Ashanti symbol that
means, “accept God”.
Going further afield is the research of the eminent cryptographer,
Dr. Barry Fell, who identifies the petroglyphs as being similar
to “the Tifinag branch of a medieval Libyan script ...
used by multi-racial peoples in South East Libya as well as
by black Africans in the Sahara and the Sudan.”
According to Dr. Fell the petroglyphs are “script reflected
and inverted in the mirror of the water” and would be
translated into Modern English as “Plunge in to cleanse
and dissolve away impurity and trouble; this is water for ritual
ablution before devotions.”
As you can see the petroglyphs can inspire the imagination
and produce many different explanations as to their origin
and their meaning, and with the lack of conclusive, scientific
evidence to explain them, many theories are possible.
What's yours?
Michael Gannon, a biologist who has worked
studying bat ecology in the Caribbean for many years, located
an extremely rare species of bat, Stenoderma rufum, at the
petroglyph pools on St. John in August of 2003.
Professor Gannon reports that this species has been recorded
on St. John back in the late 1950s, but not since.
For more information
on bats visit Professor Gannon’s website.
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