Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Principal Excavated Sites in Jamaica / 141
dard definition, based on the remaining 26 sherds, are as follows. Vessel shapes
were tentatively identified as oval, boat- shaped, and hemispherical. Some open
bowls had flat bottoms. “The bodies of the vessels rise fairly straight or turn inward
slightly at the shoulder” (de Wolf 1953:Figure 85). Five handles were described
as either D- shaped or looped (i.e., rising above the rim of the vessel).
One lug was described as being “lightly incised with three radiating lines” and
“flecks of red paint near the edge” (de Wolf 1953:Figure 86j). “The other main
form of decoration consists of paint and rubbing applied to areas of the vessel
surface.” Eight sherds were painted, seven red and one yellow. “Rubbing gives
the sherds a dull mat finish.” Comparisons were made to the Cuevas and early
Ostiones styles in Puerto Rico. “The contrast between Jamaican Meillac and
Little River is sharp.” The implication was that there had been a diffusion of
the Little River style from Puerto Rico to Jamaica.
References: AJ 1965, 3:1; 1968, 5:1; 1976, 1:10; 1976, 2:1–2; 1979, 1:1;
1980, 2:3; 1984, 3:30; de Wolf 1953:231–234; Vanderwal 1968a:94, 96, 97.
Windsor (A19)
M. de Wolf excavated this site in 1933. It was then the property of A. C. Goff,
who at that time ran a small hotel in the vicinity of Fort Windsor, a rectangular
earth work and trench that, according to de Wolf, was built by the British in
1803. The location is described as being on a hill overlooking the sea about a
mile inland and half a mile east of St. Ann’s Bay. Middens are reported to have
covered “several acres” and had not previously been excavated. Captain Cotter
mentioned some middens to Howard (1950); as de Wolf says (1953) these may
be the same middens, but if so the location was not given correctly.
According to her account, M. de Wolf carried out a “partial excavation” of a
midden on the western brow of the hill. “No stratigraphical record of finds and
no mapping was done. Potsherds were frequently encountered near the ashes
of former fires. Shells were abundant and bones and worked stones were present.
Of the potsherds found about 5% (28 specimens) were collected.” One of
these was from a griddle. The analysis of the remaining pieces, published 20
years after the excavation (1953), was conducted in the light of R. R. Howard’s
thesis (1950) and employed some of his analytical categories. Thus it was found
that as a whole the site could be classified as belonging to his “Montego Bay
sub- style.” Of 17 rim sherds, 14 were “reinforced in typical Meillac fashion.”
Eight incised sherds were regarded as crucial for the classification, four incised
on the rim area (corresponding to a “reinforced” fillet, to judge from the illus-