Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

98 / Chapter 7.
Figure 6). The authors commented however that two of these dates did not fit
the sequence on stratigraphic grounds. Y-1119, 40–50 in below the surface of
midden 3, was “so recent as to suggest contamination,” and Y-1755 for burial
2 in trench B was also considered to be “too recent.” If, to be on the safe side,
these dates are excluded, that leaves a total of nine dates from this site. Charcoal
from Father Osborne’s excavations at Bengal produced a radiocarbon date
that is quoted by Vanderwal (1968a:136) although it is not known from where
exactly it came. Three dates were likewise obtained from Father Osborne’s excavations
at Cinnamon Hill (AJ 1981, 2:8) but once again there is a contradiction
between the date for the burial and the date on charcoal from the same
level, and it seems prudent not to rely on the date for the burial. A charcoal
sample from Chancery Hall was obtained by G. P. Lechler at the boundary between
lots 340 and 339 (Lechler 2000) and the date on charcoal from Sweetwater
is as quoted by Keegan and colleagues (2003). As mentioned in Chapter
2, there are two radiocarbon dates for the male figure and the bird figure
recovered from Aboukir in 1992. These dates, accelerator mass spectrometry
(AMS) determinations on the wood of the figures themselves, were obtained by
Marijn Manuels on behalf of the National Gallery of Jamaica (Manuels 2001).
The seven further dates judged to be reliable from sites other than White Marl
brings the grand total to 16. With regard to the Redware sites, a radiocarbon
date on charcoal from Bottom Bay was obtained by Vanderwal thanks to his
excavations there in 1966 (AJ 1967, 8:3) and the date on shell from Paradise is
again as quoted by Keegan and colleagues (2003).
The 16 dates for White Marl and comparable sites are set out in Table 6.
The laboratory number (where known) is listed on the left followed by the age
in radiocarbon years b.p. (before present) expressed as a mean and standard deviation.
It is known now however that these dates cannot be simply translated
into a.d. equivalents by subtracting them from 1950 (the radiocarbon conventional
present) since radiocarbon years and calendar years are not exactly the
same. Various calibration programs exist for the conversion of one to the other.
The radiocarbon calibration program used here is the one devised by M. Stuiver
and P. J. Reimer and is CALIB version 4.4. The equivalents for these radiocarbon
dates using this program were worked out by Kit Wesler, and thanks go
to him for this. In this CALIB version, the dates are expressed as ranges (rather
than simple intercepts) with probability estimates attached. Probabilities can
be expressed either as one or two standard deviations. The decision has been
taken here to use one standard deviation and to make sure that the relative area
under the probability distribution is always high. The calibrated range is given