The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

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Figure 5.2 Road cutting through a portion of the Toby Abbott Taíno site South Coast Sustainable Development Study This study was undertaken by a team led by Sir William Halcrow and Partners to ascertain the feasibility of development along the south coast of Jamaica. The south coast is home to some of the least developed sections of the country and is considered “ripe for infrastructural development”. It is also home to numerous historic and archaeological sites in the island, including many Taíno sites. Technical reports were prepared for the following areas: terrestrial resources, environmental audit and issues, marine resources, hydrology, geology and natural hazards, land use and planning, physical infrastructure, tourism, agriculture and aquaculture, socio-economic review, legal and institutional, and framework and cultural heritage. A total of sixty-four Taíno sites, including villages, middens, burial/ritual caves and cave art sites, were identified in the study area, which ranges from Great Salt Pond, St Catherine, to the Negril Green Island, Westmoreland. The study area encompasses sections of the parishes of Westmoreland (five sites), St Elizabeth (nineteen sites), Manchester (fourteen sites), Clarendon (eighteen sites) and St Catherine (eight sites). The Impact of Housing Developments A great deal of land in Jamaica is allocated to housing developments, affecting archaeological sites throughout the island. Numerous houses have been built in the archaeologically sensitive Bluefields area of Westmoreland. The Taínos settled in locations that could be described as “prime settlement areas”. T HE I MPACT OF L AND-BASED D EVELOPMENT ON TAÍNO A RCHAEOLOGY IN J AMAICA 81
Later on the Spanish settled in these areas, followed by the English (for instance, Seville and Bellevue sites in St Ann). The majority of these areas have been selected for housing development. The cases of Chancery Hall and Long Mountain, both in St Andrew, illustrate the impact of housing development on Taíno sites. Chancery Hall Phase Two, St Andrew The subcontractors for the Chancery Hall Phase Two housing development discovered the Chancery Hall Taíno site (Figure 5.3) in St Andrew in 1990, during drilling and blasting for the construction of roadways and pipe trenches. People who dealt with antiques reported that whole pots were recovered from the site, along with a well-preserved stone axe and a stone arrow point. A pot containing bones was also located. Seven burials were found at the Chancery Hall site. In 1993, archaeologist Carey McDonald of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust visited the site and noted that it appeared to be a “major Amerindian site” (McDonald 1993). All but one of the middens had been dug unprofessionally. The archaeologist noted three areas: • Area 1 – Three middens were located (one extensive and two moderate). • Area 2 – This area was extensively cleared (topsoil clearing and extensive trenching) Three extensive middens were located. McDonald also noted that the contextual pattern of the soil might have been destroyed because of the tractor clearance of the land. • Area 3 – This area was located along Lord Nelson’s Drive, where tractors had exposed a large midden. Coney jawbones, flint, griddle fragments and potsherds were evident from this clearing. In 1994, archaeologists from the Jamaica National Heritage Trust visited the site again, seeking information about the site boundaries and who was responsible for the current structural development, as the Jamaica National Heritage Trust had not received formal notification about the development project. The site was examined further and excavated. This examination revealed that a house was to be built in an area that had previously been identified as an archaeologically sensitive area. Another part of the site had been almost completely destroyed by treasure hunters and looters. Layers of topsoil had been removed by earth-moving equipment. Roads had been cut, and preparations were being made for housing construction. There was also extensive trenching in the area where the Taíno skeletons had been located. Chancery Hall is a major Taíno site which has yielded large quantities of artefacts. Radiocarbon dating of the site in 1992 had placed it at AD 1260 ± 50. 82 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
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Introduction IN JAMAICA, THE indige
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encounter the term Arawaks used to
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90. Long Acre Point 91. Long Mounta
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ical publication in Jamaica. Geolog
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collections. Knowledge of the prove
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Section 1 Assessment and Excavation
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objective by using a frame of refer
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16 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS two
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18 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS fact
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20 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS the
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22 T HE E ARLIEST I NHABITANTS deco
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Howard (1965) recognized that Redwa
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people making Ostionan (Redware) po
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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 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: Figure 5.1 Road cutting through 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
Page 118 and 119: of Long Mountain”, Andreas Oberli
Page 120 and 121: Figure 7.3 William Keegan explainin
Page 122 and 123: cedar (Cedrela odorata), santa mari
Page 124 and 125: According to Rouse, the density of
Page 126 and 127: 17), grows abundantly on the island
Page 128 and 129: Incidental Dispersal The plant comp
Page 130 and 131: 8 Early Arawak Subsistence Strategi
Page 132 and 133: and bagged by level. In April of 19
Page 134 and 135: Table 8.1 Significant Vertebrate an
Page 136 and 137: tory and habitat preferences. Follo
Page 138 and 139: Changing Subsistence Strategies The
Page 140 and 141: Table 8.2 Faunal Comparisons: Per c
Page 142 and 143: Appendix Table 8.3 Rodney’s House
Page 144 and 145: Table 8.3 Rodney’s House Faunal L
Page 146 and 147: 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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