Potemkin one of the most interesting theories about Taino culture is that they were very skilled mariners and as such had a healthy trade relationship with other nations in the pre Colombian world. And it turns out it is true. They did. Rubber balls for sports played in the Batey were found in excavations and rubber doesn't grow at all in the Caribbean islands during that time period of history. Only in the Valley of Mexico. The conclusion was drawn that the Taino had trade routes with the Aztec and the Mayan civilizations.
This is also confirmed by Spanish documentation at the time.
Taino DNA is present in many maternal lines in Puerto Rico.
This Puerto Rican Anthropologist Geneticist from the Arizona State University confirmed this.
I love this old black and white piece from the Instituto de Cultura de Puerto Rico
The islands in the Caribbean basin have a hot and humid and tropical climate. It is not good for preserving a lot of artifacts. But? If you dig deep enough you find a lot of man made walls, patterns and structures buried under dirt and plant life as time goes on all of what once was there long ago gets hidden. Many artificats are found accidentally due to some bulldozer or construction being started. It happened all the time in Mexico City and it happened in places in the interior of the island too.
The past is there...resting under the surface of things.