The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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Table 2.1 Shells Collected from Chancery Hall Species Lot 340 Lot 386, Layer 3 Both Sites Marine Gastropods Count 1 Per cent 2 Count 1 Per cent 2 Count 1 Per cent 2 Cittarium pica 1 0.1 0 0.0 1 0.04 Fasciolaria tulipa 1 0.1 0 0.0 1 0.04 Littorina sp. 0 0.0 1 0.2 1 0.04 Melongena melongena 21 1.2 10 1.6 31 1.30 Murex brevifrons 12 0.7 7 1.1 19 0.80 Nerita fulgurans 1 0.1 0 0.0 1 0.04 Neritina (Vitta) piratica 487 27.8 111 17.7 598 25.13 Neritina (Vitta) reclivata 771 43.9 198 31.7 969 40.71 Neritina (Vitta) virginea 7 0.4 6 1.0 13 0.55 Total marine gastropods 1,301 – 333 – 1,634 – Terrestrial Gastropods – – – – – – Pleurodonte lucerna 288 n/a 129 n/a 417 n/a Dentellaria sloaneana 13 n/a 4 n/a 17 n/a Other terrestrial 0 n/a 59 n/a 59 n/a Total terrestrial gastropods 301 192 493 Bivalves – – – – – – Anadara notabilis 1 0.0 3 0.2 4 0.08 Anadara ovalis 324 9.2 287 22.9 611 12.84 Anomalocardia brasiliana 3 0.1 2 0.2 5 0.11 Arca umbonata 35 1.0 10 0.8 45 0.95 Arca zebra 72 2.1 26 2.1 98 2.06 Barbatia candida 2 0.1 0 0.0 2 0.04 Brachidontes citrinus 2 0.1 6 0.5 8 0.17 Chama macerophylla 50 1.4 18 1.4 68 1.43 Chione cancellata 5 0.1 8 0.6 13 0.27 Chione granulata 60 1.7 19 1.5 79 1.66 Chione intapurpurea 215 6.1 123 9.8 338 7.10 Chione sp. 0 0.0 1 0.1 1 0.02 Codakia (s.s.) orbicularis 7 0.2 1 0.1 8 0.17 Crassostrea rhizophorae 117 3.3 79 6.3 196 4.12 Isognomon alatus 6 0.2 2 0.2 8 0.17 Ostrea frons 4 0.1 0 0.0 4 0.08 Semele proficua 3 0.1 0 0.0 3 0.06 Trachycardium muricatum 1 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.02 Total bivalve valves 907 – 585 – 1,492 – 1 Individual bivalve and gastropod counts. 2 Percentage of marine shells based on complete animals (gastropods count 1, bivalves count 0.5). 39
40 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS Taíno occupation these species were dominant elements of the Kingston Harbour shellfish assemblage. Over-collection of these species by the Taíno people may have been responsible for the demise of the natural populations. In this context, it is interesting to note that the species favoured by the Taíno were replaced by species of smaller size (judging from modern populations) and therefore less nutritional value (more need to be collected for the same food quantity). One notable rarity on the Chancery Hall site is the Strombus gigas Linné (queen conch), only a single fragment having been found on a subsequent visit. This gastropod species is an important part of the modern shellfish diet in the Caribbean and was almost certainly collected for food by the Taíno people. S. gigas is a very large marine gastropod with an impressive shell. Its absence at Chancery Hall might be due to the fact that the shell is very heavy. (Why carry animal and shell up to the site when the muscle can be cut and only the meat transported?) Modern Jamaican beaches are littered with piles of S. gigas shells which have been culled for food; the antiquity of some piles may not even be guessed. The terrestrial gastropod P. lucerna is abundant on the Chancery Hall site. However, there are many places in Jamaica where extensive accumulations of terrestrial gastropods (often P. lucerna – Mitchell, personal observation) are concentrated in soil profiles with no evidence of archaeological occupation. Furthermore, a Taíno rubbish tip may have been a highly desirable habitat for such omnivorous terrestrial gastropods. It is therefore premature, without further investigation, to assume that the Taíno people ate these terrestrial molluscs, and they may be present on Taíno sites simply because they lived there. We therefore suggest that the presence of land snails on Jamaican archaeological sites should not necessarily be taken as evidence that they formed part of the diet of the Taíno people. Excavations at the Bellevue site (Wing and Medhurst 1977; Medhurst 1977a, 1977b) recorded abundant marine and terrestrial shells. The most abundant marine taxa recorded by these authors were species of Neritina, Arca zebra Swainson, Chione granulata Gmelin and Anadara brasiliana Lamarck. This is clearly a similar assemblage to that recorded from Chancery Hall, which is only about 1.5 km from Bellevue. The assemblages of shells from Chancery Hall and Bellevue contrast markedly with those collected at Rodney’s House. Wilman (1978) recorded abundant marine (3,394) and terrestrial (371) shells from Rodney’s House with the marine assemblages dominated by A. zebra, A. imbricata Bruguière, Chama macerophylla Gmelin and Donax denticulatus Linné. The first three species are either cemented or attached by a byssus to hard substrates such as rocks, while the fourth is a shallow infaunal (living within the sediment)
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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 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: ivalves. Single gastropod valves we
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
Page 95 and 96: emoval. Sometimes what is required
Page 97 and 98: Figure 5.1 Road cutting through the
Page 99 and 100: Later on the Spanish settled in the
Page 101 and 102: Figure 5.4 Long Mountain prior to d
Page 103 and 104: 86 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS amon
Page 106 and 107:
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
Page 174 and 175:
Handles Handles may be classified i
Page 176 and 177:
Two more or less spheroidal pottery
Page 178 and 179:
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
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Appendix Table 13.2 Jamaican Petrog
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14 Zemís, Trees and Symbolic Lands
Page 206 and 207:
According to Arrom and Rouse (1992)
Page 208 and 209:
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
Page 214 and 215:
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
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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