Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Burials and Human Remains / 125
Bluff was recorded as a burial site as far back as 1855, and three or four skulls
were obtained, as well as one that was reported on by Flower in 1890 (Duerden
1897:22). From a “deep cave” on Great Goat Island, a “perfect oval- shaped vessel
with expanded ornamental handles” was found, with “the flattened skull of
a young individual” inside it (Duerden 1897:Plate V, Figure 5). Duerden’s account
therefore clearly documented the practice of secondary burial (particularly
of skulls) at these sites. A number of them also contained funerary goods
of various kinds.
Following this initial burst of interest there was a long hiatus, until after
the Second World War. In 1946, according to Howard (1950), C. B. Lewis
investigated another cave at Cambridge Hill, which was apparently adjacent
to but not identical with the one mentioned by Duerden. The remains of at
least 40 individuals were recovered, as well as several complete pottery vessels,
and a miniature duho made of lignum vitae (Appendix 20). W. F. Harper
(1961–1962) was subsequently able to study 24 of the crania from the site.
“All showed some evidence of having been subjected to intentional deformation,”
although as he added, there is “no clear proof that the practice affected
the brain in any way.” Harper illustrated two adult individuals in which frontal
flattening was marked (Appendixes 32 and 33) and also a young individual
aged 10 to 12 years whose cranium, although only moderately deformed, “exhibited
a number of features resulting from the deformatory process” (Appendixes
34 and 35). The mean cranial capacity of 14 skulls that could be measured
was 1,290 c.c., all being brachycephalic.
James Lee’s discoveries at four cave sites were no less remarkable than those
made at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1968 two skulls, as well as other
bones, teeth, and pottery were recovered from Bull Savannah #2 (EC12). In
1971 a considerable amount of archaeological material was removed from Spot
Valley Cave (JC7), which, as mentioned in Chapter 7, also contains pictographs.
The human remains now in the Lee Collection come from a minimum
number of eight different individuals. In the same year the undisturbed site of
Taylor’s Hut (CC15) was discovered. One intact bowl containing a skull was
found in situ (AJ 1971, 4:6) and there were two other skulls, as well as 11 complete
vessels that are now in the Lee Collection. In 1986 the site of Belle Air
(AC4) produced four complete vessels and the remains of at least six human
skeletons that had been buried in the cave.
The total number of burial caves mapped by Lee and listed here comes to
39 sites. He was not able to relocate some of the sites mentioned by his predecessors,
including certain very well-known ones, and these have been excluded,
unless their coordinates have been given by Fincham (1997), as is the