Times of the Islands Summer 2019

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astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum Clockwise from top: The South Bank site excavation team included local volunteers and students, along with archaeologist Dr. Shaun Sullivan (far right). The circular impressions on this pot sherd are a decorative motif from the late ceramic period in northwestern Hispaniola, indicating trade with the Lucayans at the South Bank site. Students from the BWI Collegiate joined in the excavation. To the Rescue Community teamwork investigates early island culture. By Dr. Shaun D. Sullivan and Dr. Michael P. Pateman ~ Photos Courtesy Turks & Caicos National Museum In the fall of 2018, local volunteers and students came together in a community effort to record a key part of the culture of early Turks & Caicos Islanders. They came from nearby homes and schools to search out, sort and sift ancient artifacts and food remains from the South Bank archaeological site on the western shore of the Juba Sound estuary. 66 www.timespub.tc
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum Evidence of prehistoric human occupation of the area around Juba Point was first reported by Theodoor De Booy in the early 1900s. He was exploring the Islands on behalf of the Heye Museum of the American Indian in New York when he found pre-Columbian ceramics and stone artifacts in caves above the sound behind Long Bay. Exploring the area downhill from the caves in 1976, archaeologist Shaun Sullivan came upon Amerindian ceramics and shell food remains in a grassy area alongside the original channel for the Caicos Marina, and followed up with text excavation there in early 1977. The site was originally recorded as Providenciales–1, and has come to be renamed the South Bank site. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from a firepit encountered in 1977 provided a calibrated date of AD 1328 +/– 49 years. Imported ceramics encountered indicated contact with the Amerindians in the Greater Antilles. Locally made ceramics, Palmetto Ware, were common, classifying this as a local settled culture, i.e., a Lucayan village site. Bone remains analyzed at the Florida Museum of Natural History demonstrated exploitation of fish from the estuary and near shore environments. More than 40 years later in the spring of 2018, Sullivan and Beluga catamaran captain Tim Ainley returned to the site and found it remarkably undisturbed, in spite of intervening development surrounding it. A local resident, Kathi Barrington, wandered by with her dog, and advised that the site was soon to be converted to housing and a marina. Concerned by the pending loss of cultural remains, the developers were contacted. Coming to appreciate the value of the site, Windward Long Bay Development Ltd., via Ingo Reckhorn, generously agreed to fund the bulk of the cost excavations and analysis to capture key information about the ancient culture while there was still time. Additional funding and support came from the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund, the Anthropological Research Council and Sail Beluga. A rapid effort was made to inform the local community of the site’s value and recruit participants in the rescue archaeology effort. We teamed up with Michael Pateman and Candianne Williams of the Turks & Caicos National Museum and reached out to Ethlyn Gibbs of the Turks & Caicos National Trust; Ludmila Fulford of the TCI Department of Education; Nicole Caesar, Lormeka Williams and Eric Salamanca of the TCI Department of Environment and Coastal Resources, Agile LeVin of Visit TCI and Sylvia Part of each day’s work by students and volunteers at the South Bank site included screening excavated soil to uncover artifacts. Wigglesworth of the BWI Collegiate. In early October, with a community outreach response of a dozen local adult residents and several bright and energetic students from the Collegiate, we launched our effort to capture the information locked in the earth. We began each day gathered around our artifact-sorting tables in the shade of a high canopy to discuss the practical tasks ahead for that day, as well as the broader theories surrounding what we were doing. We discussed the prehistory of the Islands; Lucayan and Taino Indian cultures; ancient human migrations; anthropology; archaeology; and the roles of museums and of public participation in research to assist in creating a sense of cultural continuity with the past. There were a lot of questions, and the lively discussions that ensued helped give meaning to our findings during the excavations. The youngsters who participated enlivened the enterprise considerably. They were enthusiastic and good-natured. They kibitzed and sang while they worked. We hosted field trips to the archaeological site for more than half a dozen local elementary and secondary schools, representatives of the press, local officials and Governor Freeman. The visiting students were curious and asked Times of the Islands Summer 2019 67
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Times of the Islands Summer 2019

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