• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 02 / 23 / 2011

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22 de febrero de 2011, 00:08. Artemisa, Cuba, Feb 22 (Prensa Latina) Cuban scientists are making a research to decode the origin and significance of curious drawings engraved in Cuban royal palm trees in this province. It is thought that the drawings were engraved by African slaves.

Historian Jorge Freddy Ramirez head of the research team, said to Prensa Latina that it is about xylographs found in some regions of Rosario Mountain Range and other neighbouring areas where in the past where there were sugar plantations, coffee plantations or Maroon palenques.

The xylographs were engraved in Cuban royal palm trees which age ranges between 150 and 200 years.

He said that the explored areas have a clear link with the African presence in these areas of the island.

He said that among the xylographs found there were magical-religious symbols associated with that culture and more realistic and human figures and representations of plants, most similar to drawings made by these groups in handicrafts and in caves as petroglyphs or pictographs.

‘Death is another recurring theme", he said.

Ramirez said that the research teams are seeking the xylographies mainly in places where were the slave groups.

Ramirez said that the researches are in the early stage. It includes the interpretation of old works engraved in Cuban royal palms, Cuban national tree.