The Peopling of the Caribbean: New Research Findings

From the Daily Express, where it was published with the headline: "Tech proves Columbus’ claims: Hundreds-year-old beliefs debunked," republished from scitechdaily.

Jan 27, 2020

Christopher Columbus’ accounts of the Caribbean include harrowing descriptions of fierce raiders who abducted women and cannibalised men—stories long dismissed as myths.

But a new study published on January 10 in Scientific Reports suggests Columbus may have been telling the truth.

Using the equivalent of facial recognition technology, researchers analysed the skulls of early Caribbean inhabitants, uncovering relationships between people groups and upending long-standing hypotheses about how the islands were first colonised.

One surprising finding was that the Caribs, marauders from South America and rumoured cannibals, invaded Jamaica, Hispaniola and the Bahamas, overturning half a century of assumptions that they never made it further north than Guadeloupe.

“I’ve spent years trying to prove Columbus wrong when he was right: There were Caribs in the northern Caribbean when he arrived,” said William Keegan, Florida Museum of Natural History curator of Caribbean archaeology. “We’re going to have to reinterpret everything we thought we knew.”

Columbus had recounted how peaceful Arawaks in modern-day Bahamas were terrorised by pillagers he mistakenly described as “Caniba,” the Asiatic subjects of the Grand Khan. His Spanish successors corrected the name to “Caribe” a few decades later, but the similar-sounding names led most archaeologists to chalk up the references to a mix-up: How could Caribs have been in the Bahamas when their closest outpost was nearly 1,000 miles to the south?

But skulls reveal the Carib presence in the Caribbean was far more prominent than previously thought, giving credence to Columbus’ claims.

Face to face with the Caribbean’s earliest inhabitants

Previous studies relied on artefacts such as tools and pottery to trace the geographical origin and movement of people through the Caribbean over time. Adding a biological component brings the region’s history into sharper focus, said Ann Ross, a professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University and the study’s lead author.

Ross used 3D facial “landmarks,” such as the size of an eye socket or length of a nose, to analyse more than 100 skulls dating from about A.D. 800 to 1542. These landmarks can act as a genetic proxy for determining how closely people are related to one another.

The analysis not only revealed three distinct Caribbean people groups, but also their migration routes, which was “really stunning,” Ross said.

Looking at ancient faces shows the Caribbean’s earliest settlers came from the Yucatan, moving into Cuba and the Northern Antilles, which supports a previous hypothesis based on similarities in stone tools. Arawak speakers from coastal Colombia and Venezuela migrated to Puerto Rico between 800 and 200 BC, a journey also documented in pottery.

The earliest inhabitants of the Bahamas and Hispaniola, however, were not from Cuba as commonly thought, but the North-west Amazon—the Caribs. Around AD 800, they pushed north into Hispaniola and Jamaica and then the Bahamas where they were well established by the time Columbus arrived.

“I had been stumped for years because I didn’t have this Bahamian component,” Ross said. “Those remains were so key. This will change the perspective on the people and peopling of the Caribbean.”

For Keegan, the discovery lays to rest a puzzle that pestered him for years: why a type of pottery known as Meillacoid appears in Hispaniola by AD 800, Jamaica around 900 and the Bahamas around 1000.

“Why was this pottery so different from everything else we see? That had bothered me,” he said. “It makes sense that Meillacoid pottery is associated with the Carib expansion.”

The sudden appearance of Meillacoid pottery also corresponds with a general reshuffling of people in the Caribbean after a 1,000-year period of tranquillity, further evidence that “Carib invaders were on the move,” Keegan said.

Raiders of the lost Arawaks

So, was there any substance to the tales of cannibalism?

Possibly, Keegan said.

Arawaks and Caribs were enemies, but they often lived side by side with occasional intermarriage before blood feuds erupted, he said.

“It’s almost a ‘Hatfields and McCoys’ kind of situation,” Keegan said. “Maybe there was some cannibalism involved. If you need to frighten your enemies, that’s a really good way to do it.”

Whether or not it was accurate, the European perception that Caribs were cannibals had a tremendous impact on the region’s history, he said. The Spanish monarchy initially insisted that indigenous people be paid for work and treated with respect, but reversed its position after receiving reports that they refused to convert to Christianity and ate human flesh.

“The crown said, ‘Well, if they’re going to behave that way, they can be enslaved,’” Keegan said. “All of a sudden, every native person in the entire Caribbean became a Carib as far as the colonists were concerned.”

Pearls, Grenada: Histories of Resistance by an Old Runway

A view out toward the sea, from the beach at the end of the runway in Pearls, Grenada

Pearls, in the Parish of St. Andrew’s, Grenada, just up the road from the main town of Grenville, is a unique place that sits at the intersection of two of the main themes of my research career: the cultures and histories of Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean, and the political economy of US imperialist interventions. Both of these strands come together, in one specific spot: the old runway—still very much intact—at what was once Pearls Airport. The airport is the subject of the short photo essay contained in the article titled, "Pearls before Swine," from which the following sections were extracted.

Aerial view of the runway at the old airport in Pearls.

....The old runway at Pearls is a place that is barely frequented by tourists; there were only two young American ladies doing a self-guided tour when we were there, but then again we were there during low season. On local tourist maps the image of the runway is accompanied by a label boasting of “Amerindian Sites,” except there is no museum in the vicinity, nor any tours or tour guides to take one to see these “sites”. The two American women we met were totally mystified by this apparent absence, and they had asked everyone they encountered, as we had, about where they were to go to see the Amerindian artifacts. None of the locals could (or would) give an answer.

What we did not realize, at least not at first, is that we were standing right on top of the artifacts: they were spread all around the borders of the runway, and in the heaps of soil piled up at the end of the runway by the beach, where British bulldozers pushed the soil when clearing land for the tarmac.

That then is the other, older history of Pearls: it was once a major Amerindian port, possibly the largest of its kind, connecting Indigenous communities spread across the Lesser Antilles. Some historians have described it as “the most important archaeological site in the Caribbean”. Pearls had been occupied for at least seven centuries, from 300 BC to 400 AD. Trinidad, just 80 miles to the south, and much larger, has nothing like Pearls in terms of the broad expanse of Amerindian artifacts covering such a large area, with always more artifacts being uncovered at Pearls. I am not aware of the remnants of any “Amerindian port” in all of Trinidad, or Tobago for that matter.

The runway ends just feet from a long and wild beach, not the kind which would normally attract swimmers. The waters are pretty rough, with waves coming in fast and furious, from all angles. The humid air is thick with sea salt. The beach is “littered” with gorgeous pieces of sun-bleached driftwood. The beach shows a few signs of being used by locals for liming purposes: a small amount of discarded soft drink bottles, for example....

....what is also buried in Pearls is the Amerindian side of what could have been. Amerindian Grenada was a proud place, which for over 150 years—think of that astounding number—successfully drove off colonizing efforts by the British and French, and preserved Grenada as a Caribbean bastion of Indigenous freedom. It is a history that is both awesome and inspiring. In those encounters with the military superpowers of the time, Grenada was utterly victorious. This is one of the reasons I call the Caribs the original anti-imperialists of the modern world-system.

Amerindian Grenada was a green place of beauty, of people who knew how to live the good life and enjoy the free bounties of nature. Grenada is of course still ultra green, and Grenadians show all signs of knowing how to enjoy the good life regardless of any strife or troubles. Yet Amerindian Grenada was something different: their society was one without schools, prisons, offices, army bases, plantations, slavery, or money. Theirs was the peace to which we all claim to strive, but pretend to be unable to achieve, buried under mountains of corruption, addictions to all manner of artifice, and constrained by the daily authoritarianism that dominates our lives.

In terms of preserving or at least acknowledging the Amerindian past, it is true that the Grenada National Museum (the subject of essays to come), has made some efforts to advance local knowledge of Pearls’ Indigenous heritage, with special archaeological field trips for local schoolchildren, assisted by the incredible Michael John. Michael John, himself from Pearls, is a self-made archaeologist, with an apparently natural talent for spotting Amerindian artifacts. He is a man who is very likely of Carib descent and who also makes a living carving stone objects that look much like those one normally finds buried in the ground, those carved by his likely ancestors.

