The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

Coleraine) but also from other major sites in Trelawny and St Ann (T-1, New
Forest; T-3, Spring; and A-19, Windsor). Secondary working of flakes is
extremely rare. These flints originate in the white limestone group, which covers
two-thirds of Jamaica; some can be traced to particular horizons as they
contain an abundance of silicified fossils. The flints are concentrated in the
rivers and on beaches around the island.
Beads
Eight small (1 cm diameter) cylindrical beads perforated by a central hole
were examined (Lee and Clarke collections). Three are from site K-13,
Bellevue, St Andrew; three from C-7, Harmony Hall, Clarendon; one from
Y-21, Fort Haldane, St Mary, and one from E-5, Alligator Pond, St
Elizabeth. All are composed of white chalcedony containing small green crystals
of the minerals epidote and chlorite. The rock can be matched only with
chalcedony pods present in the greenstones of the southern Blue Mountains
Inlier. Lee obtained spherical beads of limestone from S-8, Marlie Mount,
and S-12, Naggo Head, both in St Catherine.
Pendants
Seven pendants were examined and found to be composed of rocks that can
be readily matched in Jamaica. Four (Lee collection), from Y-19, Coleraine, St
Mary; Pepper, St Elizabeth; S-12, Naggo Head, St Catherine; and C-12,
Logie Green, Clarendon, are composed of polished clear keratophyre. A fifth
pendant of this rock has just been found by James Godfrey of Mandeville at
E-2, Fort Charles, St Elizabeth. Keratophyre is a rare altered igneous rock in
Jamaica, and the clear, non-weathered variety is found only in the Stony River
Valley in the southern Blue Mountains Inlier, although extensive outcrops of
its weathered equivalent occur along the Wagwater Belt (see Figure 9.1).
Pendants found by Lee at Runaway Bay, St Ann, and at T-1, New Forest,
Trelawny, are of calcite and limestone, respectively. Two other pendants (G.
Senior collection) found at K-13, Bellevue, St Andrew, are composed of porphyritic
lava, which cannot be traced to a particular locality.
Pebbles and Boulders
Numbers of unworked pebbles and boulders have been found in Jamaican
middens. These too, like the petaloid celts, can often be demonstrated as being
alien to the midden area. Most common are pebbles of greenstone. One very
P ETROGRAPHY AND S OURCE OF S OME A RAWAK R OCK A RTEFACTS FROM J AMAICA
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