Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Principal Excavated Sites in Jamaica / 169
and by C. Medhurst in April 1979, the fauna from both excavations being analyzed
by Sylvia Scudder.
Medhurst and Wilman variously estimated the area of the site at 1 to 2.6
acres, and they identified six separate middens at the locality (Appendix 24).
Wilman excavated two 5 x 5 ft squares (J1 and K2) in midden 2 in 1978, both
taken to a depth of 1.4 m. In 1979 Medhurst excavated a third square here (K3)
taken to a depth of 1.2 m, and a fourth square (S17) in midden 3 to the northeast,
where the maximum depth was 40 cm. Wilman recorded a large quantity
of ash, but no evidence of sterile soil or marl layers (such as characterize
White Marl [S1]).
Wilman’s excavations produced 370 sherds judged suitable for analysis and
Medhurst’s produced 141. Both excavators remarked that filleted rim sherds
were confined to the top 60 cm of deposit (n = 23 from the two excavations),
and they took this as an indication that Rodney’s House must predate both
White Marl (S1) and Bellevue (K13). Wilman attributed 14 sherds to water
bottles, and in the entire excavation 101 griddle fragments were recovered. The
whole excavation also produced 56 chert flakes and/ or cores, and a number of
other lithic pieces, including some rather uncertainly defined ground stone artifacts,
a pendant, and a disk (Wilman 1978:Appendix G, Figures 1 and 8). Wilman
recovered 165 pieces of broken staghorn coral (Acropora prolifera) many
with signs of wear, and he suggested that these had been fitted into wooden
frames to make scrapers for cassava preparation. A substantial area of flat land,
which would have been suitable for cultivating this crop, was found to the west
of the site.
From squares J1 and K2 Wilman recorded a total of 3,394 marine and
371 terrestrial mollusks (n = 3,765). Later, Medhurst collected a “representative
sample” (n = 604) from square S17 only, which, as he said, showed little
divergence form the previous set. According to Wilman (1978:Appendix C)
there were 46 marine and six or seven terrestrial species. Scudder’s total for
squares J1 and K2 is somewhat higher (n = 4,110) and she adds four more marine
species/ classes (pearl oyster: Pteria, eastern oyster: Crassostrea, barnacles:
Cirripedia, chitons: Polyplacophora), but all accounts agree on what were the
dominant components. These were Arca zebra and imbricata, Donax denticulata,
Chama macerophylla, and Ostrea frons. As Scudder comments, these are all
shallow water bivalves.
The vertebrate and crab fauna analyzed by Scudder is summarized at Table 25.
From all units combined she counted a total of 6,728 bone and crab fragments