The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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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 139
unusual specimen (Medhurst collection) was found at Mannings Hill. It is a white, garnet-bearing rock, which occurs only as inclusions in the serpentinite in the vicinity of the Stony River, southern Blue Mountains. Artefacts of Rocks Alien to Jamaica All of the artefacts so far described were manufactured from rocks and minerals common to Jamaica. This does not prove that they originated in Jamaica, as the geology of this island is very similar to that of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Only two of the artefacts found were composed of rock that can be proven to have originated outside of Jamaica. A small, well-shaped pendant from K-13, Bellevue, St Andrew (H.R. Clarke collection), is composed of granular quartzite. A similar but broken pendant was found at C-8, Wallman Town, Clarendon, by Lee (specimen no. 368). These two small artefacts are of great interest, as quartzite does not occur in either the Greater or the Lesser Antilles. The rock quartzite forms from sands composed almost entirely of quartz grains which either are metamorphosed and recrystallized or are cemented in a sedimentary environment by silica. Quartz does not form a common detrital grain in the Greater Antilles. More than 60 million years ago, a number of large bodies or intrusions of quartz-bearing igneous material (granodiorite and tonalite) were emplaced along the Greater Antilles. Their subsequent deroofing and erosion provided more detrital quartz in the younger sediments. Quartzite occurs in areas where the most ancient recrystallized parts of the Earth’s crust are being eroded – the nearest place being northern South America. It is therefore concluded that these two artefacts were transported to Jamaica via the Lesser Antilles from South America. Subdivision of Greenstone Group The next step in the petrographic study is the subdivision of the greenstone group. This at present covers a wide variety of rock types differing in grain size, texture, structure, composition, mineral assemblage and ability to take a polish. Separation of at least the most striking types could provide an estimate of inter-island trade or migration within the Greater Antilles (a particularly striking study could be made in Puerto Rico, near the eastern end of the greenstone belt, southeast of which only lavas and rare cherts or jaspers are available on the volcanic Lesser Antilles). A preliminary attempt at such a study was made when eight stone celts and one pestle from Haiti were compared with their Jamaican counterparts in Lee’s collection. Three Haitian specimens of distinctive rock types matched exactly (by hand lens) the rock 140 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
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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 154 and 155: Blue Schist The story of Jamaican b
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
Page 204 and 205: 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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