The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas Volume I, II, and III

Archaeology of the Caribbean Region 697
The West Indies
Regional developments characterized the surviving Archaic Casimiroid
cultures during much of the period between 1500 and 500 B.C.E., until
they were replaced by Ceramic Age peoples. The period nonetheless
witnessed the first peopling of Puerto Rico and possibly also some of the
Lesser Antilles south of Antigua.
The Coroso culture of Puerto Rico may have appeared by 1000 B.C.E.
It boasts a few artifacts from cave or shell midden sites, such as Cayo
Cofresi; simple tools include edge grinders as well as some conical pestles
and crude flakes and choppers. Lacking a fine-blade technology, the
Coroso were influenced by their Casimiroid neighbors in Hispaniola,
judging by their decorated pendants and pieces of stone bowls. Despite
the lack of good diagnostic artifacts, archaeologists tentatively may assign
them an Ortoiroid connection suggestive of a Trinidad origin, despite
much evidence still missing from the Lesser Antilles.
As in the Greater Antilles, some diversity in artifact types still hampers
attempts at more precise cultural classifications. The Virgin Islands, for
instance, immediately east of Puerto Rico, are best represented by the
Krum Bay culture and its distinctive chipped and ground celt blades,
unique to the region. Other sites have revealed edge grinders similar to
those of the Coroso in Puerto Rico. An Ortoiroid context may even be
more speculative in their case. This only illustrates how blurred the Lesser
Antilles route still appears when trying to trace the origins of Archaic
cultures in the West Indies.
Within the Lesser Antilles, well beyond the Virgin Islands, the Jolly
Beach culture in Antigua (c. 2000 B.C.E.) seems to have taken advantage
of rich supplies of flint deposits on its beaches for developing a bladeand-flake
technology that is reminiscent of Casimiroid remains. Ground
stone artifacts have been found, but no shell gouges. South of Antigua,
the Windward Islands are the major population area. The only known
Archaic sites between Antigua and Trinidad have been found in the
interior hills of Martinique; this Boutbois culture is undated, but it
includes the typical inventory of edge grinders, crude flakes,and grinding
surfaces usually associated with other edge-grinder sites in Puerto Rico,
Trinidad, Venezuela, and even Panama. Could this be the missing link
in the Ortoiroid expansion toward the West Indies, if indeed such was
ever the case?
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