Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Cultural Variants / 95
far the only proof that “the Arawaks must have inhabited the Portland coast”
(AJ 1982, 1:7). The parishes with the largest number of sites represented in the
collection are St. Ann, St. Mary, and Clarendon, which in part is a reflection
of the fact that the Montego Bay and Port Morant variants are predominant in
St. James and Trelawny, and St. Thomas, respectively, and there are many Redware
sites in St. Elizabeth.
The collection from White Marl (S1) may be taken as representative in
terms of total statistics and in terms of the Decorative Techniques Table, subject
to the same provisos as were made previously. Altogether the collection includes
735 ceramic pieces, three stone celts, one chert flake, and three other
lithics, as well as a little historic material. There are also two complete vessels,
which serve to illustrate the basic shapes mentioned by Howard: a round restricted
carinate bowl (illustrated at s1v1) and a simple boat- shaped vessel with
a plain filleted rim (illustrated at s1v2). Included in the ceramic pieces, there are
438 rim sherds, 252 body sherds, 104 lugs (both independent and otherwise),
three handles, 18 fragments of griddles, and two other ceramics. The decorated
rim sherds include 122 with plain fillets, two with decorated fillets, and
eight with decorated tops. Incision as a proportion of decorated shoulders and
lugs accounts for 87 percent. One hundred sixty- nine vessel shapes could be reconstructed,
including 116 restricted carinate, 35 restricted simple, seven unrestricted
simple, 10 boat shaped, and one restricted inflected. The material is
illustrated in the CD- ROM at the entry for White Marl (S1.1–25). The characteristics
of the assemblage are also summarized in diagrammatic form in Figure
26. This may be compared with Figure 23 for Fairfield (J3). The difference of
emphasis between the two in terms of decorations on rims, vessel shapes, and
incision as a proportion of decorated shoulders and lugs, is clear, even when allowance
is made for the fact that none of this is excavated material.
Included in the 24 caves that contain material forming part of the Lee Collection
are three of the four remarkable locations described in Chapter 2: Spot
Valley Cave (JC7), Taylor’s Hut (CC15), and Belle Air (AC4) (the fourth, Bull
Savannah #2, being listed at least provisionally as a Redware site). These three
caves contain no less than 16 complete vessels (illustrated at jc7v1, cc15v1–11,
and ac4v1–4). As mentioned already, this compares with a total of 36 such vessels
in the collection. One more comes from a cave (High Dome Cave CC8)
but the remaining 19 are from open- air sites, in particular from Round Hill
(C1) with eight vessels (illustrated at c1v1–8). Spot Valley Cave also contained
the remains of a massive water jar (illustrated at JC7.7) and Taylor’s Hut pro-