Caribbean Archaeology

Five wooden sculptures from the pre-contact Caribbean, long held in museum collections, are here dated and given a context for the first time. The examples studied were made from dense Guaiacum wood, carved, polished and inlaid with shell fastened with resin. Dating the heartwood, sapwood and resins takes key examples of ‘Classic’ Taíno art back to the tenth century AD, and suggests that some objects were treasured and refurbished over centuries. The authors discuss the symbolic properties of the wood and the long-lived biographies of some iconic sculptures.

The Caribbean Sea was the centre stage of the earliest, sustained encounters between the New and Old Worlds, heralding the mass movement of people, goods and ideas between two previously unconnected parts of the world. The repercussions hereof are woven into the fabric of modern multi-ethnic Caribbean society. However, our current understanding of this important chapter in the history of the world is skewed, because there are still large shortfalls in our knowledge of indigenous agencies in these encounters. A trans-disciplinary field of research, based on the synergy of archaeological and network approaches towards local contexts, provides fresh insights on how indigenous agency developed during the encounters, particularly in terms of migration, mobility and interaction dynamics. The present paper illustrates how four indigenous Caribbean communities (re-)negotiated, adapted and integrated their multi-scalar social networks prior to and in the course of the different phases of the colonization process.

The use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in archaeology has become relatively common place, including survey work, site delineation, and sub-meter piece plotting. However, new hardware in GPS now allows the expansion of this technology’s application to assist individual researchers doing surface surveys over large geographical areas. A common problem in archaeological surveys are the grid controls necessary to maintain
rigorous field data and the ability to quickly track work being accomplished in real time. This is often exacerbated by the need to use technicians or available support personnel with limited or minimum field capabilities. In addition, the time and efforts often required to physically establish transects in the field utilizes a great deal of field time, which is usually
preciously limited. On a recently awarded National Science Foundation grant, through the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, the authors were presented with the problem of carrying out systematic archaeological surface survey using untrained volunteers for a 2,278 acre reserve containing known precolumbian and 19th century sugar cane sites located on the north central coast of the island of Puerto Rico, in the Greater Antilles. The NSF program, entitled Citizen Science, involved the use of volunteers of all ages from the general public to assist the scientific projects. It is proposed that this GPS system, which is relatively inexpensive to acquire, can serve as a valuable field survey and regional distribution analytical tool in surface surveys in any part of the world with GPS access. The Garmin
system is a valuable tool in time management and cost accounting since budget estimates can be assessed for reliability and modified based on the achievement of target goals in area wide surveys.

What follows will begin by introducing the two writers who are our subjects (Peter Martyr d'Anghleria and Francisco Cervantes de Salazar) before we consider their varied approaches to the indigenous settlements of the Caribbean and Mesoamerica. Their accounts of these villages and cities will then be contrasted with their depictions of Spanish urban foundations. This examination reveals how the Roman colonial city could be used to understand the cities of the New World and to model Spanish imperialism in these lands. This in turn demonstrates the usefulness of the ancient city as a tool for thinking about colonial cities in later centuries

The Caribbean island of Carriacou is notable for its recurrent drought, paucity of large, native land animals, and well-developed bank and barrier reef system. These environmental conditions presented challenges and opportunities to the Amerindians, Europeans, and enslaved Africans who settled here through time. While available evidence suggests human presence has altered island ecology through agriculture, deforestation, erosion, species introductions, and extinction, overall human ecodynamics remain poorly understood. In 2018, the Carriacou Ecodynamics Archaeology Project (CEAP) initiated a field program investigating long-term human-environment interaction to reconstruct Carriacou’s landscape history. The CEAP seeks to develop high-resolution records for anthropogenic habitat modification and change in biotic communities from initial Amerindian settlement (ca. AD 400) through the colonial period (1740s–1974) up to the present. Pilot investigations comprising pedestrian survey, test pitting, site mapping, and geophysical survey targeted the coastal archaeological site Sabazan, where ca. 1,600 years of pre- and post-contact settlement are recorded. Here, we present the results of this first field season, demonstrating the potential of geophysical survey approaches in the Caribbean and the need for renewed, focused attention to Carriacou’s archaeological resources which are being rapidly lost due to coastal erosion.