On the whole, however, what is being done to preserve and protect the memory of the Amerindians is far too little. Amerindian history is sometimes looted by tourists, some of whom possibly do not know that it is against the law to remove artifacts—but then again, nobody is enforcing the law. Suitcases and other travel items are not checked by the authorities when one flies out of Grenada, as they ought to be in all cases. Locals who claim to know nothing about “Amerindian sites” in the vicinity of the Pearls runway may be performing a very valuable service.

New Book: The Indigenous Peoples of Trinidad & Tobago, by Arie Boomert

This year has seen the publication of a comprehensive new study by Dutch archaeologist, Arie Boomert, titled The Indigenous Peoples of Trinidad and Tobago: From the First Settlers until Today, published by Sidestone Press, and available for free reading online. The book covers the many changes experienced in the lives of the Amerindian peoples who lived or still inhabit the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, from the earliest occupants, ca. 8000 BC, until at present. Using archaeological, ethnohistorical and linguistic data, it discusses the social, political, economic, and religious development of indigenous society through the ages. The Amerindian struggle with European colonization is chronicled in detail, following centuries of independent existence during pre-Columbian times, as well as the survival of the current people of indigenous ancestry in the twin-island republic. The text has also been endorsed by Ricardo Bharath Hernandez, Chief of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community in Arima, Trinidad: “This book is a welcome addition to the literature we are now seeking to inform our work here at the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community, as it brings to light important aspects of our buried history. Of particular interest is the information on the involvement of the Dutch in the struggles of the First Peoples, and the connection with Hierreyma, our great Nepuyo Chieftain. It is an inspiration to those of us who are currently engaged in efforts to secure the rightful place of the First Peoples of this land – Kairi.”

Indigenous People of Trinidad and Tobago.

Indigenous People of Trinidad and Tobago.
By Luna MoonLightandShadow
Moon, Light and Shadow | Wednesday, April 10, 2013.

The history of Trinidad begins with the settlements of the islands by Amerindians. Both islands were explored by Christopher Columbus on his third voyage in 1498. Tobago changed hands between the British, French, Dutch and Courlanders, but eventually ended up in British hands. Trinidad remained in Spanish hands until 1797, but it was largely settled by French colonists. In 1888 the two islands were incorporated into a single crown colony. Trinidad and Tobago obtained its independence from the British Empire in 1962 and became a republic in 1976.

Human settlement in Trinidad dates back at least 7,000 years. The earliest settlers, termed Archaic or Ortoiroid, are believed to have settled Trinidad from northeastern South America around 5000 BC. Twenty-nine Archaic sites have been identified, mostly in south Trinidad; this includes the 7,000-year-old Banwari Trace site which is the oldest discovered human settlement in the eastern Caribbean. Archaic populations were pre-ceramic, and dominated the area until about 200 BC.

7000 year old remains of Banwari Man (or woman)

click to read more.

Around 250 BC the first ceramic-using people in the Caribbean, the Saladoid people, entered Trinidad. Earliest evidence of these people come from around 2100 BC along the banks of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. From Trinidad they are believed to have moved north into the remaining islands of the Caribbean. Thirty-seven Saladoid sites have been identified in Trinidad, and are located all over the island. 

Saladoid red on white ceramic artifacts.

After 250 AD a third group, called the Barrancoid people settled in southern Trinidad after migrating up the Orinoco River toward the sea. The oldest Barrancoid settlement appears to have been at Erin, on the south coast.

Following the collapse of Barrancoid communities along the Orinoco around 650 AD, a new group, called the Arauquinoid expanded up the river to the coast. The cultural artifacts of this group were only partly adopted in Trinidad and adjacent areas of northeast Venezuela, and as a result this culture is called Guayabitoid in these areas.

Around 1300 AD a new group appears to have settled in Trinidad and introduced new cultural attributes which largely replaced the Guayabitoid culture. Termed the Mayoid cultural tradition, this represents the native tribes which were present in Trinidad at the time of European arrival.

Their distinct pottery and artifacts survive until 1800, but after this time they were largely assimilated into mainstream Trinidad society. These included the Nepoya and Suppoya (who were probably Arawak-speaking) and the Yao (who were probably Carib-speaking). They have generally been called Arawaks and Caribs. These were largely wiped out by the Spanish colonizers under the encomienda system. Under this system which was basically a form of slavery, Spanish encomederos forced the Amerindians to work for them in exchange for Spanish "protection" and conversion to Christianity. The survivors were first organized into Missions by the Capuchin friars, and then gradually assimilated. The oldest organized indigenous group in Trinidad is the Santa Rosa Carib Community centered in the town of Arima, although several new groups have developed in recent years.

This was my I post in the A to Z Challenge 2013. I live on the tiny Caribbean island of Trinidad, the larger of the two islands which make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. My theme this year is True to Trinidad and Tobago. I invite you to explore my home with me. The rest of my A to Z posts can be found here.

Banwari Man - Trinidad's Oldest Resident.

Banwari Man - Trinidad's Oldest Resident.
By Luna MoonLightandShadow
Moon, Light and Shadow | Tuesday, April 2, 2013

In as much as my first post for the A to Z Challenge 2013 was about Archaeology, I've selected this article about the oldest resident on my island: Banwari Man. I was hoping to visit the site where he was found but perhaps later in the year.

In November 1969, the Trinidad and Tobago Historical Society discovered the remains of a human skeleton at Banwari Trace. Lying on its left-hand side, in a typical Amerindian “crouched” burial position along a northwest axis, Banwari Man (as it is now commonly called) was found 20-cm below the surface and is presently located at the museum of the University of the West Indies. Its feet were higher than the rest of the body, and unfortunately were excavated and bagged separately. Only two items were associated, a round pebble by the head and a needle point by the hip. Its situation in a shallow pocket of humus, apparently excavated into the shell midden, and subsequently covered by normal shell refuse, places burial shortly before end of occupation, probably about 5500 years ago.

The archaeological site at Banwari Trace where the skeleton was found is located in Southwest Trinidad, and was featured in World Monument Watch 2004, an internationally acclaimed magazine that highlighted the world’s 100 most endangered sites. Dr. Basil Reid, Head of The University of the West Indies Archaeology Centre and Lecturer in Archaeology at UWI, wrote about the importance of this historical site to our cultural heritage and pre-Columbian history.

“Dated to about 5000 B.C. (years Before Christ) or 7000 B.P (years Before Present), it is the oldest pre-Columbian site in the West Indies. Banwari Trace sheds considerable light on the patterns of migration of Archaic (pre-ceramic) peoples from mainland South America to the Lesser Antilles via Trinidad between 5000 and 2000 B.C.”

Dr. Reid explained that Banwari Trace’s antiquity holds much significance for understanding the migratory patterns of Archaic peoples from South America into the Caribbean region. Also as the oldest Archaic site in the West Indies, Banwari Trace clearly indicates that southwest Trinidad was one of the first migratory “stops” for northward-bound Archaic settlers who eventually colonized several islands in the Caribbean archipelago.

The 3,127.2-m² property on which the site is situated is now Government-owned, having being acquired from a private landowner in March 2000; while the skeletal remains of Banwari Man are presently in the custody of the Life Science Department, U.W.I., St. Augustine. Preserved with cellulose-in-acetone, the skeleton is in a secure environment and is very much available for future studies by a physical anthropologist.

Banwari man, or woman, is still the oldest skeleton in the West Indies, and its survival for 5000 years at 20cm below the surface is nothing short of miraculous.

This was my B post in the A to Z Challenge 2013. I live on the tiny Caribbean island of Trinidad, the larger of the two islands which make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. My theme this year is True to Trinidad and Tobago. I invite you to explore my home with me. The rest of my A to Z posts can be found here.

