Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

244 / Appendix D.
of a canoe, one portion being partially hollowed out and truncated; placed together,
however, they do not indicate an entire vessel. Numerous references
are given by the Spanish writers to canoes possessed by the Indians. Buried
amongst the bones was found later a breastplate- like slab of the outer part of
the trunk of a Lignum- vitae, exhibiting no sign of decay. If, as has been suggested,
the caves are to be regarded as natural ossuaries of the Indians, it seems
not unlikely that the cedar- wood slabs, and also that of the Lignum- vitae, may
have been used for carrying the bones thither; which work completed, the former
was finally thrown into the cave over the bones in the position in which it
was first seen. In addition to the bones were found two small earthenware vessels,
one perfect, but the other not quite complete; two perfect skulls and other
bones of the Indian coney; three shells, each with an artificial perforation; the
larval cases of some beetle, along with a few land shells evidently of accidental
occurrence; and a portion of what was apparently some implement.
About half the quantity of the bones was first sent to the British Museum
and Sir Wm. H. Flower arranged with Prof. A. C. Haddon to carry out the full
details of the examination of these, and of the others transmitted later. In the
preliminary description by the former the following facts of interest are already
noted: “None of the bones show any wounds or marks of violence, but all appear
to be those of persons who have died a natural or slow death. Both sexes
and almost all ages are represented, from children of four or six years to very
old persons, the proportion of the latter being remarkable. Most of the skulls
show evidence of artificial depression of the frontal region in various degrees,
the mode being similar in all, evidently produced by the flat board upon the
forehead— the commonest custom throughout so large a portion of the ancient
inhabitants of the American type.”
The bones coming under the observation of Prof. Flower necessarily did not
show much corresponding completion, and even when compared with the remains
which were then in Jamaica this feature is of considerable significance.
The number of different paired bones such as the Humeri, the Radii and Ulnae,
the Tibiae and Fibulae, does not agree with one another, or even with the right
and left of the same kind; and these again differ markedly from the number of
skulls and lower- jaws. Thus, in all, only ten approximately entire crania and
very few fragments of other cranial bones were obtained, not sufficient to demonstrate
the [27] presence of more than twenty individuals. Of lower- jaws,
however, there were 28; right Femora 32, left 34; right Tibiae 29, left 26; Humeri
27 right and 27 left. The maximum number of individuals therefore of
whom we have remains from the cave is thirty- four, including representatives
of both sexes and of all ages. The good state of preservation of most of the
bones precludes the idea that any of the larger ones may have undergone complete
decomposition within the cave.