The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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The results discussed here were obtained from a study of Jamaican Arawak artefacts at the Institute of Jamaica, and others made available by members of the Archaeological Society of Jamaica. In the first instance, a collection of twenty-two broken petaloid tools was examined. As these proved to be extremely fine-grained, slices were cut from them and prepared for microscopic examination. Once the main rock types were identified with certainty, it was possible to identify further specimens without damage, by hand or binocular microscope examination of a wet surface. Many specimens required scrubbing before examination to remove surface encrustation. The Geology of Jamaica Unlike other islands of the Greater Antilles, most of the rocks outcropping at the surface are limestone (66.7 per cent of the area of Jamaica) containing abundant flints. The older volcanic and metamorphic rocks that underlie the limestone are exposed in a number of small inliers or erosional windows where the limestone has been removed. It is mainly these older metamorphic rocks that were used by the Jamaican Arawaks for the manufacture of their tools. Because of the distinctive nature of different inliers of oldest rocks, it is relatively easy in this case to trace the sources of the Arawak tools. In contrast, the other islands of the Greater Antilles have their ancient rocks exposed over greater areas (which also accounts for their greater mineral wealth, aside from bauxite), so that source areas cannot be pinpointed readily. A simplified geological map of Jamaica (Figure 9.1) is based on the provisional geology map of Jamaica (1958). In keeping with the outline of the Greater Antilles given here, rocks are shown only as five groups. The younger series (post–60 million years) is divided between limestone and another group of mainly sedimentary rocks (Wagwater conglomerate and Richmond shale) containing some volcanic rocks (Newcastle keratophyres). The older series is divided as follows: 1. Sediments (of volcanic debris) found mainly in the inliers at the western end of the island. 2. A group of lavas and sediments with igneous intrusions which have not been so altered by burial that their original characteristics are now lost; for instance, lavas can still be distinguished from sediments. This group occurs in the central part of the island. 3. Metamorphic rocks occurring only in the large Blue Mountains Inlier and the tiny Green Bay inlier near Port Henderson. The term metamorphic is used here in the sense that a sufficient portion of the rock has recrystallized so that the original characteristics cannot be seen P ETROGRAPHY AND S OURCE OF S OME A RAWAK R OCK A RTEFACTS FROM J AMAICA 133
YOUNGER GROUP OLDER GROUP Limestone Sediments other than limestone and some volcanic lavas Sediments Lavas, sediments and igneous intrusions Metamorphic rocks 1. St James 2. Trelawny 3. St Ann 4. St Mary 5. Portland 6. Hanover 7. Westmoreland 8. St Elizabeth 9. Manchester 10. Clarendon 11. St Catherine 12. St Andrew Figure 9.1 Simplified geological map of Jamaica showing parishes in hand specimens. It is therefore not usually possible to say whether the original rock was, for instance, lava, a conglomerate or a sandstone before it was metamorphosed. Sometimes on a sawed section or under the microscope it may be possible to see a few relict structures or textures indicative of its origin. Most of the metamorphic rocks of Jamaica have not undergone a major alteration and can be considered to be only lightly metamorphosed. They appear as extremely fine-grained massive rocks lacking structure. Indeed, the crystals are so small that very often it is difficult to identify them under the microscope. The most common of these rocks are coloured green, and the term “greenstone” seems as good as any. Less common is a black-coloured variety (“blackstone”), which occurs interlayered with the greenstone; where the two occur in cliff faces, they are usually strongly folded. Marble (metamorphosed limestone) also occurs interlayered with the greenstone – for example, at the quarry at Serge Island Estate in the east arm of the Morant River, southern Blue Mountains. A higher degree of metamorphism results in a coarsergrained rock which shows a foliation of crystals. Such a rock is called a schist and tends to split easily. 134 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS
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The Earliest Inhabitants
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University of the West Indies Press
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Contents List of Illustrations / ix
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Illustrations A.1 Map of the sites
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13.2 Petroglyphs from Coventry and
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Preface I HAVE ALWAYS been fascinat
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Acknowledgements I WOULD FIRST like
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Introduction IN JAMAICA, THE indige
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encounter the term Arawaks used to
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90. Long Acre Point 91. Long Mounta
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ical publication in Jamaica. Geolog
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collections. Knowledge of the prove
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Section 1 Assessment and Excavation
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objective by using a frame of refer
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16 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS two
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18 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS fact
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20 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS the
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22 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS deco
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Howard (1965) recognized that Redwa
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people making Ostionan (Redware) po
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was the recovery of the Aboukir zem
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Appendix Table 1.1 Midden Sites Rep