Original articles on Banwari Man can be found here, here, and here.

The Caurita Stone and Trinidad's Caribs

First published as:
Caurita Stone a Carib legacy

By Heather-Dawn Herrera

In the Trinidad Express, 14 July 2011

Since 1995 when the existence of the Caurita Stone was first publicised in our local newspapers, there has been much speculation as to the origins and meanings of the etchings on its surface. Back then, the stone was known as the "Mystery Stone of Caurita".

Today, the site, in the hills of the Maracas Valley where the stone is located, is the main destination of hikers and descendants of Amerindian ancestry.

Ricardo Bharath Hernandez, chief of the Santa Rosa Carib community, and Cristo Adonis, shaman for the community, led us on a trip up to Caurita, which included members of the National Heritage Council Rawle Mitchell and Niketa Yearwood.

Adonis, well acquainted with the natural vegetation of the area, pointed out several plants that usually go unnoticed by the untrained eye. The roots and leaves of most of these plants are composed of important medicinal ingredients for various illnesses and diseases. Adonis identified many of these precious plants amid the understorey of the forest.

As the trail wound through estates of cocoa, coffee and mixed species of forest, a bubbly stream criss-crossed the way several times. Immortelle trees provided sanctuary for oropendolas, busy as always with the duty of building nests and caring for their young. A large ficus tree welcomed a bay-headed tanager onto its shady bough.

It was just below the area of a large bamboo stool that Adonis revealed how he first found the stone.

"I was in these hills searching for the stone. My little son was with me at the time. When we reached this bamboo stool, an agouti dashed up the ridge ahead. My son said, 'Where the agouti run is where the stone is.' We headed up this ridge, following the direction of the agouti, and found the stone alongside the track."

Eager now to reach the stone, our party headed up the ridge, and just as Adonis had described, there it was, sitting prominently at the side of the trail.

The height and width of the stone is roughly six feet by eight feet, and drawings have been etched into the top half of its exposed surface at the front. These drawings show faintly between the growing mosses that carpet the stone. Mitchell promptly got to work cleaning the stone, so the depictions on the surface could be seen clearly.

Members of the Santa Rosa Carib community view this stone as having special spiritual significance and regard it as part of their natural heritage. Some of the etchings identified depict a chief, other people in ceremonial wear and a deer.

The chief and the shaman present gave offerings to the four porters or gateways: El Tucuche to the north, El Cerro del Aripo to the east, San Fernando Hill to the south and a mountain in Venezuela's Paria peninsula to the west.

It is agreed among Amerindian communities in Trinidad that etchings on the stone bear spiritual significance. The site of the Caurita Stone is now regarded as an important part of the ongoing quest for knowledge and understanding of Amerindian ancestral occupation and life on this island.

Sites such as this bear testimony that our First Nation did set the path for our present way of life and so, as an integral part of our anthem, do represent an important part of our heritage for the future.

Finding the First Natives: Trinidad and Tobago Archaeology

First published in Newsday

By Marina Salandy Brown

23 December 2010

Since the 1980s the accepted version of our history — that Caribs and Arawaks, the two groups Christopher Columbus found in the Caribbean region were the main settlers — has been challenged. In future, unlike in my day, children will not just be taught that the Caribs were bellicose, marauding man-eaters, while the Arawaks were settled and peace loving, because there is much more to our history than that.

Following the Eurocentric view of history, local historians had, until recently, taken 1492 as the beginning of the history of the Caribbean part of the new world, with only a cursory glance back at pre-Colonial times. The reason for this was simply that there was so little tangible evidence of that past, unlike in Mexico or Peru where great civilisations existed and great monuments to power and wealth and culture were undeniable. Writing began in the “new world” with the coming of Europeans, and written records are the basis of conventional history. Only now is the oral tradition being more respected and promulgated and the archaeological proof emerging to produce a broader interpretation and recording of the Caribbean’s long history.

Contributing to this larger discussion are two fascinating films that have been made this year. Buried Treasure, by award-winning veteran documentary-maker Alex de Verteuil, shows and tells us why archaeologists specialising in the Americas consider TT one of the most important locations for the study of the past. These islands, so very close to the South American mainland, were the stepping-stones for different waves of indigenous peoples for 7000 years as they made their way up the island chain, getting as far as Puerto Rico.

There is an abundance of artefacts hidden in the ground in ancient sites throughout TT that reveal what these original natives ate, how they grew and caught food and cooked, and traded. These cultural relics allow the writing of a new history.

Buried Treasure is also a polemic about the state of archaeology in this country. I was surprised to learn that most of the experts are not Trinidadian or Tobagonian in origin. At UWI, archaeology comes under the history department and Dr Basil Reid, who is the resident expert, is from Jamaica. All the other archaeologists, except for one from Trinidad, Archibald Chauharjasingh, who is a layman, are from Europe and the USA. It seems that archaeology as an academic discipline was established very late on here and now there is no indigenous archaeologist or professor of archaeology at UWI, and no government archaeologist to ensure the preservation of ancient relics.

From what I understand, circa 1960s or ‘70s the then government set up the Archaeological Society of Trinidad and Tobago, essentially to monitor the work of Canadian archaeologists on a dig in Tobago, but the Society outlived the Canadians and was only disbanded latterly by Mr Manning’s government. It is unclear whether it has been reconstituted under the present government, but if it does exist it most probably comes under the National Heritage Trust, a government body with a broad remit, too broad, in fact, to be effective with regard to archaeological conservation.

The result is that as we build, we destroy the past. The very places we choose to live in now are the same ones the original natives preferred, so as we develop, we lose treasures of huge significance. With no proper policing of whatever statutes may exist with regard to finding ancient relics, contractors take the easy way out and carry on regardless, as they did when constructing the Twin Towers in PoS. There they simply concreted up the pottery fragments. Mr Chauharjasingh believes there are many more sites to be discovered. This is exciting because locating the past would be a boon for the Caribs and other native communities. The other recent film, The Amerindians, by Tracey Assing deals more with the cultural and spiritual aspects of the Arima Caribs and it is clear that real knowledge of their past is needed.

If I were asked what should be done, I would suggest that an Archaeological Research Institute be founded to give focus to the work going on, to encourage new students, and to reflect the important role TT played in pre-Columbian history. The Institute should have an archaeological/anthropological museum as part of it. The displays at the Carib Cultural Centre in Arima need revitalising, similarly with the ones at the National Museum, while other exhibits are inaccessible at UWI. The time may have come to bring everything together and create a valuable resource, attractive to tourists, that is sustained by the only international academic centre for the study of early Caribbean history. If we do not do something along those lines we will squander yet another unique advantage we have. Maybe there is an opportunity for the private sector to dig deep into its pocket and partner the government in this. Happy Christmas to everyone.

Pre-Colonial Caribbean Indigenous Presence in North America: Evidence from Georgia, added to Alabama and Florida

Amazing new evidence of the travel, communication, and settlement of Caribbean indigenous people in North America--this time with evidence coming from an area near Atlanta, Georgia. In an article recently published in The Examiner, "Experts solve mystery of ancient stone monument near Atlanta" (11 April 2011), we read that glyphs on a granite slab found near the remains of New Manchester in Georgia have been determined to be evidence of settlement by indigenous people from Cuba or Puerto Rico who once lived in the interior of eastern North America.

"One day, long before Christopher Columbus claimed to have landed on the eastern edge of Asia, a forgotten people cut steps in the rocks leading up a steep bluff near the Chattahoochee River in the northwest section of the State of Georgia. They carved a supernatural figure on a four feet by one foot granite slab and erected it on the top of the knoll. The strange, primitive art was very different than the highly realistic stone sculptures found in the region that are known to have been created by the ancestors of Georgia’s Creek Indians.

