Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

11 / Conclusion
Arising from what has been said in the preceding chapters, there are perhaps
some points that deserve reemphasizing. Clearly, the Lee Collection represents
an invaluable source for reconstructing the Pre- Columbian settlement of the island.
But what we have here is a framework to which new things are being and
can be added. Certainly new sites will be discovered, and with careful excavation
the chronology, the local variations, and the lifestyle of the inhabitants will
become better known. Patterns will begin to emerge. Already at Rio Nuevo it
has been shown that there are layers of marl within the site, so White Marl is
no longer unique in that respect, and from studies in the immediate vicinity
it is clear that the larger sites that we know had many smaller previously unknown
ones clustered around them. Hence the distribution pattern given here
will be modified considerably in years to come. At Paradise Park, environmentally
centered excavations and analyses have pointed the way to interpretations
that are not wholly or even mainly culture- historically oriented. In the Annotto
Bay area, detailed excavations have produced dating evidence and stratigraphic
profiles (as well as information regarding subsistence and human burials) that
may act as a model for further investigations of this sort. Above all, publication
of data such as this is needed, so that Jamaica can take its rightful place as a full
part of the Caribbean prehistoric story, and the vigorous scholarly discourse
that characterizes the study of the prehistoric past in other parts of the Caribbean
can extend to these shores also. There is no lack of material that could prevent
this happening, but with development threatening to destroy many sites,
time may also not be on our side. This is abundantly evident in the northwest of