Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

112 / Chapter 9.
Mountain North (K8), and Iter Boreale (Y14). Then there are records of the
excavations at four of the six “new” sites discovered since 1986 (Nanny Town,
Sweetwater and Paradise, and New Seville); so, there are 47 excavated sites
in all.
A few well- known published reports exist, concerning for example Retreat
(A13) (de Booy 1913), Upton (A43) (Wilman 1992–1993), Cinnamon Hill
(J10) (AJ 1976, 1:1–7), Tower Hill (K7) (Bullen and Bullen 1974), Bellevue–
Mannings Hill (K13) (AJ 1976, 3:3–12; 1976, 4:12–23; 1977, 3:1–11), and
Rodney’s House (AJ 1978, 3:1–10; 1980, 4:1–11), and reports on some other
sites, for example Bellevue–White River (A45), do exist in unpublished form
(Dering 1992). It was a tragedy that R. R. Howard’s sudden death in 1965
prevented him from making a full report on the excavations he carried out at
White Marl (S1) between 1958 and 1964. Silverberg, Vanderwal, and Wing
(1972) prepared a posthumous report concerning his excavations in 1964, but
this could not completely fill the gap, and it also has remained unpublished. Attention
has already been drawn to Vanderwal’s continuation of Howard’s work
at White Marl, and his excavations at other sites across the island, and to the
inadequacies of the record in this respect (Vanderwal 1967, 1968a, 1968d).
Although one could no doubt wish for a great deal more, attention should be
drawn to the plans that have been published for some of the excavated sites:
Cinnamon Hill (Appendix 25), Bellevue–Mannings Hill (Appendix 7), White
Marl (Appendix 30), and Rodney’s House (Appendix 24). A feature that is so
far unique in Jamaica is the house foundation that John Wilman and C. W.
Medhurst excavated at Bellevue–Mannings Hill (Appendix 9). Here, a stratigraphy
was published for squares A1–5, in which three successive cultural layers
clearly appeared (Appendix 8). The stratigraphy at White Marl was no doubt
much more complex, but we only have one schematic profile from that site (Appendix
31).
According to Lee (AJ 1970, 4:3–4), Mountain River Cave (SC1) “produced
some potsherds during excavations by Vanderwal near the cave mouth,” and
there is a report concerning excavations at White Marl Cave #1 (SC2) (St. Clair
1970), but in general the caves have not been excavated as such. More often,
the material was just removed from them, albeit with great care in some cases.
This was so at the well- known sites of Halberstadt and Bloxburgh (KC1 and
3) (Duerden 1897), as also at Cambridge Hill (OC1) (Harper 1961–1962;
Howard 1950, 1956), and at certain of the caves investigated by Lee, for example
Taylor’s Hut (CC15) (AJ 1971, 3:1–2, 6; 1973, 3:3), Spot Valley (JC7)
(AJ 1970, 4:2; 1971, 2:2), and Belle Air (AC4) (Lee 1992).