Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Aboriginal Indian Remains in Jamaica by J. E. Duerden / 241
amples from both sets of remains are, however, of the same type. A collection
of eight vessels was obtained by the Rev. W. W. Rumsey, from the Richmond
Hill cave, and odd perfect ones have been secured from others; while it appears
that many more have been removed in the past and either broken or dispersed.
The quantity of fragments of all sizes met with in such a cave as that on the
California estate demonstrates that the numbers of vessels originally located
in some of the sepulchres must have been considerable. The Halberstadt cave,
containing so much osteological material, yielded, by contrast, only two small
vessels. Most are blackened by contact with fire, patches of carbon still remaining
on some. With regard to their significance, the larger examples probably
represent mortuary vessels, more especially for the head. From both Goat Island
and Richmond Hill caves a boat- shaped vessel was obtained with the skull still
inside (Plates VI, fig. 1; V, fig. 5); and it is stated that some of the crania from
the Pedro caves were in earthenware receptacles. The two vessels mentioned are
certainly the most perfect and most ornamental of the examples now left. The
smaller vessels, incapable of holding skulls, probably contained the food and
water placed along with the dead, as is so often the custom among uncivilized
races. For further description of the pottery, see page 37, et. seq.
Miscellaneous Objects.
Close examination of the cave earth at Richmond Hill yielded thirty- two small
examples of the shells of Oliva reticularis, Lamk. They are all artificially perforated
through the body whorl, a little distance [25] from the mouth (Fig XIV.),
apparently for the purpose of being strung together as if to form a necklace or
armlet. They are more fully described on page 45, along with three perforated
shells from the Halberstadt cave.
Among the other objects obtained are skulls and bones of the Indian coney,
fragments of marine shells, an occasional flint flake, and various land shells,
the admission of some of which into the caves has probably no anthropological
significance.
Burial of the Aborigines
It has been suggested by several writers that the human remains met with in
the caves in Jamaica are those of Indians who were attempting to escape from
the more warlike Carib, or from the cruelties of the discoverers of the island—
the Spaniards; that the caverns were places of refuge, and that some of the unfortunate
natives became immured and met their death in one way or another.
From a consideration of many of the connected circumstances this explanation
appears in most cases untenable. Most of the caves are of small dimensions, not