The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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ivalve inhabiting intertidal sands. Thus the assemblage from Rodney’s House typifies the coastal environments of Port Henderson Hill, with its rocky headlands and sandy beaches. In summary, we conclude that while the molluscs preserved on Taíno sites undoubtedly give some valuable insight into the Taíno diet, this may be to some extent distorted by spurious additions (terrestrial molluscs living on the site) and absences (large molluscs which were butchered on the shore). Arguments concerning human population size that are based solely on shellfish found on archaeological sites may, therefore, be unsound. Neutron Activation Analysis of Pottery Twelve pottery samples from six sites in the area ( Jacks Hill, Harbour View, Bellevue, Chancery Hall, Rodney’s House and Norbrook) were chosen for the study at the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences at the University of the West Indies, to be carried out with the technique of neutron activation analysis (NAA). The objective was to determine whether the potters employed the same clay source and, if variations were detected, whether these reflected different clay sources or some other factor – for instance, different vessel types. Hence, there was an attempt to include as varied a selection as possible from each site, including rims and body sherds with different inclusions, and two griddles. Results A total of twenty-seven major, minor and trace elements was found. The concentrations of these elements are summarized in Table 2.2. Discussion Two striking points emerge from a study of these figures. First, there is a general homogeneity in the quantity of each element present in each sample site. The degree of homogeneity is particularly clear if only the four major elements (Al, Fe, Ti and Ca) are considered. Second, the values for these elements are consistent with their known occurrence in the soils of the Kingston area. Aluminium has an appropriate occurrence of between 8 and 10 per cent; iron, less than 1 per cent; titanium, between 0.49 and 0.7 per cent; and calcium, between 1 and 2 per cent (Lalor 1995). Histograms of the major elements in the sampled sites compared with the levels in the soils of the Kingston area are shown in Figure 2.2. T HE TAÍNO S ETTLEMENT OF THE K INGSTON A REA 41
Table 2.2 Neutron Activation Analysis of Pottery Samples from Sites 1–6 (concentrations in ppm, unless otherwise noted) Element Jacks Hill Harbour Bellevue Chancery Rodney’s Norbrook View Hall House Aluminium (%) 10.3 8.98 6.23 9.06 8.85 9.77 Vanadium 110 196 117 130 106 70.1 Titanium 4,830 5,310 3,920 3,370 3,440 3,860 Calcium (%) 0.808 1.12 1.5 1.21 0.997 1.26 Manganese 447 417 439 678 268 261 Dysprosium 2.72 2.08 2.06 2.31 1.08 1.46 Europium 0.99 0.635 0.727 0.825 0.50 0.65 Barium 582 1,330 589 470 672 792 Cadmium 2.24 3.29 5.16 6.91 1.13 2.25 Lanthanum 17.7 12.1 14.6 13.5 8.55 12.9 Samarium 4.00 2.39 2.75 2.76 1.39 2.12 Arsenic 4.32 10.1 5.08 5.23 5.79 2.12 Sodium (%) 2.12 1.76 1.86 2.45 1.54 2.32 Bromine 3.77 3.28 1.92 3.98 2.57 2.54 Uranium 2.52 1.87 1.55 1.90 1.39 1.3 Potassium (%) 2.65 1.90 2.03 1.65 1.95 2.18 Antimony 0.60 1.88 0.76 0.88 1.20 0.86 Lutetium 0.33 0.245 0.223 0.20 0.50 0.24 Chromium 24.5 50.9 34.3
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The Earliest Inhabitants
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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 and 56: ivalves. Single gastropod valves we
Page 57: 40 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS Taí
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
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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
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Porro, A. 1994. Social organization
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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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