The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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(Lee 1983b). Dr Lee made a concerted effort to bring Jamaican archaeology to the archaeological community at large, and his work has been widely disseminated. In 1999, Lee handed over his collection to the University of the West Indies. This collection is currently being studied by the archaeological lab at the university’s Mona campus under the direction of Dr Philip Allsworth- Jones. The research done by Lee and the ASJ has also greatly benefited the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, as Lee’s site codes and mapping information have provided important data for the Jamaica National Heritage Trust’s National Inventory of Sites and Monuments. The past two decades have involved diversification and growth in Jamaican archaeology. During this period we have seen the beginnings of investigations of the Afro-Jamaican, Spanish and Jewish heritage – illustrating the island’s multiethnic composition, encapsulated in the motto on the national coat of arms, “Out of Many, One People”. The Jamaica National Heritage Trust was actually established as the Jamaica National Trust Commission in 1958, under the administration of the Institute of Jamaica. In 1985, the commission was separated from the Institute of Jamaica and renamed the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. According to Roderick Ebanks, Technical Director of Archaeology at the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, the new and improved institution was responsible for “the legal protection and administration of all historical sites, ranging from small houses – Taíno sites to Plantations” (personal communication, 1997). For almost two decades the Archaeology Division of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust has been responsible for most of the investigations conducted on the island. Although its members are highly trained and would like to pursue more scholarly research, the limited resources available have afforded the opportunity for little more than rescue and salvage operations (see Richards, this volume). When archaeology as a discipline was established at the University of the West Indies, the first lecturer was the Ghanaian Emmanuel Kofi Agorsah. “Dr Kofi”, as he is affectionately called, was influential in diversifying Jamaican archaeological research. His special interest was in Afro-Jamaican and Maroon archaeology, which he brought to the forefront (Agorsah 1992, 1993, 1994). He also challenged traditional methods of classifying the past (Agorsah 1994). Since his arrival in 1998, Philip Allsworth-Jones has contributed to Jamaican prehistoric research with his collaborative investigations at Chancery Hall, St Andrew, and Green Castle, St Mary (both reported in this volume). During the past decade significant progress has been made. In 1992, there T HE D EVELOPMENT OF J AMAICAN P REHISTORY 27
was the recovery of the Aboukir zemís – the most significant Taíno find in two hundred years (discussed by Saunders and Gray in this volume). Subsequently there has been renewed interest in Jamaican prehistory, as seen by Elizabeth Rega at Sommerville Cave, Clarendon, William “Bill” Keegan at Paradise Park, Westmoreland, and, recently, Betty “Jo” Stokes at Rio Nuevo, St Mary. Conclusions Archaeologists throughout the West Indies have begun to move beyond the simple classification of pottery decorations to ask questions about where ancient people lived, what they ate, what types of trade they engaged in, how their economy might be characterized, what types of social relations they had and how their polities were organized. In this regard, it should be noted that Jamaican researchers were at the forefront in technical studies. They were among the first to seek the specific identification of animal bones found in sites in order to determine what people ate and where the foods were captured ( Johnson 1976; Wing 1977). They used petrographic analysis to identify the sources of stone artefacts in the sites (Robool and Lee 1976, reprinted in this volume); and they used X-ray diffraction to characterize the clays from which pottery vessels were made at the Bellevue site (Medhurst 1976a, 1976b, 1977a, 1977b). In addition, the study of wooden artefacts and of the petroglyphs and pictographs that decorated cave walls provided information about the makers’ belief systems and world view (Aarons 1994; Watson 1988; Saunders and Gray, this volume). Jamaican archaeology has a long and rich heritage. In fact, its early practitioners equalled and in some cases surpassed their peers in the United States. Yet for many years Jamaica was isolated. Caribbean archaeologists tended to emphasize the earliest Ceramic Age culture, known as Saladoid, and the contact period “Classic Taíno” cultures of eastern Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Because these cultures did not occur in Jamaica, Jamaican archaeology was viewed as peripheral to the main archaeological interests in the region. This lack of interest was initially expressed by calling the peoples of central Cuba, the Bahamas, the northern Lesser Antilles and Jamaica “sub-Taínos” (Lovén 1935). Although the term Western Taínos has now been adopted for the contact period peoples of central Cuba and Jamaica, the legacy of past research orientations has maintained their peripheral position. Despite a general lack of interest on the part of foreign archaeologists, Jamaica developed a model programme of national archaeology through the combined efforts of the Institute of Jamaica, ASJ, the University of the West Indies and the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. During the past decade, archaeologists working throughout the West Indies have begun to recognize 28 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS
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 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: people making Ostionan (Redware) po
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
Page 77 and 78: Table 3.1 All Recovered Organic Mat
Page 79 and 80: of slim, more or less parallel shap
Page 81 and 82: Table 3.5 Fish Bone Anatomical Part
Page 83 and 84: 66 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS Surv
Page 85 and 86: Acknowledgements Thanks are due to
Page 87 and 88: SOUTH NEGRIL POINT Savannala-Mar Mo
Page 89 and 90: sudden event. Occupation 3 can be c
Page 91 and 92: dle, a ground stone artefact that m
Page 93 and 94: - 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
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
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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
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
Page 218 and 219:
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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