Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Principal Excavated Sites in Jamaica / 165
Table 17. Radiocarbon Dates for Trench A at White Marl.
Table 18. Radiocarbon Dates for Trench B at White Marl.
in earlier years. The stratified deposits in the middens were more than 7 ft
deep. Three burials were discovered in trench B. (1) A 2- to 4- year- old child
burial flexed at a depth of 58 inches in square 12 F. (2) An adult burial, also
flexed, at a depth of 59 inches in squares 13 F–G. Probably male, without grave
goods. (3) An adult burial, again flexed, at the same depth in square 13 G. Either
a young woman or an adolescent. “A plain round vessel was placed with
the body.” “The profile on the trench wall of the excavation in which burial 3
was found shows that the body was interred in a very shallow pit, about 9–10″
deep, which was covered with midden refuse.”
Eight radiocarbon dates for trenches A (Table 17) and B (Table 18) were reported
by Silverberg and colleagues (1972).
As Silverberg and colleagues pointed out, the dates for the two squares 6´
N and 6´ M in this trench are quite consistent, “giving a time span from about
AD 1200 [probably earlier, for the deepest deposit is not dated] to the time of
contact or perhaps slightly before it.” The calibrated date range for trench A is
ca. a.d. 1240–1525.
The dates for stratigraphic levels IV and IX (where level XII was the deepest)
are again consistent, and not out of line with those for trench A. However, as
Silverberg and colleagues pointed out, the dates for the two burials do not agree
with each other, “although the pit bottoms of each are at the same depth, level
IX.” Burial 3 is at about the time expected for this level, but “Burial 2 seems
much too recent” (Silverberg et al. 1972:41). If Y-1755 is again excluded, the
calibrated date range for trench B is ca. a.d. 1160–1390.
(3) Vanderwal, 1965–1968. The information about these excavations is