The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

the Hellshire Hills and Great Salt Pond area southwest of Kingston, is dry
thorn scrub, receiving the least amount of rainfall of any area in Jamaica,
approximately 508 mm per year (Collins and Longman 1978). Soils in the
immediate vicinity of S-5 are predominantly shallow, somewhat excessively
drained loams and clays formed on limestone, with numerous limestone outcroppings
(Ministry of Agriculture 1987). South, towards Great Salt Pond,
as the hill slope flattens to less than 1 per cent, the soils become very poorly
drained, mottled, with weakly defined horizonation and high salt content.
Within a few kilometres to the west a large area of deep alluvial soils is found.
Within approximately 5 km of S-5 and encompassing the entire broad south
coast of St Catherine parish, including the Hellshire Hills, is another area of
shallow cambisols similar to those at the site (ibid.). Vegetation supported by
these cambisols takes the form of dry limestone scrub forest (thorn woodland,
according to the Holdridge system) and includes cactus, trees such as Bursera,
Acacia, Haematoxylon and Leucanea, and a number of xerophytic climbing
plants and epiphytes (Asprey and Robbins 1953). The coastal fringe of this
dry forest is dominated by sclerophyllous dry limestone shrubs, cacti, halophytes
and salt-tolerant trees such as Chrysobalanus and Hippomane. Sheltered
bays may support a mangrove community. Seifriz (1943) aptly described this
region: “The heat is intensive, the light blinding, every plant armed, no water,
no shade, and no trail leading anywhere, as awe-inspiring, as fearful, as superb
a picture of the eternal persistence of life under the most adverse conditions
that nature can produce.”
The site itself occupies about one-half a hectare of gently sloping land on
the limestone hill behind Port Henderson. It is within 1 km of the coast at
Green Bay and within 1.5 km of the mangrove swamps of Dawkins Pond
and Great Salt Pond (Medhurst 1980). Six middens were identified, along
with a flat area of cultivable land to the west. There is at present no permanent
source of fresh water on the site. Medhurst and Clarke (1976a), in their report
on the Bellevue site in the Manning Hills area of St Andrew Parish (approximately
18 km from S-5), mentions the presence of a recently dried-up pond
and several springs within a 2-km radius of the site. He speculates that a possible
cause of abandonment of S-5, with its ready access to food sources, may
be that its water source dried up.
Excavation
Between February and July 1978, J.C. Wilman, in association with Colin
Medhurst, excavated two 1.5-m 2 units ( J1 and K2) in the centre of an apparent
midden (Midden 2). Seven 20 cm levels were removed, the last reaching
bedrock at 1.4 m. All material was screened (screen size was not indicated)
114 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS