Before Columbus arrived in 1493, the Taíno were already here — and what they left behind is still being uncovered. A 1975 hurricane outside Ponce stripped enough soil from the riverbank to expose Tibes, the oldest ceremonial and sports complex yet found in Puerto Rico, and what archaeologists have determined is the oldest astronomical observatory in the Antilles. Its nine ball courts and plazas were built first by the Igneri, who occupied the area around 25 AD; the Taíno followed. The 186 human burials found there make it the largest indigenous cemetery in the region. Northwest of Ponce, at Caguana, petroglyphs carved into stone monoliths — some hauled from the adjacent Tanamá River — line ten ceremonial ball courts built around 1270 AD. The Taíno people's numbers collapsed in the later 16th century from disease, exploitation, and warfare. What they built before that endures.
