The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

16 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS
two important figures in Jamaican archaeological research: J.E. Duerden and
Frank Cundall. Cundall and Duerden both worked on the Institute of Jamaica
staff and made significant contributions to the evidence of pre-Columbian
peoples in Jamaica. The late nineteenth century witnessed a renewed interest
in pre-Columbian peoples (Cundall 1894a, 1894b, 1895; Duerden 1895,
1897) perhaps in relation to the quatercentenary of Christopher Columbus’s
first voyage to the Americas. Frank Cundall’s 1894 publication on Columbus
(Cundall 1894c) is testimony to this interest.
Between 1879 and 1930 the primary focus of Jamaican archaeology was
prehistoric sites, and more intensive archaeological investigations were carried
out in the 1890s than at any other period in the nineteenth century. Lady
Edith Blake, the wife of the then governor general, had an abiding interest in
Jamaican archaeology. She published a paper on the Norbrook kitchen midden
(Blake 1895) and amassed a collection of artefacts that eventually was
purchased by the Heye Foundation, Museum of the American Indian.
She also promoted her interests among the staff of the Institute of Jamaica,
resulting in an exhibition of pre-Columbian artefacts at the Institute in 1895
and the publication of a pioneering book by Duerden in 1897. R.C.
MacCormack’s excavations in southern Vere and the Portland Ridge in
Clarendon in 1897–98 ended the excavations for the nineteenth century.
The twentieth century was a crucial period for archaeological growth and
development, beginning at the start of the century with J.F. Brennan’s investigations
at Knapdale, St Elizabeth (1901) and Cundall’s research at Liberty
Hill, St Ann (1902). In addition, archaeologists from the Museum for
Volkepkunde, Berlin, investigated cave and open-air sites near Montego Bay,
St James (Reichard 1904). Philip Sherlock and Frank Cundall both summarized
the results of these studies in 1939.
The more general interest in the archaeology of the West Indies also continued
into the early twentieth century. Jesse Walter Fewkes made an expedition
to Puerto Rico in 1907 for the Smithsonian Institution and wrote about
West Indian archaeology in general (Fewkes 1922). Theodoor De Booy,
working for the Heye Foundation, visited the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos
Islands, Margarita Island off the north coast of Venezuela, St John, Trinidad,
the US Virgin Islands and Jamaica. Under the sponsorship of American
museums, Fewkes, De Booy and Herbert Kreiger (1931) all worked to bring
Caribbean archaeology to light.
De Booy (1913) excavated a midden on the Retreat property in St Ann.
The site is of special interest because it is about 10 km from the sea. The hill
on which the site is located is 365 m above sea level. The hilltop is level, with
a series of middens positioned below the hilltop. The pottery in the site was
executed in the White Marl style, and there are a large number of handles that