The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

66 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS
Survival of arthropod exoskeletons normally depends on either desiccation
or anaerobic waterlogging, neither of which condition seems to apply
here. The remains of insects and other arthropods seldom survive as articulated,
complete specimens. In the present case, such finds were predominantly
of disarticulated units of chitinous exoskeleton, with the notable exception of
the substantial part of an earwig and an articulated leg of a probable beetle.
This suggests – particularly in such a small sample, and in the light of root
penetration and the oxidation status of the sediment – that much of the insect
fauna represents recent intrusion. In a larger sample, it might be possible to
recognize a continuum through states of preservation, with recent additions
being in near-perfect condition and the oldest specimens showing advanced
decay.
Shells of small terrestrial molluscs are assumed to have arrived there more
or less naturally, being too small to have been gathered intentionally. The concentration
of larger shells, both terrestrial and marine, on the other hand, can
most easily be explained as the result of intentional gathering for food. This
also applies to the presence of bones of fish and hutia. Most of the marine
shells span a size range that one might expect for molluscs harvested for
human consumption, but there are also some very small specimens.
Charcoal in the present context is probably indicative of fuel for cooking,
and a few fragments of bone show signs of burning. It might be interesting to
obtain identifications of the woody species present in order to compare with
present vegetation. Use of particular species for fuel can be a matter of definite
choice rather than random collection (Prior and Tuohy 1987).
Only a small quantity of bone showed signs of burning, so combustion
must have been part of the cooking process or a source of nighttime light and
warmth, rather than a means of waste disposal.
Fish must have been brought to the site intentionally, presumably to be
eaten, and filleted before consumption, as there is no evidence of chewing or
of etching by digestive juices (hydrochloric acid).
Apart from bats, there is one surviving species of native mammal in
Jamaica, a local species of hutia, Geocapromys brownii. The most economical
interpretation is that the mammalian bone is all of hutia.
The remains were mostly broken up, and there may have been scavenging
by dogs, though the bones are too small to show convincing tooth marks. It
may be just possible that reptilian bones, such as those of iguana, were present
and not recognized, given the fragmented nature of much of the assemblage,
but teeth, characteristically durable parts, were all identifiable as
mammalian, apart from the few fragments of mouth-parts of fish.
Statistics have been calculated to measure the usefulness of a range of sample
sizes (Van der Veen and Fieller 1982). The present sample serves to pro-