"...In 1909 a man named W. H. Roberts was hunting wild turkeys in a hilly area next to the ruins of Manchester. After climbing the bluff over Sweetwater Creek that was known as “an Indian cemetery” because of the stone artifacts scattered on its slopes, Roberts happened to notice a granite slab laying flat on the ground. Apparently, rains had washed away the thin top soil that had concealed it for centuries.

"Most scholars, who viewed the images incised on the slab in the early 1900s, assumed it was created by Native Americans, but had no further explanation. Primitive rock art such as on the slab found by Roberts is now known as petroglyphs. There are now professionals and organizations that have developed the study of petroglyphs into a science, but a century ago such artifacts were viewed as curiosities

"Throughout the mid-20th century, the Roberts (or Sweetwater Creek) petroglyph was on display at the Rhodes Mansion on Peachtree Street in Atlanta. This landmark house was the original office of the Georgia Division of Archives and History. After the state agency moved to a large marble structure near the Capitol, the petroglyphs were put in storage. The granite slab stayed there until Sweetwater Creek State Park was created around the ruins of Manchester in the 1970s. The slab is now on display at the park and protected by a Plexiglas screen."

The inquiry as to the possibility that the rock art may have been produced by Caribbean indigenous settlers began when the The Examiner launched its national architecture and design column series on the petroglyphs of the Southern Highlands. One of the articles featured the Sweetwater Creek petroglyph and an cluster of petroglyphs on nearby Nickajack Creek. This intrigued "filmmaker and amateur archaeologist Jon Haskell of Carmel, Indiana," who was struck by the unusual appearance of the Sweetwater Creek petroglyph--"he had filmed documentaries in many parts of the Americas, but had never seen any petroglyph like the Sweetwater Creek Petroglyph in the United States."

"During the first week of April 2011, Haskell sent emails throughout North America to friends who were either archaeologists, petroglyph specialists or experts on Native American art. Most of the responses also expressed bafflement that such a strange petroglyph design would be found near Atlanta. Some respondents commented that it was similar to Ice Age cave art found in Spain and North Africa. However, because of its placement on a hilltop shrine associated with Native American artifacts, the Sweetwater Petroglyph appears to date from a much more recent epoch. 

"Stephen C. Jett is a geography professor at the University of California at Davis and a recognized scholar of the petroglyphs and pictographs of the American Southwest. His brief comment emailed back to Jon Haskell was the first interpretation in a century that assigned an ethnic identity to the Sweetwater Petroglyph. He wrote, 'It looks vaguely Caribbean to me, but that's just an impression, I am not conversant with the rock art of that region.'

"Images and descriptions of the Sweetwater Petroglyph were immediately emailed to several specialists on Caribbean rock art. The respondents sent back photographs of rock art in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola that were the same style as the one in Georgia. One petroglyph from Puerto Rico seems to portray the very same supernatural figure. It is a “guardian spirit” whose presence warned travelers that they were entering a province or sacred area. This style of art was typically placed on stone slabs 3-5 tall, which were located on hilltops or beside major trails."

The Sweetwater Petroglyph is a stone slab 4 feet tall that was originally on a hilltop. It is now found to be "very significant evidence that Native Americans originally from Puerto Rico, Cuba or Hispaniola paddled to the Florida Peninsula; followed the Gulf Coast up to the mouth of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee River; then ulitimately settled in the vicinity of what is now Atlanta." It seems that the most likely time period for this migration dates from 1,000 to 2,000 years ago, "but the date of the carvings on the granite slab are currently unknown."

Tobacco, Corn, and the Bow and Arrow: Also from the Caribbean?

The same article also discusses the likelihood that corn and tobacco were introduced to North American Indians by Caribbean migrants:

"Archaeologists currently believe that the Caribbean Basin was settled by waves of peoples moving northward out of South America. The presence of the oldest known pottery of the Western Hemisphere in Georgia suggests that there may have also been movements of population and cultural innovations in the other direction. It is documented, though, that the agricultural villagers began island-hopping northward out of Venezuela around 500 BC and by 500 AD had occupied most islands in the Caribbean Basin. These early people grew tobacco and sweet potatoes, but not many other cultivated plants. Their presence in the Caribbean Basin coincides with the appearance of tobacco in the Southeastern United States.

"In the late 1960s archaeologists working in advance of an industrial park on the Chattahoochee River near Sweetwater Creek's outlet found three varieties of indigenous sweet potatoes growing wild. They looked like 'bushy' morning glories, but had large, edible tubers growing underground. Intensive land development since then has eliminated the wild sweet potato patches. 

"A second wave of Caribbean immigration by Natives speaking dialects of the Arawak language began around 600 AD. These immigrants are associated with the Taino People of the Caribbean Basin and the Timucua of Florida. They introduced the bow and arrow, plus advanced varieties of Indian corn to the Caribbean Basin. They were much sophisticated artisans and farmers than the first wave of immigrants. The period also marks the introduction of the bow and arrow, plus advanced varieties of corn into the Southeastern United States. By 1150 AD the second wave of Arawak immigrants had reached the Florida peninsula. About that same time, numerous towns with mounds were abandoned in northeastern Florida as was the large megapolis on the Ocmulgee River near Macon, GA, which is now known as Ocmulgee National Monument."

The Indigenous Caribbean within North America

The article concludes with a section dealing with Caribbean indigenous peoples in North America:

"It is commonly known that the Arawak-speaking Timucua occupied northeastern Florida and the southeastern tip of Georgia in the 1500s when Spain colonized the region. The public is not generally aware that there was also a small cluster of Arawak-speaking villages in the vicinity of Birmingham, AL until the mid-1700s, when they were absorbed by the Creek Indian Confederacy. The presence of what appears to be an Caribbean rock art in northern Georgia suggests that the first wave of Caribbean immigrants were pushed northward into the mainland of North America by the second wave, who were better armed with bows and arrows, and better fed by a wide range of cultivated crops. 

"In 1541 the Hernando de Soto Expedition observed an ethnic group in what is now South Carolina that had a culture very similar to the first wave of Arawak immigrants into the Caribbean. They were described as primitive hunters who went naked, did not know how to grow corn and beans, and relied on roots that they dug from the ground for nutrition. The Creek Indian guides of the expedition called this primitive people the Chalo-ke, which means bass (fish) people. They were not the same people as the Cherokees, and are last seen on a map by French cartographer Delisle, living in southeast Georgia in the early 1700s. 

"The earlier occupants of the Caribbean depended on hunting, gathering, and the digging up of wild yucca roots (cassava) or sweet potatoes for nutrition. They went almost naked. The Guanajatabeyes and Ciboney people were pushed into the western sections of Cuba and Hispaniola by the more sophisticated Taino. The Ciboney often lived in caves. They both soon became extinct after the Spanish arrived.

"The Sweetwater Petroglyph has never been scientifically dated by geologists. In order to interpret the stone more precisely, the general range of its age must be determined. There may be other stones like it hidden under the soil or forgotten in the basements of museums."

For more articles of relevance, previously published in our journal KACIKE, please see:

Figueredo, Alfred E. (2006). The Virgin Islands as an Historical Frontier between the Taínos and the Caribs. KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology.

Seidemann, Ryan. (2006). The Bahamian Problem in Florida Archaeology: Oceanographic Perspectives on the Issue of Pre-Columbian Contact. KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology.

Calvache, Divaldo Gutiérrez. (2006). Estilo Patana: Propuesta Para un Nuevo Estilo Ideografico en el Extrmemo Mas Oriental de Cuba. By Divaldo Gutiérrez Calvache, Rasco Fernández Ortega and Jose González Tendero. KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology.

Files for this report have also been stored in our document collection:

• The Sweetwater Creek and Nickajack Creek Petroglyphs.
• Experts solve mystery of ancient stone monument near Atlanta.
• Photo - Sweetwater Creek petroglyph.

