Crossing the Borders: New Methods and Techniques in the Study of Archaeological Materials from the Caribbean

14
New Evidence of Two
Different Migratory Waves in
the Circum- Caribbean Area
during the Pre- Columbian Period
from the Analysis of Dental
Morphological Traits
Alfredo Coppa, Andrea Cucina, Menno L. P. Hoogland, Michaela Lucci,
Fernando Luna Calderón, Raphaël G. A. M. Panhuysen, Glenis Tavarez
María, Roberto Valcárcel Rojas, and Rita Vargiu
Introduction
The circum- Caribbean area is formed by the southeastern part of the Mesoamerican
continent, the northern part of South America, the archipelagos of the Bahamas,
Florida, and the Greater and the Lesser Antilles (Figure 14.1). The ocean
and the Caribbean Sea represented a way of communication, rather than a barrier,
that allowed population movements and the interaction among the various groups
(Watters 1997c; Watters and Rouse 1989).
The early human migrations into the Caribbean, documented so far only by
the archaeological evidence, started around the fourth millennium b.c. (Rouse
1992; Rouse and Allaire 1978) and are thought to have originated from the Mesoamerican
realm along the coasts of Belize (Veloz Maggiolo 1980; Veloz Maggiolo
and Ortega 1976; Wilson et al. 1998).
The first migratory waves from South America led the aceramic Ortoiroids
into the area around the second millennium b.c. (Veloz Maggiolo and Ortega
1976). Later, the Saladoids (the name comes from the site of Saladero in Venezuela;
Siegel 1989) migrating from the Orinoco Valley introduced pottery and agriculture
around 500 b.c.. This population rapidly expanded northward through
the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico up to Hispaniola. The process lasted about
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