Taíno Symbols & Petroglyphs, Explained

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Discover the significance of Caribbean & Puerto Rican Taíno symbols

Co-authored by Glenn Carreau

Last Updated: November 2, 2025 References

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Taíno Symbols

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Understanding Taíno Culture

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Curious about the many symbols and pictographs attributed to ancient Taíno culture? You’ve come to the right place! Scholars today may not know as much about Taíno culture as they’d like, as the Taíno people were nearly wiped out by Spanish colonialism, yet many symbols still survive as indicators of what Taíno life, culture, and religion were like. In this article, we’ll give you a comprehensive introduction to these Taíno symbols and their meanings, as well as the history and culture of the Taíno people of the Caribbean islands.

Taíno Symbols & Meanings: At a Glance

Taíno symbols depict aspects of their religion and culture. Prominent Taíno symbols include the Great Seal (a sacred tribal symbol of authority), the Spiral (a symbol of creation), the Turtle (representing the beginning of all life), and the Trigonolito (representing the Taíno god of fertility).

Section 1 of 2:

Important Taíno Symbols (and Meanings)

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Great sealThe Great Seal is a sacred tribal seal, particularly associated with the Jatibonicu Taíno tribal nation. It was found carved into rock around 900 BC, featuring a pair of branches surrounded by leaves—representing the sacred cojóbana tree. This symbol is also the Sacred Badge of Authority, indicating Taíno blood and lineage. Traditionally, the cacique (local leader) of a tribe bears this symbol as a mark of authority.^{[1]
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SpiralIn Taíno culture, spirals were symbols of creation, growth, and the unending nature of cosmic energy. It also represented sweet water, giving the spiral significance as a symbol of both tangible matter and abstract concepts.^{[2]
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TurtleTaíno pictographs included carvings of turtles. In legends, the Taíno people were descended from a sea turtle and the hero Deminán Caracaracol. Thus, turtles represented the beginning of life and were symbols of maternity (Mother Earth), fertility, and all of mankind.^{[3]
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CoquiThe coqui symbol depicts a frog—specifically, the coqui frog, today a national symbol in Puerto Rico. Coqui frogs are featured widely throughout Taíno art in pictographs and pottery. This particular coqui symbol has even been found in graves!^{[4]
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Research source} In Taíno culture, the coqui represents luck, the spirit world, fertility, and renewal.
- Coqui frogs are associated with a Taíno legend in which a goddess created the frog to call out for her lost lover.
- This frog symbol may also be known as “Toa”—the Taíno word for “mother.” In another legend, all women of the island were abducted, and the children started to cry out for their mothers (“toa, toa”). The men left to care for them were transformed into frogs.
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Snail conchSnails and conch shells were important to the Taíno people in many ways! Snails were one of their many food sources (and an ingredient used during rituals). Conches, meanwhile, were used to communicate while hunting (due to the sounds that could be made with them) and as decoration.
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Eternal loversThe Taíno “Eternal lovers” symbol is typically depicted as two birds connected at the beak. The symbol represents love, fertility, and equality within each Taíno tribe. That’s because the Taíno were very community-oriented, and believed everything grown or hunted belonged to the entire tribe—there was no such thing as “private property.”^{[5]
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BirdIn Taíno culture, birds (particularly herons and cranes) were believed to represent masculinity. Thus, this symbol closely resembles a heron-like bird! The bird symbol may also represent members of a Taíno tribe, though this is unconfirmed.
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TrigonolitoA trigonolito was a three-pointed stone sculpture in Taíno culture—typically depicting or representing Yúcahu, the god of fertility. The Taíno people would bury trigonolito sculptures in the soil to fertilize it, believing it would help with their crop growth. Spanish explorers later found many small trigonolito sculptures, buried, as a result.^{[6]
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- It was especially common to find trigonolito sculptures in soil dedicated to growing yucca and conucos cassava, since they were so important to the Taíno food supply.
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God of CohobaThis may alternatively be the guardian of cohoba—specifically, the guardian of a cohoba ritual sacred to the Taíno people. As we’ve already mentioned, cohoba was a type of hallucinogenic dust; people believed inhaling it during rituals would allow them to interact with ancestors and spirits. The symbol depicts a plate atop this god or guardian’s head, representing the plate used to move cohoba during ceremonies.^{[7]
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Opiyel guobiranThis symbol depicts a sort of god-dog hybrid. The opiyel guobiran is considered a Taíno counterpart to the concept of a “hell-hound,” or even dog monsters like Cerberus in Greek mythology. This “soul dog” was considered half-god, half-dog, and was believed to shepherd the spirits of the dead into the afterlife.
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God of forceIn this symbol, the Taíno god of force is holding a trunk in their hands, symbolizing the Taíno peoples’ willpower and pursuit of freedom. As a whole, the god of force symbol represents peace, prosperity, and abundance.
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CemiCemi (or zemi) was the Taíno word for a deity or ancestral spirit. Thus, the cemi symbols represent gods and spirits in “idol” form, often used during ceremonial events in which offerings would be made to the cemi.^{[8]
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Sun GodThe Taíno people believed that the sun and moon were born in one single cave: the cave of Mautiatibuel (“son of dawn”). According to Taíno legend, the sun (or sun god) would rise from the cave each day, then hide back in the cave as soon as the moon emerged for the night.^{[9]
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Moon GoddessThe moon goddess symbol reflects the moon’s role in the Taíno legend discussed above. Because the sun and moon were said to have originated from the same cave, the Taíno people believed that the moon (or moon goddess) would rise from this cave each dusk and return to her hiding spot in the morning, when the sun rose again.^{[10]
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Deminán (Dimivan) CaracaracolIn Taíno legend, Deminán (or possibly Dimivan) Caracaracol is the only named son of Mother Earth. When the Deminán Caracaracol sprouted a tumor, their brothers removed it and revealed the tumor to be a turtle. From this “union” of the Deminán Caracaracol and the turtle, the Taíno people were born.^{[11]
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Cemi BoinayelIn Taíno culture, a cemi (or zemi) was a type of deity or ancestral spirit. So, the “Cemi Boinayel” symbol represents a specific deity: Boinayel, the Rain Giver—a being whose tears were believed to be the rain that fell from the sky. The Taíno revered this god as a source of water for their crops.^{[12]
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- Cemis (zemis) could be deities or spirits of ancestors, especially the spirits of chieftains.
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BehiqueThis symbol represents the Behiques: a social class within Taíno society. Behiques were priests, shamans, and witch doctors—typically considered the wisest and most knowledgeable members of a tribe, with expertise in the use of plants for healing. They were also trusted with contacting the gods and advocating on behalf of the tribe while communing.^{[13]
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Itiva tahuvavaThe itiva tahuvava symbol represents the elements, as well as the Taíno goddess of Earth. In Taíno mythology, this goddess is the mother of twins and thus seen as a maternal figure. The symbol also represents the four winds—in other words, the four cardinal points believed to be the foundations of the Earth.^{[14]
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Maquetaurie GuayabaMaquetaurie Guayaba (or Maketaori Guayaba) was the Taíno cemi (god) of the dead. This deity was also associated with the aforementioned opiyel guabirán, the soul dog believed to shepherd the dead. In Taíno mythology, the land of the dead (underworld) was called Coaybay.
- The term “maquetaurie guayaba” can also refer to ritual inhalers used by the Taíno in cohoba ceremonies to breathe in their hallucinogenic cohoba powder.
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PotizaThe potiza symbol represents love! That’s because the potiza was a type of container or pot used to ferment juice (or sometimes store water) in the Taíno culture. When the juice had fermented, men would give the potiza to women as a declaration of love.^{[15]
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MajadorThe Majador symbol represents a hand mortar that the Taíno people used during rituals. It was intended to spray ingredients of the cohoba (a Taíno ceremony), including seeds of the cojóbana tree. In Taíno culture, cohoba was basically a sort of hallucinogenic snuff powder made from seeds and inhaled ceremoniously.^{[16]
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DuhoA duho is a type of wooden ritual seat used by Taíno chieftains when they presided over ceremonies (typically to communicate with deities or the spirit world). The duho itself depicts a person or creature on all fours.^{[17]
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OllaAn olla is a vessel with both practical and ritualistic functions, as it was used for cooking and in Taíno ceremonies. This symbol depicts the olla, as it was an essential part of Taíno life and culture. In general, ollas come in a range of sizes and styles; some were even made with animal-like (zoomorphic) designs.
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Cacique MarocaelIn Taíno mythology, Cacique (chieftain) Marocael was the guardian of a sacred cave called Cacibajagua. According to legend, Cacibajagua was the cave from which the first Taíno inhabitants came before they expanded to populate the islands.