Archaeological Find in Boriken/Puerto Rico Held Hostage

Puerto Rico archeological find mired in politics

By FRANCES ROBLES

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039567/posts

U.S. archaeologist Nathan Mountjoy sits next to stones etched with ancient petroglyphs and graves that reveal unusual burial methods in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The archaeological find, one of the best-preserved pre-Columbian sites found in the Caribbean, form a large plaza measuring some 130 feet by 160 feet that could have been used for ball games or ceremonial rites, officials said.

SAN JUAN -- The lady carved on the ancient rock is squatting, with frog-like legs sticking out to each side. Her decapitated head is dangling to the right.

That's how she had been, perfectly preserved, for up to 800 years, until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers came upon her last year while building a $375 million dam to control flooding in southern Puerto Rico.

She was buried again last week with the hope that some day specialists will study her and Puerto Rican children will visit and learn about the lives of the Taino Indians who created her. But archaeologists and government officals first had to settle a raging debate about who should have control over her and other artifacts sent to Georgia for analysis.

The ancient petroglyph of the woman was found on a five-acre site in Jácana, a spot along the Portugues River in the city of Ponce, on Puerto Rico's southern coast. Among the largest and most significant ever unearthed in the Caribbean, archaeologists said, the site includes plazas used for ceremony or sport, a burial ground, residences and a midden mound -- a pile of ritual trash.

The finding sheds new light on the lifestyle and activities of a people extinct for nearly 500 years.

Experts say the site -- parts of it unearthed from six feet of soil -- had been used at least twice, the first time by pre-Taino peoples as far back as 600 AD, then again by the Tainos sometime between 1200 and 1500 AD.

''It was thrilling, a once-in-a-lifetime thing,'' said David McCullough, an Army Corps archaeologist. "Just amazing.''

But like all things on this politically charged island, the discovery got caught up in a sovereignty debate: If an archaeological site rich in historic and cultural value is discovered in a federal construction site in Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States, who should be in charge of it?

After months of finger-pointing and accusations of officially sanctioned plundering, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers poured $2 million into preserving the site. Plans to put a rock dump over it were changed, and the unearthed discovery was reburied with the aspiration that archaeologists will eventually return to dedicate the 10 or 20 years needed to thoroughly study the finding.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers promises the collection sent to Georgia will be returned to Puerto Rico. Some 75 boxes of skeletons, ceramics, small petroglyphs and rocks were sent via Federal Express in two double-boxed shipments for analysis.

''The site is a significant contribution to our understanding of what Indians were doing,'' McCullough said. ``The thing that makes it unique is that the petroglyphs are so finely done. We originally were supposed to be there six weeks. It wound up taking four months.''

McCullough said the corps had an inkling that the site was there since the mid 1980s but had never done much testing. They started digging in earnest last year while building a dam and lake to protect the region from floods, and realized the site had significant value.

The corps found a ball court with four walls lined by tall stones, where they believe the Tainos either danced or played games. Three were covered in petroglyphs, among the best experts had ever seen. Some of the figures were carved upside down, which none of the archaeologists had ever seen before. Discoveries included a jade-colored amulet and the remains of a guinea pig, likely the feast of a tribal chief.

''The size of the ball court is bigger than just about anything else in the Caribbean,'' McCullough said.

Archaeologists believe as many as 400 people are buried there.

But in its quest to build the dam and use the location as a dumping ground for rocks, critics say the corps quickly hired a private archaeological firm to mitigate -- a hurried process of saving what can be conserved so a project can go forward. The company sent 125 cubic feet of artifacts in two shipments to its facility in Georgia for analysis, a move allegedly made without consulting Puerto Rican authorities, which locals felt violated the law.

But the question became: Whose law applied? U.S. law says such artifacts found by the corps must be warehoused in a federally approved curating facility. No such place exists in Puerto Rico. And Puerto Rican law says historical artifacts belong to the people of Puerto Rico.

''In Puerto Rico, everything that has to do with our past is sentimental, and Puerto Ricans take it to heart,'' said Marisol Rodríguez, an archaeologist at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. "There's a feeling that you're taking something that's mine. It's about our national identity, regardless of the island's political status.''

Rodríguez is pleased that the site has been preserved but acknowledges she was furious at how it was originally excavated with heavy machinery.

''I was so angry. I was indignant,'' she said. "I could not believe that a place of such importance was being treated with such disrespect.''

New South Associates, the firm hired to do the digging, says it excavated about 5 percent of the site for study.

''It was in the newspaper that we raped and pillaged the site, because it all got caught up in local politics,'' said archaeologist Chris Espenshade, New South's lead investigator on the project. "We are required to take the artifacts to a federally approved curating facility. That played into the idea that we were stealing Puerto Rican cultural patrimony away and never bringing it back. There's no question these things should be available for Puerto Rican scholars without them having to travel to go see it.

"It's a bad situation.''

What's left of the site will remain beside a five-year dam construction project, which will continue as planned. It may be vulnerable to floods, archaeologists acknowledged, but they note that it lasted that way underground for hundreds of years.

''It's not the best way to preserve it, but it's better than the alternative: to destroy it,'' Espenshade said. "The Corps could have destroyed it, but they took the highly unusual step to preserve it.''

Puerto Rican authorities say they are committed to opening a facility needed to properly store and exhibit the artifacts.

The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture is scouting locations and trying to secure the approximately $570,000 a year needed to operate such a warehouse. Officials hope it will open as early as mid-2009, but some experts still worry.

''Nobody could believe that in the 21st century, a federal agency would hire a private agency to dig up a site and take things,'' said Miguel Rodríguez, an archaeologist who sat on Puerto Rico's government archaeological council for a total of eight years.

He quit in January following a heart attack, which he blamed on stress over the Jácana site.

''Those are the things that happened in the 18th and 19th century, not now,'' Rodríguez said. "Nobody dares go to Mexico, do an excavation and just take the stuff. That's officially sanctioned looting.''

While officials debate where they will find the funds for a museum, storage facility and lab, the Department of Natural Resources has hired 24-hour security to watch over the archaeological site, just to be sure no artifacts wind up for sale on the Internet.

''With the artifacts in Georgia,'' Department of Natural Resources Secretary Javier Vélez said, "at least they are not on eBay.''

The Lost Fort of Columbus...and the Tainos of Today

From an article appearing in the History & Archaeology section of The Smithsonian Magazine for January 2008, by France Maclean:

And then there's Clark Moore, a 65-year-old construction contractor from Washington State. Moore has spent the winter months of the past 27 years in Haiti and has located more than 980 former Indian sites. "Clark is the most important thing to have happened to Haitian archaeology in the last two decades," says [archaeologist Kathleen] Deagan. "He researches, publishes, goes places no one has ever been before. He's nothing short of miraculous."

(...)

In 1980, Moore showed some of his artifacts to the foremost archaeologist of the Caribbean, Irving Rouse, a professor at Yale. "It was clear Clark was very focused, and once he had an idea, he could follow through," Rouse recalled to me. "Plus he was able to do certain things, such as getting around Haiti, speaking Creole to the locals and dealing with the bureaucracy, better than anyone else." Moore became Rouse's man in Haiti, and Rouse became Moore's most distinguished mentor.

(...)

One night, when Moore was entertaining friends at his harborside cinder-block house in Cap-HaÔtien—he lives there with his wife, Pat, a nurse from Nebraska with 16 years' service in Haiti's rural clinics—the conversation turned to the fate of the Taino. "The Taino really weren't all wiped out," Moore said. "There are groups in New York, Puerto Rico and Cuba who call themselves the descendants. They're reviving the language and ceremonies and want the world to know 'Hey, we're still here.'"

"The descendants in Haiti are secretive," a visiting archaeologist chimed in.

_______________

Popular Myths about Caribbean History

The National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago, under the direction of the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs is hosting a presentation and book launch titled Popular Myths about Caribbean History, with a lecture by Dr Basil Reid (author, lecturer in archaeology, UWI, St Augustine).

According to the media release Dr Reid's lecture focuses on the many misconceptions relating to pre-Columbian native societies in the Caribbean as well as encounters between these groups and early Spanish settlers. The presentation will touch on a range of issues, for example, the definition of history, the accuracy of Arawaks, Caribs and Tainos as names for native peoples, Cairb cannibalism, and the tyranny of Spanish ethnohistory.

