The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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Conclusion This site is one of many circling the Liguanea Plain – Smokey Vale, Belvedere, Norbrook Gully, Skyline Drive, Wareika Hill and Harbour View. It is anticipated that more will be done to extract information from the Chancery Hall site before it is too late. II. Jamaica National Heritage Trust Excavations in 1996 In view of the potential that the site clearly possesses and the threat posed to it by development in the area, the Jamaica National Heritage Trust undertook excavations at Chancery Hall in the period from 17 June to 2 July 1996. Mr Selvenious Walters (field coordinator) conducted the excavations under the overall supervision of Mr Roderick Ebanks (technical director and project coordinator) and with the participation of Ms Evelyn Thompson (acting deputy technical director and conservator). Other Jamaica National Heritage Trust members who took part were Ms Dorothy Griffiths, Mr Clifton McKen, Mr Ricardo Tyndall, Mr Ryan Murphy, and Mr R. Talbot. Two volunteers, Mr K. Farmer and Ms K. Redwood, accompanied them. The objective was to obtain a general idea of the site by putting down preliminary test pits in some of the lots scheduled for development immediately north and south of Horatio Drive. In itself, this area is no more than a fraction of the site as it originally existed, but it is the area from which Mr George Lechler and his associates rescued some of the most significant finds. Six 1-m 2 test pits were dug, five in lots 340, 339 and 338 (north of Horatio Drive) and one in lot 308 (south of Horatio Drive). The arrangement of the test pits is shown in Figure 3.4. The maximum depth of deposit in test pit 1 was 90 cm and in test pit 3 was 110 cm, whereas the others varied between 40 and 60 cm. All the pits were dug in horizontal 10-cm levels. A few historic artefacts (mostly glass bottles) were encountered near the surface in test pits 2, 4 and 5, but the overwhelming bulk of the material was pre-Columbian. Individual details of the excavated test pits follow. Test Pit 1 Depth 90 cm. The most significant feature here was the discovery of human bones at a depth of 59–71 cm in the southeast corner of the pit. They were T HE P RE-COLUMBIAN S ITE OF C HANCERY H ALL,ST A NDREW 51
Figure 3.4 JNHT excavations at Chancery Hall. (Illustration by Selvenious Walters.) preserved upon a pedestal as excavation elsewhere proceeded to what was believed to be an archaeologically sterile horizon at the base. The human remains include a skull with mandible and teeth, and limb bones. But what was found was evidently not the entire skeleton. The remainder extended eastwards and southwards into the side of the pit. Conservation measures were undertaken on the spot, but no attempt was made to lift the bones, in view of the fact that part of the skeleton still remained buried. A further excavation would be needed to complete this operation, if it were felt to be desirable. On the basis of what was observed, it can be concluded that this was a deliberate burial. If the body had merely been left on the ground to decompose, the bones would have been more scattered than they were. In fact, they 52 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS
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The Earliest Inhabitants
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University of the West Indies Press
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Contents List of Illustrations / ix
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Illustrations A.1 Map of the sites
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13.2 Petroglyphs from Coventry and
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Preface I HAVE ALWAYS been fascinat
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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 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: chipped away. It is believed that t
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
Page 108 and 109: Soils Several different soil types
Page 110 and 111: Shoreline On the north coast, there
Page 112 and 113: well established, especially in dis
Page 114 and 115: 7 The Exploitation and Transformati
Page 116 and 117: 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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