What the Taíno Built: Architecture, Infrastructure, and Craft

The **Taíno** (Arawakan people of the Greater Antilles and Bahamas) were sophisticated builders and engineers:

1. Villages (yucayeques): Organized around central plaza (batey). Cacique's (chief) large caney (rectangular) and bohíos (circular) for families. 100s–1000s residents.
2. Bohíos (Houses): Post-and-beam, thatched palm roof, wattle/daub or palm walls. Round (family) or rectangular (cacique). Raised floors, ventilation. Hurricane-resistant.
3. Ceremonial Centers: Plazas with stone-lined courts, cemi (deity) shrines, processional ways. Astronomical alignments.
4. Bateyes (Ball Courts): Rectangular, stone-bordered. **Batey** game (rubber ball, hip/elbow) — ritual, sport, conflict resolution. Unique to Caribbean.
5. Canoes (canoa): Dugout (single log: cedar, mahogany). Up to 150 people. Inter-island travel, fishing, trade. Columbus marveled.
6. Stone Work: Petroglyphs (spirals, faces), monoliths, celts, axes, mortar/pestle. No large masonry architecture.
7. Agriculture: Conucos (mounded fields) for yuca/cassava (staple), maize, beans, squash, sweet potato, peanuts, tobacco, cotton. Irrigation, drainage.
8. Fishing Tech: Weirs, traps, nets, hooks, remora (suckerfish) tethering, poison (barbasco).
9. Pottery: Thin-walled, polychrome (white/red/black), zoomorphic/anthropomorphic adornos. Saladoid → Ostionoid styles.
10. Ornamentation: Gold (guanín), copper, shell (Strombus, Spondylus), stone beads. Pendants, ear spools, nose plugs. Status/ritual.

Taíno engineering balanced hurricane resilience, tropical ventilation, and social cohesion. Their legacy persists in Caribbean vocabulary (canoa, hamaca, barbacoa, huracán, tabaco, batey) and genetics.