The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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encounter the term Arawaks used to describe the Jamaican Taíno culture. These references are presented in their original context, as most of the literature assumed that the indigenous population of Jamaica was Arawak. The Jamaican Taínos It is believed that Jamaica was colonized after AD 600 by ancestors of the Taíno, the Ostionoid culture (Rouse 1992). At present, two of the earliest known sites on the island are Little River, St Ann, and Alligator Pond (Bottom Bay), Manchester, dated AD 650 ± 120 (Vanderwal 1968a) (see Figure A.1, nos. 89 and 4). These sites have been characterized as belonging to the Ostionan Ostionoid subseries (Rouse 1992) or, as it is called locally, Redware – a name reflecting its bright red ceramics. James W. Lee has published articles on the Redware culture in Archaeology Jamaica (see Lee 1980c, reprinted in this volume). James Lee noticed that the Redware culture preferred coastal settlements and illustrated that all but two of the eleven Redware sites highlighted in 1980 were directly on the seashore (ibid.). The two exceptions were located about 1 km inland. Preliminary observations indicate that most of the present Redware sites are located at elevations of 0 to 15 m above sea level. These sites are also near the sea or a river source such as Alligator Pond, St Elizabeth, and Alloa, St Ann, suggesting a dependence on marine resources (Atkinson 2003, 8) (see Figure A.1, nos. 3 and 5). This reliance on the marine environment was highlighted at the Ostionan site at Paradise Park, Westmoreland (Keegan 2002). According to William Keegan (personal communication, 2001), the Ostionan deposit contains mostly sea turtles, freshwater turtles, large fish and shellfish (notably conch) from the seagrass environment. However, in Jamaica, traditional research on this cultural period has concentrated mainly on its ceramics and on comparisons with the Meillacan culture. About three hundred years later another culture, categorized by Rouse (1992) as the Meillacan Ostionoid, settled on the island. The Meillacan culture, which is also referred to as the White Marl style after the largest Meillac site on the island, dated from AD 877 ± 95 to AD 1490 ± 120 (Silverberg, Vanderwal and Wing 1972). Traditionally, it was felt that the Ostionans were colonized by the Meillacans and absorbed into the latter cultural group, and the Ostionan period was believed to have ended around AD 900. However, recent archaeological investigations at the Sweetwater and Paradise sites at Paradise Park, Westmoreland (see Figure A.1, no. 119), and other sites across the island have indicated that the two groups possibly co-inhabited the island. The settlement patterns of the Meillacans were more diverse than those of the Ostionans; they settled on the coast but also penetrated the interior as I NTRODUCTION 3
Figure A.1 Map of the sites mentioned in the text 1. Aboukir (Image Cave) 2. Alexandria 3. Alligator Pond (Alligator Pond River) 4. Alligator Pond (Bottom Bay) 5. Alloa 6. Armordale 7. Auchindown 8. Baalbec Cave 9. Barbican 10. Bellevue 11. Bellevue 12. Bengal 13. Beverly Hills 14. Billy Bay 15. Black River (Black River West) 16. Bloxblurgh 17. Bluefields 18. Bossue 19. Bull Savannah 20. Byndloss Mountain (Riverhead) 21. Calabash Bay 22. California 23. Cambridge Hill Cave 24. Canoe Valley 25. Canoe Valley Caves 26. Carpenter’s Mountain 27. Caymanas Bay 28. Chancery Hall 29. Cinnamon Hill 30. Clitos Point 31. Coleraine 32. Cousins Cove 33. Coventry 34. Cranbrook 35. Creighton Hall 36. Cuckold Point 37. Cuckold Point Cave 38. Culloden 39. Dover 40. Downtown Kingston 41. Drummond 42. Dryland (Image Cave) 43. Duckenfield 44. Duff House 45. East Jackson Bay Cave 46. Fairfield (Fairfield View) 47. Ferry Hill 48. Flint River 49. Fort Charles 50. Fort Charles- Nembhard 51. Fort Haldane 52. Fort Nugent 53. Freetown 54. Friendship 55. God’s Well 56. Great Goat Island 57. Great Goat Island Cave 58. Great Pedro Bay 59. (Great) Salt Pond 60. Green Castle 61. Green Hill 62. Green Island 63. Greenwich Park 64. Gut River # 1 65. Halberstadt 66. Harbour View 67. Harmony Hall 68. Haughton Hall 69. Holmes Bay 70. Hope 71. Hope Mine 72. Hope Tavern 73. Hounslow 74. Image Cave 75. Inverness 76. Ipswich 77. Iter Boreale 78. Ivor (Iver) 79. Jacks Hill 80. Jackson’s Bay Cave 81. Jackson’s Bay 82. Kempshot 83. Kew 84. Knapdale (Knapville) 85. Liberty Hill 86. Little Bay Cave 87. Little Miller’s Bay 88. Llanrumney 89. Little River 4
Page 2: The Earliest Inhabitants
Page 5 and 6: University of the West Indies Press
Page 8 and 9: Contents List of Illustrations / ix
Page 10 and 11: Illustrations A.1 Map of the sites
Page 12 and 13: 13.2 Petroglyphs from Coventry and
Page 14 and 15: Preface I HAVE ALWAYS been fascinat
Page 16 and 17: Acknowledgements I WOULD FIRST like
Page 18 and 19: Introduction IN JAMAICA, THE indige
Page 22 and 23: 90. Long Acre Point 91. Long Mounta
Page 24 and 25: ical publication in Jamaica. Geolog
Page 26 and 27: collections. Knowledge of the prove
Page 28: Section 1 Assessment and Excavation
Page 31 and 32: objective by using a frame of refer
Page 33 and 34: 16 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS two
Page 35 and 36: 18 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS fact
Page 37 and 38: 20 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS the
Page 39 and 40: 22 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS deco
Page 41 and 42: Howard (1965) recognized that Redwa
Page 43 and 44: people making Ostionan (Redware) po
Page 45 and 46: was the recovery of the Aboukir zem
