Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

226 / Appendix D.
beads made of a kind of marble; an image of burnt clay, the face of a man with
wings. Coral, oyster shells, and pieces of pottery are thickly strewn about the
ground.”
The calcedony beads are described and figured further on.
The pieces of ornamental pottery are a little different in the character of
their handles from those obtained elsewhere, and appear better burnt.
From information supplied later it appears that the pottery, beads, etc., were
found scattered about and turned up in digging cane holes on a spot distant
about a third of a mile from the sea at West Harbour Creek. Mr. De la Haye
believes there were two Indian families living at a distance of about a quarter
of a mile apart, and that one carried on the trade of bead making and pottery,
the other pottery alone; the reason given being that half hewn bits of stones,
half finished beads, pieces of un-[16]burnt pottery, and an immense quantity
of unfinished utensils were found in one place, while broken pottery alone
was met with in the other. An abundance of marine shells of all descriptions—
oysters, conchs— are scattered about both places, and are similar to those still
living at West Harbour and Bogue Creeks. From this account, further supported
by the specimens at the Museum, there seems no doubt that we have in
Vere refuse- heaps of the aborigines, similar to those more systematically investigated
elsewhere.
Hanover.
This parish is at the extreme north western part of the island. Mr. A. Bancroft
has contributed accounts of the occurrence of quantities of marine shells, associated
with fragments of pottery, from various spots. Specimens from Haughton
Hall Estate, at Green Island Harbour, and from Newfound River, near by,
are of the same character as those obtained from mounds in other parts. One
heap he describes as having an extent of two or three square chains, the objects
being met with for a depth of one or two feet, commencing about a foot
below the surface. Mr. Bancroft records having obtained similar evidences from
Rhodes Hall Estate in the same district, and more northerly at Kew Estate, near
Lucea East River.
Williamsfield.
Mr. Edward Foster has forwarded to the Museum a collection of objects obtained
from Williamsfield, St. James. It includes pieces of pottery, several broken
stone implements, numerous valves of Codakia tigerina, and shells of Turbo
pica, Helix acuta, and H. Jamaicensis, all indicative of a kitchen- midden deposit.
Later, Mr. Foster has supplied the following details: The accumulations
occur on the top of a hill on the right bank of the Orange River, a tributary of
the Montego River, at a distance of about five miles from the sea in a direct line,