Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Excavated Sites and Fauna / 119
Table 11. Terrestrial and Marine Shells from Cinnamon Hill and Bellevue.
bivalves. She was at pains to emphasize (Scudder 1991:299, 302) that the counts
were made on the basis of fragments only, not MNI, since (even though they
were counted as two to one) it was not possible to tell whether the marine bivalve
shells came from one or two individuals. Terrestrial or marine gastropods
were unaffected.
The other two sites with analyzed invertebrate fauna do not produce such a
clear contrast. The mollusks from Cinnamon Hill (J10) were studied by James
Lee (AJ 1976, 1) (Appendix 28). Those from Bellevue–Mannings Hill (K13)
were analyzed separately for 1974–1975 and 1976–1977 by C. W. Medhurst
(AJ 1977, 1:8–9; 1977, 3:4, 8–9). In 1974–1975, ten “random samples” were
taken from layers 2 and 3 in squares A1–5. “Allowance was made for bivalves,
the two valves counting as one shell.” In 1976–1977, “representative samples”
were set aside from each excavated square. The results in terms of terrestrial and
marine species are shown in Table 11.
At Cinnamon Hill, Lee identified 11 marine and six terrestrial species. The
marine species are dominated by Codakia orbicularis and Arcopagia fausta,
while the terrestrial species are mainly Pleurodonts. He noted that there was a
“swing” from marine species dominance in the lower level to that of terrestrial
species in the upper level. Medhurst noted the same tendency when comparing
the results for layers 2 and 3 at Bellevue in 1974–1975. There was a dominance
of marine species in the second phase of the excavation, and Medhurst took
this as an indication that it corresponded to the lower layer in A1–5. The first
excavation produced 19 marine species and five terrestrial. The second excavation
produced 27 marine species and (the same) five terrestrial. Taking the two
sets together, the commonest species represented include Melongena melongena,
Neritina piratica, Neritina reclivata, Neritina virginea, Anadara ovalis, Arca zebra,
Chione granulata, Codakia orbicularis, Ostrea frons, and Anadara brasiliana.
All except the last are found at Chancery Hall (K11) and, as in that case, the indications
are that these shells came from what is now Kingston Harbour.
Chancery Hall, however, provides a cautionary tale in more ways than one.