Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

130 / Chapter 10.
dent in the affected areas. Radiological and CT examination shows that they
spread throughout the diploe, producing an irregular surface. These pathological
features indicate that the individual suffered from a treponemal disease,
presumably syphilis. Intensive efforts were therefore made to date this
specimen. Three radiocarbon dates have been obtained on two small pieces cut
from the right occipital bone at the Oxford University radiocarbon laboratory
as follows: 1101 ± 27 b.p. (OxA-12995), 1123 ± 25 b.p. (OxA-13614), and
1069 ± 23 b.p. (OxA-13664). As the laboratory comments, the combined dates
when calibrated at one standard deviation give an estimated age range from
a.d. 900 to 985. In addition, there are four further radiocarbon dates on an
adjacent piece cut from the right occipital bone that were reported by the Beta
Analytic laboratory. Two of these dates are similar to the ones quoted above,
but in addition there are two older ones as follows: 1870 ± 40 b.p. and 2760 ±
40 b.p.. Darden Hood comments that these inconsistent results show that this
particular portion of bone must have been contaminated. There is no sign of
contamination in the samples dated at Oxford.
Quite apart from any question of contamination, a date for the skull older
than a.d. 900–985 is considered unlikely on general grounds, both because it
would be inconsistent with what is otherwise known of the Jamaican archaeological
sequence, and because elsewhere in the Greater Antilles the practice of
artificial skull modification (manifest on this specimen) is unknown before the
first millennium a.d. In Puerto Rico, for example, this is evident on the basis of
the information from Maruca and from Tibes (Curet 2002; Rodríguez 1999).
A date in the range a.d. 900–985 is in any case important for the debate concerning
the origin of treponemal diseases in the Caribbean. It is not possible
to be entirely sure of the Jamaican archaeological context of this specimen. As
noted in the CD- ROM, Lee stated that there were some pottery fragments in
the cave that were “distinctly Redware style but without the red colouring.” But
the Lee Collection includes at least one rim of White Marl type. The calibrated
date range of the three samples from Oxford falls within the earlier part of the
sequence at White Marl itself, and it might therefore be prudent to accept that
as the most likely archaeological correlate of this specimen. Its significance in
a Jamaican and a Caribbean context is undeniable.
Another example of new work being carried out on the island comes from
Somerville cave, where Elizabeth Rega and her colleagues carried out excavations
in 1996–1999 (Rega 2006). This cave is part of the Jackson’s Bay complex
on Portland Ridge in southern Clarendon (Fincham 1997:210–212, 336–
337). The excavations took place in the Entrance Pit on the east, where the