Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Principal Excavated Sites in Jamaica / 179
visited the site in 1984 when it was being cleared to plant coconuts. “Luckily,
very little damage was done to the midden deposits, and coconut trees on 25
foot spacing will cause minimal long term damage to the site.” One net sinker
of hard gray sandstone was illustrated.
Relying upon an account given by Fernandez de Oviedo, Padrón (1952:42)
referred to “el Puerto de Guayguata,” which was west of “el Puerto de Anton.”
He also listed the “Rio Agua Alta” and equated it with the Wagwater River
(Padrón 1952:Map, Hatos y Ríos). Yates and Thompson (1959–1960) commented
that the name Wagwater is a corruption of Guayguata, “a name which
the Arawaks gave to the present Annotto Bay.” Randel (1960) accepted the
derivation of Wagwater from Agua Alta, but Cassidy (1988) followed that given
by Yates and Thompson, commenting that “Guai- is a common first element
in many Indian tribal names of the Caribbean and South America.” It seems
therefore that (while there may be two opinions about the authenticity of Agua
Alta) the name Guayguata is closely associated with Annotto Bay. Lee took up
this idea when he identified the site of Coleraine with Guayguata. It is possible,
however, that the name refers to a district rather than a specific site. This
clearly was Father Osborne’s view, since in relation to Iter Boreale (Y14) he remarked
that it formed part of an “extensive Indian complex which once ringed
the whole of Annotto Bay and was named Guayguata” (Osborne 1973).
Using Lee’s map as a guideline, the site was excavated by the joint UWI–
Murray State University team in 2003. Five trenches were dug in two areas
(A and B) but only two proved to be really productive. These were adjacent
trenches 6–8S 7–8W and 4.5–6S 6–7W, taken to a maximum depth of 50 cm,
containing abundant midden material throughout. There were several unusual
objects near the base, including a ground stone chisel, a large conch shell hook,
and a conch shell celt. Unfortunately, there were signs of agricultural disturbance
at the site, and these were reflected in three recent radiocarbon dates. The
only radiocarbon date indicative of the prehistoric occupation came from the
base of trench 4.5–6S 6–7W as follows: Beta-182412 790 ± 70 b.p., equivalent
to a calibrated period in the range ca. a.d. 1190–1280. This is not out of
line with the other sites in the area. The existence of some agricultural disturbance
is also suggested by the recovery of two pig bones from one of the other
trenches.
Lisabeth Carlson (2004) analyzed the fauna. As noticed during the excavation,
human remains were present, and Carlson precisely catalogued these. One
hundred eighty- eight fragments all came from the two major trenches, the majority
being concentrated at 5–6S 6–7W. There was a minimum of two indi-