The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

Plain may have played a role in the economic network of the time. The analysis
of the shells from Chancery Hall revealed a definite concentration of certain
species, which may be typical of inland sites as opposed to coastal sites
such as Rodney’s House. Further study (coupled with an examination of vertebrate
remains) at other sites in the area may reveal interesting local variations
in the Taíno patterns of faunal exploitation. There are indications that
certain molluscs may have been over-collected, leading to a lasting diminution
of the natural populations. Neutron activation analysis of selected potsherds
showed that they possessed a significant degree of homogeneity, perhaps suggestive
of a single clay source. We intend to follow up with further studies on
possible clay sources, and also with an approach using X-ray fluorescence,
before drawing definitive conclusions. The likelihood of raw-material
exchange is demonstrated for the area by evidence of exploitation, or at least
collection, of galena at the Hope Mine, and study of the petrography of the
celts found at the sites would undoubtedly also reveal much about source
materials (Roobol and Lee 1976, reprinted in this volume). This study is
hence not an end but a beginning to what it is hoped will be a larger work.
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to Mrs Margaret Hodges and Mr Michael Gardner for showing us the
sites on Plantation Heights and Long Mountain, and to the Jamaica Defence Force
for their permission to visit Rodney’s House. For help in the excavation at Chancery
Hall in 1998, thanks go to Dr Rob Young and Dr Jane Webster of the University of
Leicester, to Dr Silvia Kouwenberg and Ms Susan Chung of the University of the
West Indies, who participated in the work, and to Mr Tony Gouldwell of the
University of Leicester, who studied and presented a report on some of the finds. Mr
John Wilman provided information about the excavations at Bellevue and Rodney’s
House, Mr Douglas Aitken kindly showed us his collection from Ivor, and Professor
Maureen Warner-Lewis told us about the finds made at her property near Mona
Great House. We are also grateful to Dr James Lee, who indicated on the map the
precise locations of some of the sites that he investigated or relocated from the 1960s
onwards.
44 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS