Page 11 - AHATA

Monday 26 June 2023 locAl
A10
Episode 9
Geo insular patrimony; an ancient heritage
Landscape character
If we must define Aruba`s The highest point of the is- crops and small hills of the the prehistory. The physi- Aruba towards the west
landscape today. We can land (Jamanota 189 m)
differentiate three basic and most of the other hills
geological formations. One (Arikok 184m) are situated
is a hilly part, second by an in the central part of the
undulating part and a third island. This landscape is
part consisting of limestone constituted of the rock unit
which embraces these two called the Aruba Lava For-
zones mentioned before mation (ALF). This rock unit
and forming also the coast has two main components,
line. volcanic rock and meta-
morphic rock. The hills are
The central hilly part is made up of the resistant
where you can find the volcanic rocks. The most
highest hills of the island. common of these rocks
is diabase, a hard, black
rock. The metamorphic
rock, schist, is a less hard,
green rock with a sheet-
like structure. The parts of habitation. A lack of good along the sheet-lines. The
the ALF landscape which agricultural soil may be the rock type of similar beads
consist of schist are the less reason for this. The hydro- and pendants found in the
resistant. logical conditions provided area_ and described in the
permanent freshwater at literature as greenstone_ is
It is in these parts where wa- Fontein, where rainwater is often difficult to establish
ter is transported after rain- caught by limestone and is since the term greenstone
fall, forms guts or rooien. released at the boundary covers a wide range of dif-
These cut across the valleys of the limestone and a dif- ferent rock types (schist,
of the ALF area. Such guts ferent rock unit. rhyolite, jade).
are not significantly deep
and the weathered materi- The rocks of the Aruba Lava The quartz diorite land-
al which has accumulated Formation were extensively scape (the batholith)
around them is limited. Out- used by the inhabitants of from the central part of
ALF manifest themselves all cal characteristic of the and northwestern end of
along the northern coast rocks played a key role in the island, and from the
of the island. This northern determining the purpose central part towards the
coast is rugged with some for which it would be used. east and south, the land-
small bays cutting through Diabase was used to make scape is dominated by a
it. The geological processes axes, chisels, knives and rock unit which the main
by which these rocks were the polishers. The hardness component is quartz dio-
created are complicated and the homogeneous rite. The landscape here is
by the fact that numerous structure of the rock make flat to slightly undulating
events which took place it the best raw material for with quartz diorite boul-
influenced these processes these artifacts available ders in it. This rock is black
through the ages. on the island. The polishers and white speckled. It is
were collected at the bays relatively hard. The typical
The ALF landscape seems on the northern coast and diorite landscape is found
to have had a specific were then further polished near Santa Cruz. These
function for the prehistoric by the Amerindians of the are all areas with boulders
inhabitants. The specific mainland to make simi- and small or large patches
function of this landscape lar artifacts. The schist was of sand and vegetation.
is reflected in the fact used as material to make Places with few boulders
that both stone extraction pendants and beads; the and large areas of quartz
camps can be found on, green color was probably diorite debris are found in
or close to this landscape. the determining factor. the east in Tanki Flip, Noord,
Coashiati is one of these No tools of schist has been Alto Vista and in the south
locations, situated north of found, the sheet-like struc- in Savaneta.q
Jamanota hill and is part ture is a limiting factor when
of the ALF landscape. Dos making an axe or chisel. Source; Island Insight column
Playa; two beaches in Pa- The rock will easily split by Etnia Nativa
piamento, is made up of
two bays at the northern
coast.
The plateau between
these two bays is formed
partly by the ALF with much
debris of this rock unit scat-
tered around. One small
Pre-ceramic site found is
called Daimari. It is situated
on one of the outcrops of
the ALF. No ceramic sites
are found in the ALF land-
scape, although several
like Daimari and Boca Prins
are near outcrops at the
northern coast. Also, some
pottery has been found in
the area of Arikok hill. This
landscape was obviously
not suitable for long-term