500 BC to 1497

Hairouna

Farming peoples from the Orinoco basin, makers of fine painted pottery, settle Saint Vincent in the last centuries BC. They leave carvings on rocks, such as the petroglyph at Layou. Later, Kalinago, or Island Caribs, dominate the island, which they call Hairouna. Its steep volcanic mountains help them keep Europeans out for longer than almost anywhere in the Caribbean.