ANCIENT SPIRITS OF THE BLUE HOLES .sx When Columbus first set foot in the New World , on the tiny outlying Bahamian island of what is now San Salvador , he encountered the Lucayan tribe , a branch of the ancient Taino people .sx Twenty years later , this tribe had disappeared - apparently without trace .sx Rob Palmer went to the Bahamas to find out where they had gone .sx Five hundred years ago , Christopher Columbus was in the final throes of planning his epic voyage across the Atlantic , in search of what he hoped would be a short cut to the East Indies .sx Meanwhile , on the other side of the ocean , the ancient culture of the Taino was unwittingly entering its final phase .sx The Taino comprised a group of Arawak-speaking tribes whose most northerly outposts were spread throughout the Bahama Islands .sx Here , a tribe known as the Lukku-cairi ( Arawak for 'island people' ) - and more recently as Lucayan - had settled from the 7th century .sx Their culture had strong similarities to Polynesian culture :sx it was ocean-going , relied on inter-island trading , and existed in relative harmony with its environment .sx Arawak-speaking peoples had spread northwards from the northeastern coast of South America from about 500 BC .sx They island-hopped up through the Antilles , colonising Cuba and Hispaniola , and eventually arrived in the Bahamas .sx Their culture was effectively stone age , but they made pottery , wove cloth and rope , and constructed large canoes which they navigated across the oceans .sx By 1450 , they had colonised every large Bahamian island .sx Trade routes grew up with colonisation , and the northern tribes were soon exchanging goods with the southern Taino in Cuba and Hispaniola , which had become the main Arawak-speaking areas .sx There were more than one million Tainos in Hispaniola , and around 40,000 spread throughout the Bahamian archipelago .sx Artifacts found on Lucayan sites suggest that trade links may have reached as far as the North American mainland , making contact with Siboney and Calusa Indians who had moved east instead of south during the great migrations from Asia several thousand years previously .sx It is possible that these tribes may even have settled in the northwestern Bahamas before the Lucayans arrived there .sx The Lucayans lived in tribal communities ruled by a caique ( chieftain) .sx Their thatched wooden huts they built beside inland creeks , where they fished .sx They also hunted giant iguana and hutia - a large rodent the size of a small dog that is now virtually extinct in the Bahamas .sx Some crops were planted , including manioc , from which they made flour , and tobacco - or cohiba .sx The word 'tobacco' comes from the Arawak word , tobaco , for the pipe with which they smoked it .sx Lucayans probably practised shifting cultivation similar to that used in outlying Bahamian islands today .sx Areas of forest are burned , and the resultant ash added to soils that lie in pockets in the limestone ground .sx Crops are then planted .sx Once exhausted , the land is left to regenerate and a new area is cleared .sx The Lucayans were animist , believing that naturally-occuring naturally-occurring < things had a spirit , or zemi .sx Images of objects were made from wood , cloth or shells , possibly in an attempt to control their spirits .sx Some ceremonial zemi images have survived in the form of duhos - carved wooden stools which often feature animal forms .sx Caves featured prominently in Taino religion , both as ceremonial sites and for burial .sx Lucayan chiefs would gather in caves to make offerings to their gods and ancestral spirits .sx The Lucayan believed that man first emerged from caves , and , from the evidence of the many burial sites found in caves in the Bahamas , they returned their dead there .sx A few burial sites have also been discovered in underwater caves - or 'blue holes' , as they are called in the Bahamas - but their significance is unknown .sx Blue holes are deep openings into the limestone aquifers of the Bahamian islands .sx Today , these holes are used for swimming and washing .sx The Lucayans probably used them for similar activities , but also , evidently , to bury their dead .sx In nearby Yucat a n , similar cenotes served a ceremonial , sacrificial function , and the same may have been true for the Bahamian blue holes .sx The Lucayans may have believed that the holes were entrances to the underworld , to which the souls of the dead must be returned .sx On a more practical level , they may have been for the disposal of bodies of criminals or the diseased .sx In October 1492 , Columbus and his ships arrived on the shores of the New World , at the Lucayan island of Guanahani .sx Columbus noted of the people :sx " .sx . they go about naked .sx .. the hair of some was thick and long like the tail of a horse , in some it was short and brought forward over the eyebrows , some wearing it long and never cutting it .sx Some are painted , and the hue of their skin .sx .. is neither black nor white .sx " He also noted that " .sx . in all the forehead is broad , more so than in other people I have hereto " .sx A broad forehead was characteristic for Lucayans who , at birth , had a piece of board bound gently to their foreheads as a means of beautification .sx Guanahani was probably what is now San Salvador , in the southeastern Bahamas - although other islands lay less likely claims to what , as the quincentennial of the landing of Columbus in the Americas approaches , has become an occasionally acrimonious and financially significant controversy .sx Columbus visited several Lucayan villages on his zig-zag route through the southern Bahamas to Cuba , including what was the Lucayan capital of Samaot , on what is now Crooked Island .sx This was excavated in 1983 by the archaeologist Bill Keegan , and was found to be six times larger than any other known Lucayan site of the period .sx Over the next 20 years , the Spanish grip on the Caribbean tightened and exploiters followed explorers .sx The Lucayans were shipped in their thousands as slaves to the mines of Cuba and Hispaniola , and to the pearl beds of Cubagua , off Venezuela .sx By the time the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon sailed through the Bahamas in 1513 on his search for