Piedras Pintadas
The place called "Piedras Pintadas" or Painted Stones is located near Tronconero, 10 Km. north of the population of Guacara and within National Park San Esteban. In this place, our forebears, the Carib Indians, left a sample of their culture carved on stone. Several small hills formed by rock slates are found here. Numerous figures were carved on the surface of these rocks. In another hill close by, the Indians built some sort of stone walls along trails, using flat rock slates that resemble "menhirs" with one end partly buried in the ground. This path is just on the way of the so-called "Salt Road". An indigenous trail that crossed the mountain and connected the valleys of Aragua with the briny Bay of Patanemo, in the Caribbean coast of the State of Carabobo. It seems that this road allowed the commercial exchange of the salt and other Indian products. Archaeological remains found both in the Archipelago of Los Roques, just off the coast, and in the area of Valencia Lake, indicate the existence of commercial exchange activities among the indigenous populations of those islands with those of the main land before the arrival of the Spaniards. Piedras Pintadas is an evidence of the cultural development of our ancestors. |
