Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

122 / Chapter 9.
Figure 30. Identified animal bones in the Lee Collection.
tions from the first two sites are not particularly revealing, but attention should
be drawn to Belle Air. The material from this site includes six goat bones, one
mandible, and five post- cranial bones, including three complete tibiae, indicating
the presence of at least two individuals. This might be dismissed as the
usual postconquest admixture (and indeed goats could at any time have fallen
into the cave) were it not for the statement of James Lee (1992) that in the largest
bowl he found in situ, “a small sheep skull had been set, suggesting that the
cave was used for burials during the contact period.” The sheep skull itself is
not in the collection.
The mollusks in the Lee Collection were identified by Simon Mitchell, whose
report is on the CD- ROM. The same limitations as above apply. There are
1,221 identified specimens from 132 sites. Of these, 943 are marine gastropods
and bivalves, representing 68 species. Commonest among these are Strombus
gigas and Codakia orbicularis, while Pleurodonts dominate among the terrestrial
gastropods. This, however, is no more than a grab sample. Tables setting out the
numbers for both animals and mollusks are at Figures 30 and 31.