• Submitted by: Juana
• Culture and Traditions
• History
• Holguín
• 02 / 04 / 2017

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A research project developed by specialists from Holguin province, increases references on the aboriginal objects made from animal bones found in areas near Banes, an area known as the Cuban archaeological capital.
Lourdes Perez, an assistant researcher at the Eastern Central Archeology Department, told ACN that the inquiries, which were completed in 2016, provide a more detailed view on the use of this material in the production of ceremonial, utilitarian and ornamental pieces.
She pointed out that the research takes as reference the collections of the Baní Indo Cuban Museum, the Montané Anthropological Museum of the University of Havana and the Peabody Museum of Yale University, in the American state of Connecticut found during excavations in the northeastern territory of Holguin early last century.
As part of the investigation, more than 90 pieces of bone were analyzed, such as necklace beads, earrings, ladles and mystical instruments such as vomit spatulas, used to purify the soul of the Behique (wizard) during the cohoba rite, one of the most important ceremonies of that ancestral culture.
This study, said Pérez, highlights as fundamental materials for the manufacture of these objects the bones of marine mammals that have not yet been identified and the ribs of the manatee, material predominant in the samples studied.
Banes area has 50 major archaeological sites such as El Potrero del Mango and El Chorro de Maíta, the latter is considered the largest aboriginal cemetery in the Caribbean area. (acn)