Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

218 / Appendix D.
[Since this was written, Mr. R. C. MacCormack has discovered a nearly perfect
rib of a manatee in one of the mounds in Vere. It was found at a depth of
about eighteen inches, associated with other bones, shells, fragments of pottery,
and ashes.] The numerous and varied shells are mainly marine species,
and the relative proportions of each in different parts have been already indicated.
Helix acuta and H. jamaicensis occur in such numbers, in association
with the other examples, that their presence in the refuse- heaps can scarcely be
regarded as natural, even though the former is gregarious and very abundant
in the island.
The crabs’ claws are mainly limited to those of the land soldier- crab and the
black crab.
The numerous pieces of vessels nearly all blackened by contact with fire, the
presence of ashes mingled with fragments of charcoal, and occasional burnt
bones and shells are indications that they were accustomed to prepare their
food with fire.
Accounts from the various Spanish writers show that, in addition to this
animal food, the inhabitants of the West Indies were accustomed to cultivate
maize, cassava, sweet potatoes, and that they possessed various other fruits and
roots.
[11]Ling Roth (1887) quotes Benzoni’s full account of the preparation in
Haiti of bread made from maize and from cassava.
Shell- Mounds in Other West Indian Islands
So far as I am aware, no shell- mounds or kitchen- middens of importance have
been described from the other large islands of the Antilles— Cuba, Puerto
Rico, Haiti. In Nature, April 28, 1896, appears a letter from Dr. C. W. Branch,
St. Kitts, describing objects lately found there, the details of which somewhat
resemble the Jamaican relics. Dr. Branch states: “Last year in St. Kitts in a cliff
fresh cut by a wash, a gentleman found what were apparently the contents of
a Carib grave— fragments of pottery, two complete utensils, and pieces of human
bone. . . . This is the first discovery, so far as I can ascertain, of either
bones or pottery in the Leeward Islands. Since then, however, I have found
a kitchen- midden, and procured plenty of small fragments, along with crabclaws,
broken shells, fish bones, etc.” A brief description of the bones and pottery
is given, but the latter, especially in its ornamentation, apparently bears no
resemblance to the Jamaican pottery.
Dr. Branch has since informed me that he has further opened the grave from
which the Carib pottery was taken, and that he found the rest of the skeleton
and a complete skull. The bones were, however, so altered by the action of the
St. Kitts’ earth that they crumbled away upon handling.