Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Principal Excavated Sites in Jamaica / 149
lands. According to him, the site was largely destroyed in the 1930s by the
country club’s building and landscaping activities. Large quantities of pottery
were recovered at that time, and deposited in the Institute of Jamaica, but they
were subsequently lost. This must have happened after they were studied by
Howard, who described the pottery as “quite distinctive from the usual Jamaican
ware.” Mapped by Lee around 1967. In 1970 by careful excavation he recovered
“almost intact” a bowl of Montego Bay style, 18 cm in diameter, which
had been exposed at a road edge.
More extensively excavated by Vanderwal in 1966. In that year (with three
assistants) he excavated what he described as one remaining “practically intact”
midden, by digging five contiguous 3 x 3 ft test pits on a talus slope. The stratigraphy
below the overburden was said to be undisturbed, and sterile soil was
reached at a depth of about 3 ft. Originally, in his estimation, the midden may
have been up to 5 or more feet deep, since the top part of it had been removed.
Three distinct cultural layers, in addition to the overburden, were defined, including
two upper ones of ash, separated by a layer of sterile marl, and a basal
layer. Dominant bivalves were Pinctada and Isognomon, conchs were also quite
common (Strombus pugilis and raninus).
The excavated material from Fairfield (divided into units H, A- I, and A- II)
was used by Vanderwal as a stratigraphic support for his seriation of the sites
on the north coast (Vanderwal 1968a:Figure 7), in addition to the excavated
material from Bengal (A8) and Hartfield (J1). This material, regarded as representative
of the Montego Bay style, has been reexamined by P. Allsworth- Jones,
Michele Bogle- Douglas, and Kit Wesler, who submitted a report on it to the
21st International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology, meeting in Trinidad
in 2005. Excavations at the site in 2006, conducted by P. Allsworth- Jones and
I. Conolley, revealed intact deposits, so it would be premature to regard the site
as completely destroyed.
References: AJ 1967, 12:1; 1970, 2:1; 1982, 1:6; Cundall 1939:19; Howard
1950:57–58; Vanderwal 1968a:50–53 and Figure 7
Cinnamon Hill (J10)
Located and mapped by Lee in 1967. Excavated by Father Osborne in 1974.
As described by Lee, “This is a typical hilltop village with the midden material
principally on the peripheral slopes just beyond the edge of the flattish area at
the top of the hill.” The maximum depth of deposit recorded by him was 29 in,
and he estimated that the hilltop and adjacent slopes containing midden material
occupied an area of about 1.5 acres.