Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

Early Ceramics in the Caribbean / 117
According to the studies carried out to date, one of the main characteristics
of the transitional process toward the Neolithic in other parts of the Caribbean
is an economic specialization of sites. The problem for Cuba is that a
comparative analysis of several regional contexts still needs to be done in order
to understand the local processes of this transition.
The Dominican Republic
As an expression of the scienti¤c interest in studying the phenomenon of
protoagriculturalism and early ceramic cultures, Caribbean archaeologists
have undertaken a number of important studies in the Dominican Republic.
Analyses of the well-known site of El Caimito (Veloz et al. 1974) resulted in
one of the ¤rst acknowledgments that not all early Caribbean ceramic assemblages
conformed to the styles and series de¤ned by the North American archaeologist
Irving Rouse (Rouse and Cruxent 1961). This recognition derived
from considering the features and chronology of these assemblages as evidence
for a diffusionary model for the early pottery toward the Greater Antilles.
The site of El Caimito, interpreted as a food preparation area, is located
on the roof of a rock shelter and is characterized by the presence of highly
fragmented ceramics in small quantities. The midden is relatively small and
formed by a single stratum of shallow topsoil (a maximum of 40 cm) and
compact ash. Pollen analyses conducted in samples from El Caimito produced
no evidence of cultivation of plants known to be used by precolumbian
groups, such as manioc or corn. Instead, analysis showed intense gathering
activities that included the exploitation of products such as guáyiga (Zamia
sp.), palm seeds (Roystonea sp.), and corozo (Acrocomia sp.).
In terms of pottery, the study of El Caimito opened two new possibilities.
On the one hand, it was possible to argue for the existence of Caribbean
foraging groups who developed the knowledge to manufacture pottery as the
result of local evolution. On the other, it was possible to contend that from
an early period foraging groups developed close relationships with settled ceramic
populations, whose modes of making pottery were not part of the traditional
styles de¤ned for the region.
Similar archaeological contexts have been discovered and studied, such as
Honduras del Oeste (Rímoli and Nadal 1980) and Musiepedro (Veloz et al.
1976), among others. These sites and a revised interpretation of foraging group
sites with pottery in Dominican Republic have caused Rímoli and Nadal
(1983) to suggest the existence of an early ceramic horizon which many call
Caimitoide. An important element stressed by these authors in most of the