the fabled fountain of eternal youth , he found only one old Lucayan woman on a small islet north of Grand Bahama .sx However diligently subsequent slaving expeditions searched , they could find no more of the Lucayan .sx Within two decades , disease , slavery and suicide had apparently brought to an end the island culture of the Lukku-cairi .sx But where did the last of the Lucayans go ?sx Despite the discovery of over 600 habitation and burial sites , very little evidence of Lucayan civilisation has survived intact .sx Much archaeological material was removed or destroyed in the 18th and 19th centuries , when plantation owners dug matter from cave floors - largely composed of guano deposits - with which to fertilise their land .sx Most Lucayan utensils were organic - woven nets , baskets and cloth , or wooden tools - and decomposed over the years .sx Only clay pottery and a few wooden or stone implements have survived .sx Of the pottery remains , Palmetto ware , made from a clay of rich red soil mixed with fine shell fragments , is found throughout the Bahamas .sx On other sites , pottery originating in Hispaniola dates from immediately before the Spanish arrival .sx The only other clues about the early Bahamians are found in the diaries of Columbus and other contemporary Spanish explorers .sx But in April , a team of divers and archaeologists , headed by Neil Sealey of the Bahamas Archaeological Team , went to the southern chunk of the island of Andros to excavate Sanctuary blue hole , in the heart of the jungle .sx Though the largest of the Bahamian islands , Andros had been regarded as a Lucayan backwater since not many Indians remains had been discovered there .sx From this hole were brought 13 human skulls , as well as many other human bones - most well preserved .sx Tannic elements in the cave water from organic matter which had fallen into the hole had helped in preservation , while the lack of oxygen in the still water had meant few agents of decomposition had been able to survive in it .sx The bones lay in between 20 and 40 metres of water - probably too deep to have been deliberately placed , despite the excellent swimming skills of the Lucayans .sx Many had become dislodged since burial , and were scattered on the slope below the cave mouth , possibly as a result of dispersal during decomposition , or during rock falls from the walls and roof of the cave .sx Bones of several animals were also present on the debris slope .sx Some of these animals were probably co-existent with the Lucayans , including small dogs , hutia , and wild boar - introduced to the islands by the Spaniards and later settlers as a food source and for hunting .sx The human remains , carefully recovered from the cave , have been sent to the University of North Florida for dating and analysis .sx They should provide much information on the Lucayans and their way of life .sx Their condition may also shed light on whether such sites were used as common burial grounds , or for ceremonial purposes .sx After analysis , it is intended that the bones are returned to the cave , as a mark of respect to the original Lucayans .sx Perhaps time can make up a little for the ignominy the original Bahamians suffered at the hands of the first Europeans on their shores .sx THE SCUBA OF THE FUTURE .sx The diving gear used by the Andros blue holes excavation team represents the greatest advance in self-contained underwater breathing systems since the development of the aqualung by Cousteau , Gagnan and others earlier this century .sx Computerised , close-circuit breathing systems , each carrying only six litres of gas , enabled the team to remain at depths of up to 40 m for up to eight hours , without the need for long decompressions .sx The systems , known as 'rebreathers' , recycle the gas that is being breathed , and tailor the breathing mixture to provide the most suitable blend of gases for use at whatever depth the diver is at .sx They do this by altering the amount of oxygen in the gas to maintain a constant partial pressure that does not vary with depth as it would in a normal SCUBA set .sx Carbon dioxide is scrubbed from the exhaled gas by passing it through a container of sodium or lithium hydroxide , and three or more oxygen sensors constantly check the level of oxygen present .sx Helium usually replaces nitrogen in the breathing mixture to avoid the problems of nitrogen narcosis , known as the 'raptures of the deep' , which seriously affects the functioning of the brain at depths of over 30 m , and also eliminates the risk of a number of other nitrogen-related problems .sx High partial pressures of oxygen in the mixture can both reduce decompression times and extend the no-decompression limits .sx For example , more than five hours can be spent at a depth of 20 m without the need for decompression , whereas the limit on normal air SCUBA would be one hour .sx The use of rebreathers in underwater caves was pioneered on the Andros Project , a Royal Geographical Society-supported research expedition to the Andros blue holes in 1987 led by Rob Palmer , who was also responsible for the recent underwater recovery of the bones .sx The latest rebreathers , from Carmellan Research , have computer - controlled monitoring systems which not only monitor the status of the rebreather and the progress of the dive - acting as depth gauge , contents gauge , watch , and thermometer - but which also store up to 4000 dive logs and download them to an appropriate personal computer when required .sx Full decompression information appropriate to the partial pressure in use can be downloaded into the rebreather's computer , allowing a degree of independence hitherto unavailable in remote location deep-diving .sx With this technology , dives of up to 120 metres can safely be made , even in remote locations , without the need for prohibitively expensive back-up facilities at the surface .sx Divers can also extend their stay at shallow stops with a degree of safety previously unavailable .sx An added advantage is that rebreathers shed no bubbles , except during ascent .sx During the Sanctuary excavations , this meant delicate sediments on the walls and roof of the cave were not disturbed .sx It also means that silent observation of underwater wildlife is now possible .sx