The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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Blue Schist The story of Jamaican blue schist is particularly interesting. The rock has a striking blue colour caused by the mineral glaucophane. This rock currently has great geological significance as it forms under conditions of low-temperature, high-pressure metamorphism, thought to exist only at the margins of lithospheric plates (in terms of current plate tectonic theory). It was previously known in the Caribbean only in southeast Cuba and the Dominican Republic but was discovered in Jamaica in 1972 on Union Hill, St Thomas, on the south flanks of the Blue Mountain Inlier (Draper and Horsfield 1973). This prominent hill forms the divide between the eastern and western arms of the Morant River, and sparse pebbles of blue schist occur in the riverbed. They are very rare on the south-coast beaches. Three celts are composed of this rock, which almost certainly originated in Union Hill. Lava A number of celts are composed of relatively unaltered lava – mostly andesites, readily recognized by their porphyritic texture of large, well-shaped crystals of white feldspar and black pyroxene or amphibole, set in a finer-grained ground-mass. It is not possible to identify the source of the lava as such rocks are found in all of the inliers of older rocks in Jamaica. They occur either as ancient lava flows or as pebbles and boulders of lava in the sedimentary rocks, where they were derived by erosion of the ancient lavas many millions of years ago. Lava boulders are also abundant in the younger sedimentary rocks of Jamaica and have a similar origin. It is possible, however, that one day archaeologists may find a tool with such striking and unusual texture that it can be matched with its parent lava flow. Several such flows exist; for example, in the Wagwater River there are pebbles of an andesite lava with abundant feldspar phenocrysts around 3 cm long. The Swift River in Portland provides the north-coast beaches with pebbles of another striking andesite, notable for an abundance of cube-shaped, plagioclase phenocrysts. Sedimentary Rock A few axes are composed of the sedimentary rocks sandstone and shale. These are khaki- or yellow-coloured, and their source cannot be located as they occur as both younger and older sedimentary rocks across the island. It is surprising to see tools manufactured from these rocks, for although the coarser sedimentary grains are composed of lava or hard minerals found in lava, the grains are P ETROGRAPHY AND S OURCE OF S OME A RAWAK R OCK A RTEFACTS FROM J AMAICA 137
cemented by calcite. This mineral breaks very easily, so such tools are inferior to those of low-grade metamorphic rock. Mineral Only two specimens were found which were manufactured from samples of what might be called mineral rather than rock, as they are largely mono-minerallic. One of these is composed of white calcite crystals. Layers of this mineral occur as cavity linings in limestone. The cavity forms by solution of the limestone in percolating underground water, and the coarsely crystalline calcite is a later partial infilling caused by reprecipitation from the circulating water. The second specimen (A277, site A-14 – Tobolski, St Ann) is an altered iron ore (mainly the mineral magnetite). Such a mineral deposit is best known at Mavis Bank, St Andrew, near Kingston. Boulders of similar material have been found derived from unexplored mineral deposits in the headwaters of the east arm of the Morant River on the south side of the Blue Mountains and in the Swift River on the north side. Conch Shell A small number of celts were manufactured from the shell of the common conch (Strombus), which can be found today all around the island, browsing on seagrass (Thallasia) in shallow water. Similar celts were described from Jamaica by Duerden (1897). Other Rock Artefacts from Arawak Sites A small number of other artefacts were examined and found to be manufactured from rocks and minerals common to Jamaica. Flint Scrapers A fine set of about twenty elongate flakes or scrapers of flint was recently gathered (H.R. Clarke collection) at site K-13, Bellevue, St Andrew. A few others are present in the collections at the Institute of Jamaica. Many are mentioned by Duerden (1897). The Lee collection contains numerous flint specimens, chiefly from north-coast sites in the Montego Bay area (sites J-1, Mammee Hill; J-3, Fairfield; and J-11, Mount Salem) and in St Mary (Y-4, Rio Nuevo; Y-14, Iter Boreale; Y-15, Nonsuch; Y-17, Tweedside; and Y-19, 138 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
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Later on the Spanish settled in the
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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 150 and 151: The results discussed here were obt
Page 152 and 153: Petaloid Axes of Arawak Origin from
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
Page 200 and 201: Another carving that is unique is t
Page 202 and 203: 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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The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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