Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Cultural Variants / 101
Table 8. Calibrated Age Dispersion Figures for Annotto Bay and White Marl.
are all employed to give an overall impression of where the weight of the data
lies. Setting the median dates for the two data sets out in order, the following
comparison, seen in Table 8, can be achieved for the White Marl set and the
Annotto Bay set respectively.
The results are set out in diagrammatic form in Figure 27. It can be seen that
the Annotto Bay set starts and finishes somewhat later than the White Marl
set. The medians are very close, but there is a much tighter interquartile range
for the White Marl set: 110.5 years as distinct from 240.5 in the case of Annotto
Bay.
The published radiocarbon date for Bottom Bay is Y-1987 1300 ± 120 b.p.,
whereas the measured radiocarbon date for Paradise (Wes15a) is Beta-125832
1180 ± 60 b.p.. Using the CALIB program version 4.4 as above, the calibrated
ranges for these two dates are respectively a.d. 645–879 and a.d. 777–898.
(Using a different calibration program, the latter date range has been published
at two standard deviations as a.d. 710–990; Keegan et al. 2003.) It
has commonly been asserted that the first occupation of Jamaica goes back to
a.d. 650 on the basis of a direct conversion of the result from Bottom Bay (Lee
1980). More samples and greater precision are required in relation to the Redware
occupation of Jamaica, but for the moment (even with the calibrated results
as they are) one can say that there still appears to be a chronological gap
between this occupation and the beginning of the White Marl phase, as Lee
suggested.
Summary
The 265 sites recorded in the Lee Collection may be divided into four cultural
variants and by type of site, as shown in Table 9.
To these may be added the two new sites excavated at Paradise Park, one of
which is attributed to the Redware and the other to the Montego Bay variant.
Aboukir, like the majority of the caves, is regarded as belonging to the White