The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

Howard (1965) recognized that Redware pottery was similar to the
Ostionoid pottery described by Rouse. Jamaican Redware, however, is different
from Ostionoid pottery found elsewhere in the Greater Antilles; for that
reason he named the style after the Little River site (though many people continue
to use the name Redware to describe this style). Howard noted that
there was another kind of pottery decorated with incised designs and filleted
rims that was very similar to the Meillacoid pottery from Hispaniola, and he
called this style White Marl after the site at which it was first described.
Howard (ibid.) recognized that the pottery from the Fairfield site near
Montego Bay was similar to White Marl pottery, but that it was also quite
distinctive. He therefore identified the Fairfield complex or the Montego
Bay style, which characterized the pottery of northwestern Jamaica. 2
Meillacoid vessels, including the White Marl style, typically are boatshaped
or hemispherical and turn inward at the shoulder,
such that the opening (aperture) is smaller than the
greatest diameter of the vessel (casuela) (Figure 1.4).
Filleted rims are common and incised and appliqué decorations
are located between the shoulder and the rim.
Meillacan pottery from Jamaica is distinctive in that
the distance between the shoulder and the rim is
shorter than that observed on casuela vessels in Haiti
(Figure 1.5). The Montego Bay style is also distinctive in
that a wider fillet or separate band of clay (in addition
to a filleted rim) is affixed at the rim and is decorated with
deeply incised parallel lines on this band.
Figure 1.4 Jamaican
Meillacan boat-shaped
vessel. (Illustration by
Joslyn Reid, Institute
of Jamaica Collection.)
Figure 1.5 Meillacan pottery from Haiti. (Florida Museum of Natural History Collection.)
24 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS