Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

174 / La Rosa Corzo
9.9. Butcher marks by site
tem reveals the marginal and persecuted character of the small groups that
camped in these sites. Hearths were the spaces with the richest evidence,
where the largest quantity of faunal remains was deposited. However, the rest
of the food remains were dispersed around or at a distance from the ¤re pit
as a consequence of having been thrown as waste, or in areas affected by
natural agents such as erosion, small animals, and irregularities in the topography
of the cave ®oor. Given the elevation of the shelters, with the exception
of Cimarrón 2 and La Cachimba, whose natural ceilings reached more than
2 m, the hearths in the rest of the sites were in living areas of barely 1.20 m
in height. This second measurement suggests that when preparing and consuming
their food, individuals necessarily had to be in a squatting position,
and movement inside the shelter had to be done in the same position.
At the Cimarrón 1 site, the remains were concentrated around the hearth,
at the entrance of the shelter, and in areas impacted by natural agents in front
of the entrance. A second sterile hearth was located in the innermost part of
the shelter, inviting us to speculate on its use by the individuals who used the
site as a temporary shelter. It is important to note that numerous testimonies
of the time mention how African slaves habitually used hearths for night heating.
7 If it is true that this part of the cave was used as a sleeping area, it could
be speculated, based on the shelter’s size, that the number of individuals who
occupied the site should not have been more than three or four persons.
Cranial bones were collected only in the case of one hutía, two dogs, two
pigs, and three ducks. No bones pertaining to this part of the skeletons were
collected for the rest of the species and individuals. This phenomenon could
be related to the selection of the parts of the animals, since it is possible that