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Table 1.2 Cave Sites Reported by Ro
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2 The Taíno Settlement of the King
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Henderson Hill lies to the south, o
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ivalves. Single gastropod valves we
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40 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS Taí
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Table 2.2 Neutron Activation Analys
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Plain may have played a role in the
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Table 2.3. Taíno Sites in the King
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contractors to drill and blast for
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chipped away. It is believed that t
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Figure 3.4 JNHT excavations at Chan
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Test Pit 6 Depth 40 cm. This is a s
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19.375 19.275 1 CHANCERY HALL, JAMA
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Appendix A Laboratory Study of the
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Table 3.1 All Recovered Organic Mat
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of slim, more or less parallel shap
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Table 3.5 Fish Bone Anatomical Part
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66 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS Surv
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Acknowledgements Thanks are due to
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SOUTH NEGRIL POINT Savannala-Mar Mo
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sudden event. Occupation 3 can be c
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dle, a ground stone artefact that m
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- infrastructural development throu
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emoval. Sometimes what is required
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Figure 5.1 Road cutting through the
Page 99 and 100: Later on the Spanish settled in the
Page 101 and 102: Figure 5.4 Long Mountain prior to d
Page 103 and 104: 86 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS amon
Page 106 and 107: 6 Notes on the Natural History of J
Page 108 and 109: Soils Several different soil types
Page 110 and 111: Shoreline On the north coast, there
Page 112 and 113: well established, especially in dis
Page 114 and 115: 7 The Exploitation and Transformati
Page 116 and 117: Art Art can be religious, functiona
Page 118 and 119: of Long Mountain”, Andreas Oberli
Page 120 and 121: Figure 7.3 William Keegan explainin
Page 122 and 123: cedar (Cedrela odorata), santa mari
Page 124 and 125: According to Rouse, the density of
Page 126 and 127: 17), grows abundantly on the island
Page 128 and 129: Incidental Dispersal The plant comp
Page 130 and 131: 8 Early Arawak Subsistence Strategi
Page 132 and 133: and bagged by level. In April of 19
Page 134 and 135: Table 8.1 Significant Vertebrate an
Page 136 and 137: tory and habitat preferences. Follo
Page 138 and 139: Changing Subsistence Strategies The
Page 140 and 141: Table 8.2 Faunal Comparisons: Per c
Page 142 and 143: Appendix Table 8.3 Rodney’s House
Page 144 and 145: Table 8.3 Rodney’s House Faunal L
Page 146 and 147: Section 3 Analysis of Taíno Archae
Page 148 and 149: 9 Petrography and Source of Some Ar
Page 152 and 153: Petaloid Axes of Arawak Origin from
Page 154 and 155: Blue Schist The story of Jamaican b
Page 156 and 157: Coleraine) but also from other majo
Page 158 and 159: from which several Jamaican artefac
Page 160 and 161: in a lack of suitable rocks, so tha
Page 162 and 163: A surprising conclusion of the pres
Page 164 and 165: Figure 10.1 Redware, White Marl and
Page 166 and 167: triangular ridges. It is thought th
Page 168 and 169: (also see Figure 10.6), loop handle
Page 170 and 171: 11 Jamaican Redware J AMES W. LEE A
Page 172 and 173: only if planted at exactly the corr
Page 174 and 175: Handles Handles may be classified i
Page 176 and 177: Two more or less spheroidal pottery
Page 178 and 179: 12 Taíno Ceramics from Post-Contac
Page 180 and 181: and distribution of native labour w
Page 182 and 183: Figure 12.2 Distribution of New Sev
Page 184 and 185: hatching (Figure 12.5c), and closel
Page 186 and 187: were fired at a low temperature, th
Page 188 and 189: Figure 12.11 New Seville ware: jug
Page 190 and 191: ters of the caciques. These politic
Page 192 and 193: Section 4 Taíno Art Forms ART IS A
Page 194 and 195: 13 The Petroglyphs of Jamaica J AME
Page 196 and 197: previously described petroglyphs ex
Page 198 and 199: glyphs in that belt, as the geologi
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Another carving that is unique is t
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Appendix Table 13.2 Jamaican Petrog
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14 Zemís, Trees and Symbolic Lands
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According to Arrom and Rouse (1992)
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The Context of Sacredness Taíno wo
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Kept in niches or on tables within
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Another important correspondence be
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eliefs in the spiritual and life-gi
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References Aarons, G.A. 1983a. Arch
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Smithsonian Biological Survey of Do
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———. 1988. Ulysses’ Sail: A
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———. 1983b. Adornos, Jamaica
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Porro, A. 1994. Social organization
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Scudder, S. 1992. Early Arawak subs
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Wing, E.S., and A.B. Brown. 1979. P
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Rouse, I. 1982. Ceramic and religio
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M. John Roobol, is a consultant geo
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