Wednesday, August 29th. 7pm at the National Museum. PoS.

Those who can, should attend. I will post a report afterward.

UA digs into Cuban American Indian history

7/29/2007
The Tuscaloosa News

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — What might Cuba's native culture looked like before the Spanish conquest in the early 1500s?

It might have looked a lot like Moundville.

University of Alabama students will have a chance to find out as part of a two-year, joint U.S.-Cuban archaeological expedition.

The expedition, led by UA's anthropology department and the Central-Eastern Department of Archaeology in Cuba's science ministry, focuses on Chorro de Maita, a former native village in eastern Cuba.

The village was populated by Arawakan Indians, contemporaries of the Mississippian Indians, during the time Christopher Columbus visited Cuba in 1492.

Jim Knight, a professor of anthropology at UA, is overseeing the expedition, which came about through his work with Cuban archaeologists. He and his Cuban counterparts came up with the joint expedition, which got under way with the arrival of two UA graduate students in Cuba on July 10.

"This year, we're going to concentrate on trying to map the place and make a map of where the archaeological deposits are located," Knight said. "It's not well documented yet."

The group will first map out the parameters of potential dig sites. They are looking mainly for places that were likely occupied at the time of the Spanish conquest.

"We can use the artifacts from native houses to help us determine what the American Indian response was to Spanish contact," Knight said. "Did they adopt Spanish food ways once they were introduced to Old World animals? Did they adopt European goods like brass, copper, iron?"

Among the questions archaeologists will try to answer is just what type of people the Arawak were. The dig will focus on finding clues to their domestic life.

The Arawakan and Mississippian Indians who lived near Moundville maintained similar hierarchies. Both were also agricultural societies.

The natives of El Chorro, however, fell prey to the Spanish conquest of the New World, beginning around 1512.

"Within decades, there were no Cuban Indians left," Knight said. "The site we're working on dates back to that time, so we want to find out what factors were in play as the Indians tried to cope with the Spanish." [Please note: The Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink roundly rejects this mythical rendition of Cuban history]

Knight said Chorro de Maita now is the site of a museum that is a Cuban tourist destination, not unlike Moundville.

"They completely excavated the cemeteries in the 1970s and 1980s," he said. "It's a well-known place. They've even built a replica of a native village.

"But in all of that, there's still a lot left to do, so we're trying to find the domestic areas where people lived."

The expedition is part of an initiative at UA to engage in more educational exchanges between academic institutions in Cuba and the university.

UA has, since 2002, received academic travel licenses for graduate students and faculty to go to Cuba to conduct research.

"Obviously, our focus has been to provide educational opportunities for our graduate students to a country that, in their lifetimes, has been closed to them," said Carmen Taylor, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences who is involved in the Cuba Initiative. The initiative has already facilitated trips to Cuba by faculty and grad students in library sciences and theater.

"This is an exciting opportunity for the University of Alabama, to expose students to the creative activity research of the different educational venues in Cuba," she said.

Taylor said that by next year, UA plans to expand travel opportunities to undergraduate students who wish to study in Cuba.

She noted that historically, ties between Cuba and Alabama have always existed. Havana is Mobile's sister city.

"It makes sense for the state to have ties with Cuba," she said. "People think of Cuba's relationship with Florida, but if you look at the proximity between the two, it's just as natural for us to have a relationship with them too."

The U.S. maintains few relations with its island neighbor, against which it has had a decades-long embargo.

The U.S. government's official relationship with Cuba is limited to providing humanitarian assistance. The State Department restricts travel to allow only limited visits by journalists, academics and businesspeople.

The embargo has made funding for the project a little harder to find.

The first part of the trip is being funded by a $25,000 grant from the National Geographic Society. Knight said the group is trying to secure funding for the remainder of the expedition.

"It's a little difficult, because there are a number of institutions that, because of the embargo, are not allowed to give money to do business with Cuba," he said.

Taylor said the exchanges are non-political, and the exchanges function solely within the restrictions imposed by the federal government.

"Our goal is strictly to maintain an academic exchange," she said.

Knight said he has been impressed, in the course of his previous trips to Cuba, to find how active that country's researchers are.

"We just don't know much about what they're doing," he said. "But they're using the same software, the same mapping; they have the same research interests. Despite the embargo, we've developed a great collaboration."

He said such exchanges are key to academic research.

"Archaeologists like me can't keep our heads in one area too much," he said. "You need to compare your research to other things and learn from the comparison.

"That's where we can learn the most, by broadening our horizons a bit."

Archaeologists discover slaves were wealthy; relations with Tainos

Friday, 27 July 2007-Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation:

Caribbean archaeologists say recent discoveries have forced them to rethink traditional views about the region's history. They have just held their biennial conference in Jamaica, where the role of archaeology in understanding the Caribbean history came up for discussion. The archaeologists say their findings are sometimes in direct contrast to what has been written by the "planter class", especially as it relates to the period of slavery. Roderick Ebanks, who chaired the Jamaica conference, is one of the archaeologists doing research into the Caribbean's past. He explained that they have come across the villages of enslaved workers and what they found is very different from what was written by contemporary planters. At an excavated African workers village in Seville on the North coast of Jamaica there were keys and large padlocks in the buildings indicating there was a lot of material wealth. As he pointed out the wealth is not surprising when you remember that the slaves create the internal marketing system. Many slaves were wealthy during slavery. Their wealth came not from handouts from planters but from their work in the grounds, their trading and their farms in the hills. From oral tradition it was known that there was a close relationship between Africans and native Arawaks who were called Taino. Now DNA evidence is showing that the maroons carry a lot of genes of the Taino people. The African male slaves who escaped took Taino wives and those were the people who became the maroon population.
Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation

New Archaeology Dissertation on Puerto Rico

Many thanks and congratulations to Dr. RENIEL RODRÍGUEZ RAMOS for making available to the public a complete electronic version of his doctoral dissertation, which he recently defended at the University of Florida. His main interest is that the archaeological work that is done in the Antilles reaches the widest audience possible, and we are happy to facilitate. Please download a copy, in PDF format, from:

http://www.box.net/shared/gul7lzccx7

Dissertation Title:

PUERTO RICAN PRECOLONIAL HISTORY ETCHED IN STONE

Contents:
1 INTRODUCTION
Problem Statement
Study Overview

2 THEORETICAL ORIENTATION
Rousean Culture-Historical Systematics: An Overview
Culture-History: Toward an Updated Approach
From Shared Norms to Contested Actions
From Passive Things to Active Objects
From “Cultures” in Isolation to People in Interaction
From the Micro to the Macro and Vise Versa: Toward a Multiscalar Perspective

3 THE METHOD, THE SAMPLE, THE CONTEXTS
Toward an Anthropological Approach to Lithic Technologies
Lithic Procurement Dynamics
Lithic Production Dynamics
Core-Flake Reduction: Individual Flake Analysis
Cores
Core-Flake Reduction Formats
Pecked and Ground Materials
Celts and adzes
Other formal items
Use-Modified Materials
Radiocarbon Database
Nature of the Sample
Paso del Indio
La Hueca-Sorcé
Puerto Ferro
Punta Candelero
Punta Guayanés
Rio Tanamá
Praderas
Lilly-Caribe
Finca de Doña Rosa (UTU-44)
Vega de Nelo Vargas (UTU-27)

4 DISCOVERY OF PUERTO RICO AND THE LIFEWAYS OF OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS
The Initial Construction of the “Archaic”: From Cuba to Puerto Rico
Rethinking the Pre-Arawak Landscape of Puerto Rico
The Timing of the Discovery of the Island
Traditions of Doing Stone Things in Pre-Arawak Times
Core-flake reduction
Pecked and ground materials
Use-modified materials
The Introduction of Agriculture and Pottery Production
Building Place
Pre-Arawak Socialities
Things that Grow: The Maritime Dispersal of Early Cultivars in the Neo-Tropics

