The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

1. The study made by Duerden was not primarily aimed at the petrography,
and he examined only a small, non-representative group. His terminology,
however, is such that anyone familiar with Jamaican rocks can
recognize his groupings, except perhaps for “dolerite”.
2. Perhaps neither of the two collections is representative of the island, and
further study is required of larger numbers of samples. We do not favour
this solution. Over a two-year period, while increasing numbers of celts
were being examined, the proportions of the different groups did not
change appreciably from that established in the initial set of twenty-two
celts (see Table 9.1).
3. There is a stratigraphic variation in the proportion of rock types. Many of
the celts available to Duerden were complete and were collected from off
the surface of the earth. These presumably represented the youngest
material. After these had been collected and removed from circulation,
erosion and cuts for foundations and roads would have revealed a generally
older set of celts in which broken specimens from middens were more
frequent. It is possible that in the older celts greenstones predominate,
while in the younger group volcanic rocks (perhaps even imported from
other islands) predominate.
There seems no immediate way of settling this problem other than by further
examination of more celts, both in Jamaica and in the early collections
now on other Caribbean islands or on the North, Central and South
American mainland.
Conclusions
The petrographic study of Arawak rock artefacts from Jamaica has provided
an answer to the question of source material. Nearly all rock artefacts can be
matched with rocks outcropping in Jamaica, where the geology is similar to
that of the Greater Antilles as a whole. Around 90 per cent of the artefacts are
manufactured from low-grade metamorphic rocks, of which greenstone predominates.
To a much lesser extent, ancient lava was used. Rarely, friable sedimentary
and mineral specimens were used. Only two small, well-shaped
pendants can be shown to be composed of rock alien to the Antilles, and
these, significantly, are small pendants, bored and carried attached to the body.
However, a preliminary attempt at subdivision of the greenstones for a comparison
of Haitian and Jamaican samples reveals varieties common to both
islands. This suggests that within the Greater Antilles there were common
origins and consequently transport between the islands.
144 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS