​The Caurita Stone

​The Caurita Stone is situated in the Caurita Hills of the Maracas Valley, Trinidad. The etchings are said to be 1,000 to 1,500 years old and is sacred to the Indigenous People of Trinidad and Tobago.
The height and width of the stone is roughly six feet by eight feet, and drawings have been etched into the top half of its exposed surface to the front. These drawings show faintly between the growing mosses that carpet the stone. Members of the Santa Rosa Carib community view this stone as having special spiritual significance and regard it as part of their natural heritage. Some of the etchings identified depict a chief, other people in ceremonial wear and a deer. Heads are seen on simple line drawn bodies, probably representing ancestors or other spirits or shamanistic phenomena.
The stone is now revered as a key point relative to the sacred “gateways” to Trinidad’s Original People: El Tucuche to the north, El Cerro del Aripo to the east, San Fernando Hill to the south and a mountain in Venezuela’s Paria peninsula to the west.
It is agreed among Amerindian communities in Trinidad that etchings on the stone bear spiritual significance. The site of the Caurita Stone is now regarded as an important part of the ongoing quest for knowledge and understanding of Amerindian ancestral occupation and life on this island.
Photograph Courtesy Bunty and Rory O'Connor.

---