The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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ical publication in Jamaica. Geologist James W. Lee established the Archaeological Society of Jamaica (ASJ) in 1965. Since then, Lee and other ASJ members have conducted extensive research on Jamaica prehistory, which was frequently published in the society’s newsletter Archaeology Jamaica. In 1967, the Institute of Jamaica began publishing Jamaica Journal, which has been an essential medium for promoting current archaeological research in Jamaica. Factors Affecting Jamaican Taíno Research In the past fifty years, Jamaican archaeology has undergone significant developments: the establishment of the Archaeology Division ( Jamaica National Heritage Trust [ JNHT]), the introduction of archaeology at the University of the West Indies in 1987, and improvements in the training of Jamaican archaeologists. The past decade has seen increased interest in Jamaican Taíno archaeology and promotion of it via international archaeological associations. Despite these advances, research in Jamaican prehistory is negatively affected by limited resources, a shortage of personnel, poor attitudes towards conservation, the improper monitoring of the island’s archaeological resources, and the great evil – ignorance. These factors affect the investigation, recovery, and interpretation of Jamaica’s prehistory, and its context within the island’s archaeological development. The lack of resources for archaeological investigations is a critical, even paralysing factor. It affects the training of staff, the acquisition of essential equipment and the comprehensive investigation of sites. Archaeological investigations are expensive and time-consuming, and this poses a problem for developers, the general public, administrators and even some personnel within the JNHT. Manpower is a serious problem in Jamaica, despite its having the largest contingent of professional archaeologists in the English-speaking Caribbean. At present the severely short-handed staff at the Archaeology Division of the JNHT cannot cope with the needs of the island’s archaeological resources – it is physically impossible. In addition, because of the various development projects taking place on the island, the JNHT is forced to conduct primarily watching briefs and rescue operations, leaving little room for academic investigations and long-term research. Responsibility for the protection, preservation, promotion and study of Taíno sites and artefacts is shared among the JNHT, the National Environmental and Planning Agency and the University of the West Indies. However, there is limited collaboration between the JNHT and other government agencies such as the Department of Mines and Geology, the Ministry of Land and I NTRODUCTION 7
8 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS Development and the National Works Agency. Better interaction and collaboration between the JNHT and these government agencies would bring about an improvement in both the circulation of information and the facilities and resources available. More collaboration is essential given the island’s increased pace of development. The threat of development on Taíno sites is a matter of concern that Andrea Richards addresses in this volume. Two examples are Seville, St Ann, and Rio Nuevo, St Mary (see Figure A.1, nos. 150 and 137), both important Taíno centres mentioned in the Spanish chronicles. These sites face destruction despite archaeologists’ efforts, demonstrating the need for more controlled development and for the implementation of an archaeological policy. In Jamaica, more attention needs to be paid to Taíno artefacts – their recovery, treatment, storage and research. Despite the presence of qualified archaeological conservators in the island, the importance of conservation is not completely appreciated. This is a problem not only for Taíno research but for Jamaican archaeology in general. At present, the focus is mainly on interventive conservation – treating artefacts chemically. But conservation, which is required for an artefact’s physical welfare, should begin with the environment from which the artefact is recovered – meaning that conservators should frequently be present in the field. Conservation does not begin in the lab but on the first day the project is considered, so that danger to artefacts is minimized. Pottery, for example – the most abundant type of Taíno artefact recovered in Jamaica – is sometimes found to have been incompletely fired and thus requires special handling, particularly in the field. Because of the absence of conservators in the field, by the time an artefact enters the lab, the conservators can sometimes do nothing more than damage control. At the other end of the spectrum is storage of artefacts, which is also crucial to conservation. These are matters that preventive conservation addresses. Unfortunately, the preventive approach has not been widely implemented. Jamaican conservators are concerned that the focus on interventive methods results in a loss of information that can be gained from an artefact, because the interventive methods essentially constitute tampering with the artefact. Another matter of concern is the monitoring of the material culture in the island. Over the years many people have acquired private collections of Taíno artefacts. In the absence of effective legislation prohibiting the collection of artefacts by private individuals, what is needed is an inventory of these private collections, so at least researchers can get a clear idea of what cultural material has been recovered from what areas across the island. Unfortunately, in Jamaica a substantial portion of the island’s archaeological collections has been obtained from surface collections rather than controlled excavations, which means that provenance is not known for many artefacts in these
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 20 and 21: encounter the term Arawaks used to
Page 22 and 23: 90. Long Acre Point 91. Long Mounta
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
Page 224 and 225:
Porro, A. 1994. Social organization
Page 226 and 227:
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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