Times of the Islands Summer 2019

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
From top: Museum Director Dr. Michael Pateman worked to excavate
and sample the unusual black earth deposit. It may have been manmade,
the result of prehistoric “composting.”
good questions. Some expressed interest in becoming
archaeologists in the future. Community engagement was
a strong part of our plan, and the interaction with schools
and students was an important element of our networking
activities.
We dug a score of test pits across the site to determine
the distribution of the subsurface deposits, and
used those results to chose two particularly rich areas,
one north and one south, for controlled excavations. We
cut down carefully, layer by layer, screening and mapping
the deposits and artifacts we encountered, with the students
and volunteers learning to classify and make note of
the materials recovered. We recorded ceramics by number
sherds and weight, distinguishing between locally made
Palmetto Ware and imported ceramics from the Greater
Antilles to the south; obtained charcoal for radiocarbon
dating; preserved animal bones and identified the number
and species of shell remains. We photographed all the
artifacts.
In both the north and south excavation areas we
quickly encountered distinctive concentrations of carbon-stained,
burned and cracked limestone mixed with
broken conch shells. We have come to recognize these as
“earth ovens” which were open pit, broken stone and shell
lined cooking areas, which are a form of Lucayan cultural
deposit that is widely distributed in the Turks & Caicos
and the Bahamas.
The northern excavation produced some intriguing
soil layers (strata). Working downward, a few centimeters
from the surface we encountered a thin layer of very pale
soil, a mixture of sand and marl, which appeared to have
been carried in from the local estuary and spread on the
surface. It would have produced a smooth walking surface
for the Lucayans.
That pale layer capped living debris (midden) that
quickly transitioned to exceptionally black soil. It was so
black it was literally off our soil color chart. The earth
ovens are dark, but this was darker. Without claiming
exact duplication, we note that in lowland South America
at prehistoric sites there are commonly found man-made
(anthropogenic) soils that are very dark; these man-made
soils are termed “terra preta” or “Indian earth.” These terra
preta soils are the result of intentional composting. We
took samples of this black soil from South Bank for analysis.
Michael Pateman focused the excavation effort in the
northern sector on sampling and defining this black earth
feature.
We found ceramic fragments scattered throughout
the deposits. We always study ceramics because they
are sturdy and endure. They have stylistic traits in their
form and decoration that evolve through time and spread
through space via trade and the sharing of styles, which
are passed down and across from potter to potter.
One decorative motif on imported ceramics of note
was wide punctation (circular impressions). This was
found on ceramics excavated in 1977 and in our October
2018 dig. Similar decoration was noted on ceramics recovered
by De Booy over a century earlier at the nearby Juba
Point caves, and a nearly identical decoration was found
on imported ceramics at a contemporaneous site on
Middle Caicos, site MC-12. That decorative motif is known
from the late ceramic period in northwestern Hispaniola.
That zone may therefore have been included in the trade
68 www.timespub.tc