5 COMING, GOING, AND INTERACTING: AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON THE “LA HUECA PROBLEM”
Multifaceted Overview of the “La Hueca Problem”
Ceramics
Absolute and Relative Chronologies
The Superstructural Element
Infrastructural Organization
Lapidary
Lithics in the Hacienda Grande Complex
Core-flake technology
Pecked-ground materials
Use-modified materials
Tradition of Doing Stone Things in the LH Complex
Core-Flake Reduction
Procurement dynamics
Production dynamics
Pecked and Ground Materials
Celts and adzes
Other ground materials
Use-Modified Materials
Round fine-grained hammerstones
Other hammerstones
Pecking stones
Round pitted stones
Edge-ground cobbles
Striated pebbles
Pestles
Grinding slabs
Angular pitted stones
LH Lithic Technological Styles: A Summary Perspective
Comparison between LH and Cedrosan Related Assemblages
Procurement Dynamics
Production Dynamics
Core-flake reduction
Pecked and ground materials
Use-modified materials
The La-Hueca Problem: A Lithics Perspective
Things that Glow: The Macro-Regional Movement of Shiny Wearable Art in the Greater Caribbean

6 HORIZONTAL DIVERSIFICATION IN PUERTO RICO: THE FORGING OF NEW IDENTITIES
The Crab/Shell Dichotomy: A Synopsis
Multiple Developments, Multiple Interactions: From Cultural Isolation to a Landscape of Plurality
The Pre-Arawak/LH-Hacienda Grande Interface
Of Fissioned Villages, New Communities, and Other Selves
Traditions of Doing Stone Things in the Late Precolonial Landscape of Puerto Rico
Core-Flake Reduction
Procurement dynamics
Production dynamics
Use-Modified Materials
Pecked and Ground Materials
Celts and adzes
Other ground materials
The Lithic Evidence: Some Final Remarks
Public Display of Difference and Power
The Embodiment of Difference: The Onset of Cranial Deformation
Lithifying the Landscape: The Installation of Rock Enclosures
The A.D. 1000-1100 Event and the Intensification of Regional Political Integration
From the Taíno People to the Taíno Spectrum
Things that Show: Displaying Prestige and Ritualizing Power in the Greater Caribbean

7 CONCLUSIONS
The Precolonial History of Puerto Rico
From a Phylogenetic to a Reticulate Model of Antillean Archaeology
From the Antilles to the Greater Caribbean
Five Hundred Years of What? Some Final Thoughts

LIST OF REFERENCES

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

New Book: Taino Indian Myth and Practice

Our thanks to Bobby Gonzalez for forwarding this news:

Taíno Indian Myth and Practice: The Arrival of the Stranger King

by William F. Keegan

Details: 256 pages 6x9 Cloth: $39.95

ISBN 13: 978-0-8130-3038-8

ISBN 10: 0-8130-3038-2

Pubdate: 4/22/2007

Series: Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

Overview

"A path-breaking work, rich and mature, complex but readily accessible. It unites the many facets of . . . 25 years of innovative research and leads us out of the once-irresolvable dilemmas of contemporary archaeology."--Geoffrey W. Conrad, William Hammond Mathers Museum, Indiana University

"Charts a new course toward a broader understanding of Taíno society, myth, and archaeology at the dawn of the Spanish colonial period. His approach livens the archaeological record and illuminates our reading of the documentary record."--Dave D. Davis, Tulane University

Applying the legend of the "stranger king" to Caonabo, the mythologized Taino chief of the Hispaniola settlement Columbus invaded in 1492, Keegan examines how myths come to resonate as history--created by the chaotic interactions of the individuals who lived the events of the past as well as those who write and read about them. The "stranger king" story told in many cultures is that of a foreigner who comes from across the water, marries the king's daughter, and deposes the king. In this story, Caonabo, the most important Taíno chief at the time of European conquest, claimed to be imbued with Taino divinity, while Columbus, determined to establish a settlement called La Navidad, described himself as the "Christbearer."

Keegan's ambitious historical analysis--knitting evidence from Spanish colonial documents together with data gathered from the archaeological record--provides a new perspective on the encounters between the two men as they vied for control of the settlement, a survey of the early interactions of the Tainos and Spanish people, and a complex view of the interpretive role played by historians and archaeologists. Presenting a new theoretical framework based on chaos and complexity theories, this book argues for a more comprehensive philosophy of archaeology in which oral myths, primary source texts, and archaeological studies can work together to reconstruct a particularly rich view of the past.

William F. Keegan is curator of Caribbean archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History and professor of anthropology and Latin American studies at the University of Florida.

Other WILLIAM KEEGAN Books
The People Who Discovered Columbus: The Prehistory of the Bahamas

Post-Mortem: Caribs and Arawaks

I attended the UTT/Peter Harris presentation of Caribs and Arawaks: An Indigenous Story, at the National Library here in Port of Spain last night. Although last night, according to the Power Point slide-show the title changed to: Caribs and Arawaks: An Indigenous Story?... and I hope one can appreciate the difference.

First a bit of background: when the UTT advertised the Senior Research Fellow and Research Fellow positions in the field of First Peoples study a few months ago, I was interviewed but in the end the positions went to Peter Harris and Patricia Elie respectively. I wasn't terribly bothered as I was more interested in finding out what their approach would be than in leaving the exciting world of publishing. But I digress ...

The packed little room at the National Library heaved a collective sigh of dissatisfaction and there were more than a few dazed or quizzical looks as people slowly filed out of the room last night when Mr Harris completed his nearly two hour presentation.

Mr Harris served up a regurgitation of the work of Arie Boomert and Linda Newson - so much so that a member of the audience said at the end: I am glad you've said thanks to Boomert and Newson as I am wondering what, if anything new, are you bringing to the discourse? (Those may not have been his exact words.) Mr Harris replied without answering the question. In fact, I don't think Mr Harris answered any of the questions posed to him last night.

Mr Harris, an archaeologist, confessed last night that he felt more like an ethnographer than an archaeologist. Mr Harris confessed that he had skimmed a lot of the existing literature on the subject but he worked very closely with Arie Boomert. Mr Harris served up a lot of half-baked assertions.

Mr Harris questioned the assertion of: the Dominican elite of 1640? the chiefs? the Spanish? (I'm not quite sure.) that the Caribs were fierce and the Arawaks were peaceful.

If anything can be culled from his presentation it was that: Arawaks were fierce, Arawaks and Caribs fought over women incessantly, that there is no real record of the Carib in archaeology - we don't know where they came from he offered ernestly - "We have no evidence of how we have all these Kalina. It is a phenomenon that has not been explained."

He suggests: Arawaks settled in Trinidad's South East, Nepuyos settled in the North East, Shebaio settled in the South West and South, Yaio in the South West and West, Carinepagos in the North West and Chaguanes in the West and Central.
He references a lot of Raleigh.

Mr Harris says the Arawak assisted Hierreyma and the Dutch in razing St Joseph. That the plan is nearly thwarted by a turncoat rebel who happens to be Arawak.

The Shebaio disappear in 1700. The Yaio disappear in 1700. The Kalina disappear.

The conclusions of Mr Harris: Three people flee early 1600 - 1620, 1498 - 1640 was a time of ethnic fluidity and the new arrivals arrived say from 1740s.

Other gems include: the Missionaries rescued the Warao in setting up the Siparia mission; Salibia is the Kalinago word for Trinidad; Urupaina is what Tobago was called and translates to big snail in the Kalina language; it is difficult for a person of indigenous descent to know who they are descended from.

What we can look forward to in three years from Mr Harris, Ms Elie and the UTT is all this and more in book and dvd form. I can hardly wait.

