Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Aboriginal Indian Remains in Jamaica by J. E. Duerden / 237
so abundant in collections, obtained from the old burying grounds on the seacoast
of Peru.”
Seeing that the skulls obtained from all the caves exhibit characters similar
to these already described, no doubt exists that the cave remains met with
throughout the island are those of the Indians of the discovery. This receives
further confirmation from the conditions under which the bones are obtained,
and the objects, especially the pottery, associated with them.
[23]
Note on the Craniology of the Aborigines of Jamaica
[For explanation of accompanying Plate Ia, see List of Illustrations.]
By Professor A. C. Haddon, M.A., D.Sc.
A collection of some sixteen crania and numerous fragments of skulls and lower
jaws, together with a vast number of bones of the axial and appendicular skeleton
were forwarded to me by my friend and late colleague, Mr. J. E. Duerden.
Various circumstances have prevented me from expeditiously working through
this mass of valuable anthropological material of an extinct and hitherto unstudied
people. I therefore invited my former pupil, Mr. B. N. Tebbs, of Queen’s
College, Cambridge, to assist me in this study; unfortunately his time has also
been much occupied. We have, however, made considerable progress, and we
hope before long to publish our joint memoir on the Jamaican aborigine.
In the present communication, I submit the main craniological characters
of this people. The descriptions of the crania and the detailed measurements,
as well as remarks on the bones of the skeleton, will be published in the complete
and, I hope, illustrated memoir. The craniological remains must have belonged
to at least three dozen individuals.
There is a good deal of variation in certain details among the skulls, but I am
not at present in a position to say that this indicates an ethnic mixture.
Probably all the skulls have been subjected to artificial deformation, in a
few instances this has been but slight, whereas in others it is very marked. The
general effect of the deformation has been to flatten the lower portion of the
frontal bone; but along the anterior margin of the coronal suture there is a slight
swelling which, in front of the bregma, often expands into a broad triangular
area, the apex of which passes mesially forwards and may extend to the level of
the frontal eminences; the latter may be moderately developed to scarcely apparent.
Behind the coronal suture, and along the anterior border of the parietals,
is a moderately broad, shallow depression, thus producing a form of clinocephaly;
this annular depression is often interrupted in the sagittal line by a
very slight median keel. The parietal eminences are fairly prominent, but they