Section 2 of 2:

Who were the Taíno people?

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The Taíno were Indigenous peoples native to the Greater Antilles. They lived in the Caribbean, throughout the islands today known as Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and the Bahamas—as well as the northern Lesser Antilles. It was believed that, by the 1500s, the Taíno people were wiped out by Spanish colonialism. However, descendants of the Taíno people remain in the world—preserving their ancestors’ legacy—today.^{[18]
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- In Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, islanders refer to themselves as boricuas (a term for native Puerto Ricans) and quisqueyanos (a term for native Dominicans, respectively).
- Scientific research has also confirmed that the Taíno people did survive the Spanish conquest, as roughly 60% of Puerto Ricans have Taíno ancestry.
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The Taínos were connected to the Arawak people of South America. It’s believed that the Taínos were an offshoot of the Arawaks that emerged around 2,500 years ago, traveling from the northeastern coast of South America to the Caribbean. In fact, scholars referred to the Taíno people as “Island Arawaks” until the end of the 1990s; later, however, they began to recognize the Taínos as a distinct and separate people.^{[19]
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- The Taíno were a culturally advanced people, with settlements led by chiefs and organized into cacicazgos, or chiefdoms.
- However, they had no written language; thus, the symbols and pictographs shown above were most likely their primary method of “written” communication.
- Taíno symbols represented not only gods and spirits, but also items and practices central to daily Taíno life.
- Because Taíno culture was pushed to the brink of extinction, some symbols’ meanings are still unclear (or debated amongst scholars).
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Today, many people identify as Taíno. As mentioned above, people in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Dominica have genuine Taíno ancestry, disproving the belief that the Taíno were wiped out. Many of those descendants have pushed to preserve Taíno culture despite the damage done by colonialism centuries ago. There are even revivalist island communities that incorporate Taíno culture and practices into their daily lives.
- One family—the Guillén family of the Dominican Republic—specializes in reproducing native Taíno art, pottery, and religious materials. Some Taíno symbols are reproductions of pictographs found on recovered artifacts.^{[20]
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