The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

A
B
Figure 12.3 Meillac
ware: (a) boat-shaped
vessel; (b) round bowl
the remaining 28.7 per cent of the assemblage (Woodward 1988, 50). The
intrusive European ceramics from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries that Cotter collected from across the whole lower estate were not
factored into this analysis.
The Casimiroid peoples began human occupation of the West Indies
around 4000 BC (Rouse 1992, 51). The first settlers of Jamaica were the
Ostionoids, who expanded south and west through the island of Hispaniola
and across the Jamaica Channel to the south coast of Jamaica by AD 650
(Atkinson 2003, 1). The Meillacan Ostionoids, who would evolve into the
Western Taínos of Jamaica and parts of Cuba, were present in Jamaica by
880 BC (Rouse 1992, 96). The White Marl style of the Meillacan subseries of
pottery is characteristic of all Meillacan and Western Taíno sites in Jamaica,
and St Ann’s Bay in particular (ibid., 52). This ware is characterized by coilconstructed
vessels, the coils being set and then shaped by an anvil-and-paddle
technique rather than by scraping (Howard 1950, 140). The pottery varies
in colour from brick-red through dull brown and even black. A dull polish was
applied to the exterior surfaces of most vessels. Temper was not normally
added to the clays; the sand or marl particles that are in evidence appear to
have been part of the original clay. The paste of the Taíno sherds found in
Cotter’s collection from the fortress conforms to this tradition.
The shapes of the White Marl–style vessels are limited to thin-walled
(averaging 8 mm) carinated boat-shaped or round bowls (ibid., 141). Both
these bowl forms have symmetrically rounded
bottoms and frequently have distinctive shoulders
(Figure 12.3). Regardless of whether
the bowls have a shoulder or not, the sides
of these vessels invariably curve inward
towards the rim so that the opening of the
bowl is smaller than the greatest diameter of
the vessel (ibid., 138).
0 5
cm
0 5
cm
The rims of the White Marl–style vessels
are predominantly rounded or slightly rectangular
in shape (Figure 12.4a–e). The
second variant is a filleted rim, which has a
strip or thin fillet of clay applied along the
exterior edge (Figure 12.4f–h) or, less frequently,
along the interior edge (Figure 12.4i).
Decorated rims are rare, but when they are
encountered, they are more elaborate than on contemporaneous
vessels from elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Decorative devices include incised designs (Figure 12.5a), cross-
166 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS