Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Principal Excavated Sites in Jamaica / 163
gested that when this portion of the site was leveled prior to the construction of
the building a large part of the midden in this area might have been disturbed
(Vanderwal 1967). He detected signs of reversed stratigraphy that would support
this hypothesis, but there were no such signs north of the road cut. There
were no definite signs of Spanish occupation either, although Tyndale- Biscoe
believed that one of the anthropomorphic lugs discovered by him depicted a
Spaniard, with a straight nose and a beard ( Tyndale- Biscoe 1954:Figure 1).
The last excavations so far were conducted by James St. Clair in 1969 in the
area north of the road cut, adjacent to the “replica of an Arawak Indian village”
that existed then (St. Clair 1970:8).
The entire area of the site originally belonged to the Caymanas Estates.
Slightly over 7 acres of the property, north of the road cut, were donated to the
Jamaica National Trust Commission by Constance Hamilton (which area is
now fenced and owned by the JNHT). Tom Concannon was employed to design
and build the Arawak Museum, which was opened officially in 1965, and
is under the administration of the Institute of Jamaica (du Quesnay 1965b; AJ
1982, 3:20–21). The museum was closed following Hurricane Gilbert in 1988,
and was reopened as the Taíno Museum in 2001.
Further details concerning the results of the excavations are given below.
(1) Tyndale- Biscoe 1952–1954. Tyndale- Biscoe “cut a cross- section right
through the midden,” 25 ft long and up to 8 ft deep. The trench was still visible
in 1961 (Howard and Lewis 1961–1962:61) but it was not recorded on
any plan. According to Tyndale- Biscoe (1954:124) the stratigraphy (to a total
depth of 5 ft 3 in) was as follows.
(1) 2 ft: Surface soil with a certain amount of potsherds and other midden
material
(2) 6 in: Pure soft marl
(3) 2 ft: Pure midden material
(4) 6 in: Marl with slight traces of midden material
(5) 3 in: A stratum very prolific of animal, bird, and fish bones and crab
claws, embedded in ashes. A few undecorated potsherds.
(6) Natural earth
Tyndale- Biscoe had no explanation for the marl layers, except that perhaps “the
site was abandoned for some time and the marl was washed over it.”
(2) Howard, 1958, 1961, 1963, 1964. In his first three seasons, Howard excavated
three middens to a depth of about 5 ft, and also a larger area between