Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

20 / Chapter 2.
content of the boxes kept at the JNHT it was practically all marked. Vanderwal’s
whole energies were devoted to the task of analyzing the pottery, therefore
other aspects were neglected. No record was kept of the fauna, nor was it
handed over for analysis, except in the case of Rio Nuevo. Above all, we have
no plans or stratigraphic drawings for any of the sites. As in the case of White
Marl, therefore, this looks like another missed opportunity in Jamaican archaeology.
James Lee and His Associates
After the era of Howard and Vanderwal, and partly overlapping with it, came
the era of James Lee and his associates. Some of the highlights of this period are
as follows. As Lee explained, the “project of mapping all known Arawak sites in
Jamaica” began in 1959 (AJ 1978, 4:1–4). The net result is the 265 precisely recorded
middens and caves listed here. In addition, Lee made a note of 77 other
sites that he did not succeed in locating, 36 mentioned by previous authors such
as Duerden, Cundall, and Howard, and 41 known only on the basis of unverified
reports. He collected material from 191 of these sites, which is represented
in the Lee Collection. He founded the Archaeological Club of Jamaica in 1965,
which became the Archaeological Society of Jamaica (ASJ) in 1970. The first
had nine founding members, the second 24. This small band grew with time,
but it was always a group of enthusiasts. Practically single- handedly, Lee produced
and edited the newsletter “Archaeology Jamaica” from 1965 to 1986,
and this is an invaluable record of what was achieved in the island at that time.
Lee regularly attended the meetings of IACA, and published articles in four
volumes of their proceedings (Lee 1980, 1985, 1990; Roobol and Lee 1976).
These articles contain some material that was not published in the newsletter.
Lee was involved in a number of public events. He was particularly proud of
the role played by the ASJ in safeguarding the site of Mountain River Cave
(SC1), which he had relocated in 1954. The 2 acres immediately surrounding
the site were acquired by the Society in 1976, and in 1980 it was fenced off
with the help of the Jamaica Defence Force. The site was handed over to the
Jamaican National Trust Commission (the forerunner of the JNHT) in 1982
(AJ 1982, 2:10–13). Then, in 1983, a small gold disk, found the previous year
at Bellevue (A45) and the first such artifact to be discovered in the country,
was handed over to the Bank of Jamaica by Lee and the owner of the property,
Maurice Facey (AJ 1983, 4:33–38) (Appendix 16).