Page 47 and 48: Appendix Table 1.1 Midden Sites Rep
Page 49 and 50: Table 1.2 Cave Sites Reported by Ro
Page 51 and 52: 2 The Taíno Settlement of the King
Page 53 and 54: Henderson Hill lies to the south, o
Page 55 and 56: ivalves. Single gastropod valves we
Page 57 and 58: 40 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS Taí
Page 59 and 60: Table 2.2 Neutron Activation Analys
Page 61 and 62: Plain may have played a role in the
Page 63 and 64: Table 2.3. Taíno Sites in the King
Page 65 and 66: contractors to drill and blast for
Page 67 and 68: chipped away. It is believed that t
Page 69 and 70: Figure 3.4 JNHT excavations at Chan
Page 71 and 72:
Test Pit 6 Depth 40 cm. This is a s
Page 73 and 74:
19.375 19.275 1 CHANCERY HALL, JAMA
Page 75 and 76:
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
Page 85 and 86:
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
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6 Notes on the Natural History of J
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Soils Several different soil types
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Shoreline On the north coast, there
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well established, especially in dis
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7 The Exploitation and Transformati
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Art Art can be religious, functiona
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of Long Mountain”, Andreas Oberli
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Figure 7.3 William Keegan explainin
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cedar (Cedrela odorata), santa mari
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According to Rouse, the density of
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17), grows abundantly on the island
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Incidental Dispersal The plant comp
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8 Early Arawak Subsistence Strategi
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and bagged by level. In April of 19
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Table 8.1 Significant Vertebrate an
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tory and habitat preferences. Follo
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Changing Subsistence Strategies The
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Table 8.2 Faunal Comparisons: Per c
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Appendix Table 8.3 Rodney’s House
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Table 8.3 Rodney’s House Faunal L
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Section 3 Analysis of Taíno Archae
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9 Petrography and Source of Some Ar
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The results discussed here were obt
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Petaloid Axes of Arawak Origin from
Page 154 and 155:
Blue Schist The story of Jamaican b
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Coleraine) but also from other majo
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from which several Jamaican artefac
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in a lack of suitable rocks, so tha
Page 162 and 163:
A surprising conclusion of the pres
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Figure 10.1 Redware, White Marl and
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triangular ridges. It is thought th
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(also see Figure 10.6), loop handle
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11 Jamaican Redware J AMES W. LEE A
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only if planted at exactly the corr
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Handles Handles may be classified i
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Two more or less spheroidal pottery
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12 Taíno Ceramics from Post-Contac
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and distribution of native labour w
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Figure 12.2 Distribution of New Sev
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hatching (Figure 12.5c), and closel
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were fired at a low temperature, th
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Figure 12.11 New Seville ware: jug
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ters of the caciques. These politic
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Section 4 Taíno Art Forms ART IS A
Page 194 and 195:
13 The Petroglyphs of Jamaica J AME
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previously described petroglyphs ex
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glyphs in that belt, as the geologi
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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
Page 216 and 217:
References Aarons, G.A. 1983a. Arch
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Smithsonian Biological Survey of Do
Page 220 and 221:
———. 1988. Ulysses’ Sail: A
Page 222 and 223:
———. 1983b. Adornos, Jamaica
Page 224 and 225:
Porro, A. 1994. Social organization
Page 226 and 227:
Scudder, S. 1992. Early Arawak subs
Page 228 and 229:
Wing, E.S., and A.B. Brown. 1979. P
Page 230 and 231:
Rouse, I. 1982. Ceramic and religio
Page 232:
M. John Roobol, is a consultant geo
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The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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