Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

118 / Ulloa Hung
analyzed sites is that its assemblage seems to correspond to a wide range and
variety of expressions indicative of a possible hybridization of preagricultural
traditions. This situation seems also to coincide with a movement from the
coast to the exploitation of forested areas or exploitation of both. 3
The isolated ceramic typology from El Caimito considered with these new
elements seems to fall in line with the diffusionary explanation for this early
pottery. The model proposed by Venezuelan researcher Alberta Zucchi (1984)
considers the ceramic typology unique to the site of El Caimito as related to
the Cedeñoide series of some sites of the area of the Middle Orinoco, especially
the well-known site of Aguerito. This relationship, according to Zucchi, can
be perceived in the following two aspects.
(1) El Caimito and the existence of a ceramic tradition recognized as
Cedeñoide in the Middle Orinoco are manifestations of a pre-Saladoid ceramic
horizon in both areas, with dates corresponding to the ¤rst millennium
b.c.
(2) The chronological correspondence between El Caimito and the early
Cedeñoide material, together with the similarities in subsistence systems and
ceramic styles, allows us to conclude that the Dominican site represents a
group that migrated to the Greater Antilles at the end of the ¤rst millennium
b.c. The technical and decorative similarities of the Cedeñoide ceramic
and that of El Caimito, combined with similarities in vessel types, are the
main elements that are used to de¤ne an Antillean Cedeñoide horizon. Although
the early pottery of the Antilles is not interpreted as a replica of the
Cedeñoide material, it presents enough elements of similarity to suggest that
they were produced by the same community, to which we can add the signi¤cant
fact of the lack of burenes (cassava griddles) at both sites. These theories
imply the possibility of a new migratory route for the ¤rst ceramists of the
Greater Antilles, suggesting a direct movement from the Middle Orinoco. At
this time, there is no evidence of Cedeñoide or Caimitoide expressions in the
Lesser Antilles.
Although this thesis cannot be completely discarded, it tends to overestimate
some features of the pottery and ignores other representative and
substantial features of Antillean Archaic components. In addition, analysis of
the shared ceramic features are con¤ned to a single ceramic group—that of
the site of El Caimito—without considering either the chronological or the
ceramic particularities of other areas in the Caribbean islands, where perhaps
the coincidences in these aspects are minimal or nonexistent. It is therefore
premature to speak of an Antillean Cedeñoide ceramic horizon.