The fortresses built in the Caribbean form a heritage of remarkable cultural values which are still not internationally known. All these buildings, whether they were finished or not and regardless of their state of conservation, are defined by two inseparable characteristics: their defensive function and their value as an element of an image of the governing power. The complexity of these proposals of strategy and propaganda, have led to propose as the main objective of this work to demonstrate that each European power raised a model of management. This was possible from some theoretical paradigms that were defined through the technical transference of the urban development of the cities and the geographical development of the regions, as well as the own defense of the populations under their government. The geographical scope chosen in this work includes both the ports of the Caribbean and those of the Gulf of Mexico, including not only the majority ports administered by the Spanish government but also those of other European powers such as France, England, Holland and Denmark. The chronological frame is developed between 1689 and 1748, which allows approaching the international war impact in the area, from the Nine Years War to the Jenkins' Ear or the Seat War. The results of the work are intended not only to increase knowledge but also to transfer it in order to respond to the interest raised among international tourism and local populations, or in academic circles, dedicated to this type of heritage.

El patrimonio militar construido en el Caribe cuenta con unos notables valores culturales, todavía poco conocidos internacionalmente. Todos estos proyectos, llegaran a construirse o no e independientemente de su estado de conservación, se definen con dos características inseparables: su función defensiva y su valor como elemento de una imagen del poder gobernante. La complejidad de estas propuestas de estrategia y propaganda, han llevado a plantear como objetivo principal de este trabajo demostrar que cada potencia europea planteó un modelo de gestión. Esto fue posible a partir de unos paradigmas teóricos que se definieron mediante la trasferencia técnica el desarrollo urbano de las ciudades y el geográfico de las regiones, así como la propia defensa de las poblaciones bajo su gobierno. El ámbito geográfico elegido engloba tanto los puertos del Caribe como los del Golfo de México, incluyendo no solo los mayoritarios administrados por el gobierno español sino también los de otras potencias europeas como Francia, Inglaterra, Holanda y Dinamarca. El marco cronológico se desarrolla entre 1689 y 1748, lo que permite abordar el impacto bélico internacional en la zona, desde la Guerra de los Nueve Años hasta la de la Oreja de Jenkins o del Asiento. Con los resultados del trabajo se pretende no solo un incremento de conocimiento, sino también su transferencia para, entre otras posibilidades, dar respuesta al interés suscitado entre el turismo internacional y las poblaciones locales, o en los círculos académicos, dedicados a este tipo de patrimonio.

Pedro Luengo Gutiérrez , Pedro Cruz Freire , Ignacio J. López Hernández , Manuel Gámez Casado , Alfredo J. Morales

Series: Bibliotheca Archaeologica, 66
ISBN: 9788891319531
Paperback
Pag.: 230, 1 ill. B/N, 172 ill. Col.
Format: 21,5 x 28 cm

A B S T R A C T Stable isotope analysis has a long history in Caribbean archaeology. The Caribbean region, however, possesses a highly complex isotopic ecology, including both a large number of isotopically variable food sources, and a high degree of isotopic overlap between different food groups. As such, to date, most regional paleodietary studies have been limited to descriptive and qualitative conclusions concerning the relative contributions of different food sources. In this study we apply an iterative Bayesian multi-source mixing model (FRUITS) to skeletal stable isotope data from the prehistoric population of Tutu, St. Thomas, USVI, to test the feasibility of such models to generate quantitative and probabilistic individual paleodietary reconstructions. The isotope data set includes both bone collagen (δ 13 C co and δ 15 N co) and apatite (δ 13 C ap) data. The results of two different dietary models using four and five distinct food groupings, respectively, are compared and assessed relative to other relevant archaeological evidence pertaining to past diet at the site. We highlight the potentials and limitations of multi-source mixing models for regional paleodietary studies, and their relevance to ongoing debates within Caribbean archaeology concerning the relative importance of different food sources such as manioc, maize, and seafood.