Taino Research Targeted for Deletion

In a very public manner, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are seeking to ban funding by the National Science Foundation for a range of anthropological and archaeological projects, including one that is specifically about pre-colonial Taino society and culture. This news came from the American Anthropological Association which sent out the following communique:

The NSF Authorization bill for FY2008 is scheduled to come up for debate today on the House floor. Two proposed amendments – introduced by Reps. John Campbell (R-CA) and Scott Garrett (R-NJ) – would prohibit funding of nine already funded National Science Foundation grants in the Social, Behavioral and Economics Science Division based on their “silly” titles. Five of the nine grants targeted fall under the anthropology or archaeology portfolios. There are also amendments being considered to reduce NSF’s overall authorized funding level.

In AMENDMENTS to H.R. 1867, offered by Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, he asks that at the end of section 3, the following new subsection be added:

(h) LIMITATION.-None of the funds authorized under this section may be used for research related to

(2) The diet and social stratification in ancient Puerto Rico.

That particular project, which he thinks is "silly," has already won a grant from the NSF and the details are available at http://www.nsf.gov:80/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0612727

What the amendment is therefore saying is that no funds should be disbursed to a project that has already been approved by the NSF. The researcher in question is one who many of our Taino readers will know of already, Dr. Luis Antonio Curet.

He describes his research project as follows (I could not find the "silly" part):

With the support of the National Science Foundation, an interdisciplinary team of Puerto Rican and American archaeologists, physical anthropologists, and experts in bone chemistry will conduct eighteen months of research into the relationship between the development of social complexity and changes in human diet at four prehistoric Puerto Rican sites. The principal goal of this work is an increased understanding of the changes in the consumption of foodstuffs over time that may reflect broader transformations of society.

At the time of European conquest, many of the indigenous peoples of Puerto Rico were organized in stratified societies that have been described by modern anthropologists as chiefdoms. These stratified societies had developed locally in Puerto Rico from earlier egalitarian groups through a series of socio-cultural changes that took place over more than 4000 years of occupation. While a great deal of research has been directed at understanding the causes and consequences of increasing social hierarchization in regions like Mesopotamia, Mexico, and the Andes, comparatively little effort has been expended on regions such as the Caribbean. The present study aims to address just one portion of the issues surrounding the development of social stratification in this traditionally under-studied region through the study of food, which in many societies is an excellent barometer of social difference (e.g., such as caviar and pheasants in Western cultures). This work will attempt to tease out changes in the patterns of food consumption through time, focusing on the elucidation of differences in diet between common people and a developing social elite.

In order to accomplish these goals, a rigorous methodology for the study of prehistoric diets will be employed involving the analysis of a large sample (ca. 250 individuals) of human remains from the four sites. Diet will be analyzed at an individual level by means of the chemical analysis of the bones and possible foodstuffs. A technique called stable isotope analysis allows for the relatively precise discrimination of the diets of long-deceased individuals. The data derived from this analysis will be coupled with detailed archaeological information from the sites under analysis and will be rigorously chronologically controlled through the radiocarbon dating of all individuals under study.

The intellectual merit of this project is twofold: First, it seeks to study the in situ development of social stratification in a part of the world that has traditionally received short shrift. Second, it attempts to track social change at the level of the individual, through the study of their diets, rather than using aggregate measures. This technique will allow for the production of much finer-grained data allowing for far more robust theory building and evaluation.

The impacts of the present project will be felt on a broad scale first because the methodology employed will be able to be implemented in the study of other regions and societies, and second because the results of the study will be widely disseminated to both academic and lay constituencies. This project will assist in the training of both Puerto Rican and American (graduate and undergraduate) students and will facilitate further collaboration between Caribbeanists on one hand and American archaeologists on the other.

For those of you who are resident in the United States, please consider calling your Representative and lodging your protest. Only in a totalitarian society do politicians get to set research agendas, and given the number of Republicans who believe that the Earth really was made in six days, sometime around 5000 years ago, readers should be very alarmed.

Archaeology of the Cuban Taino: Turey and Survival

Gradual, perhaps grudging and incremental acceptance of the fact that the classic European tale of Taino tragedy (total extinction) is not something that can be supported with evidence.

Humble Brass Was Even Better Than Gold to a 16th-Century Tribe in Cuba

January 16, 2007, Tuesday
By JENNIFER PINKOWSKI (NYT); Science Desk
Late Edition - Final, Section F, Page 3, Column 1, 1245 words

Because of its otherworldly brilliance, the 16th-century Taíno Indians of Cuba called it turey, their word for the most luminous part of the sky.

They adored its sweet smell, its reddish hue, its exotic origins and its dazzling iridescence, qualities that elevated it to the category of sacred materials known as guanín. Local chieftains wore it in pendants and medallions to show their wealth, influence and connection to the supernatural realm. Elite women and children were buried with it.

What was this treasured stuff? Humble brass — specifically, the lace tags and fasteners from Spanish explorers’ shoes and clothes, for which the Taíno eagerly traded their local gold.

A team of archaeologists from University College London and the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment came to these conclusions by analyzing small brass tubes found in two dozen burial sites in the Taíno village of El Chorro de Maíta in northeastern Cuba, according to a recent paper in The Journal of Archaeological Science.

Huts have been reconstructed near the site as a heritage center. (photo credit: Institute of Archaeology, University College London)

The graves mostly date to the late 15th and early 16th centuries, when waves of gold-hungry conquistadors landed on Caribbean shores. Within decades, the Taíno, like their neighbors the Carib and the Arawak, were largely wiped out by genocide, slavery and disease.

But the archaeologists say this is not the whole picture. Their research — the first systematic study of metals from a Cuban archaeological site — focuses on one of the few indigenous settlements ever found that date from the period after the arrival of Europeans. The scientists say the finds add important detail and nuance to a history of the Caribbean long dominated by the first-person reportage of the Europeans themselves.

“It’s certainly true that the arrival of the Europeans was in the short term devastating,” said Marcos Martinón-Torres of University College London, the project’s lead researcher. “But instead of lumping the Taíno in all together as ‘the Indians of Cuba who were eliminated by the Spaniards,’ we’re trying to show they were people who made choices. They had their own lives. They decided to incorporate European goods into their value system.”

Brass first came to the Americas with Europeans. While a few brass artifacts have been found elsewhere in the Caribbean, no one knows when and how they were acquired. In contrast, El Chorro, first excavated in the mid-1980s, is one of the best-preserved sites in Cuba, and its artifacts have a clear archaeological context.

Training X-rays and microscopes on a half-dozen pendants, Dr. Martinón-Torres and a Cuban archaeologist, Roberto Valcárcel Rojas, determined the metals’ bulk chemical composition. It was a mixture of zinc and copper — the elements of brass.

They then used a scanning electron microscope to find the pendants’ unique geochemical signature. All came from Nuremberg, Germany, a center of brass production since the Middle Ages.

The few other metal artifacts from the cemetery — pendants made from a gold-copper-silver alloy — probably came from Colombia, where the Taíno are thought to have originated. Only two tiny gold nuggets, of local origin, were found.

Sixteenth-century portraits in places like the Tate Gallery held further clues. Many subjects wear bootlaces and bodices fastened with objects strikingly like those found in the graves. Similar objects have been excavated from early colonial settlements, including Havana and Jamestown, Va.

European accounts said the Taíno traded 200 pieces of gold for a single piece of guanín, of which brass was the highest form. Yet the residents of El Chorro may not have considered the trade unfair, said Jago Cooper, a field director for the project. In fact, access to European brass may have increased the power of local chieftains, hastening the transition from an egalitarian society to a hierarchical one.

The finds from El Chorro suggest that interaction between the Taíno and the Europeans may have been more varied than once thought.

“Large European materials being incorporated into their culture, and exotic materials being used to reflect Taíno beliefs — it’s new, important evidence for what was happening during contact,” said William F. Keegan, an archaeologist at the University of Florida and the co-editor of The Journal of Caribbean Archaeology, who was not involved in the research. “There’s been a tendency to assume the Taínos quickly disappeared due to European diseases and harsh treatment by the Spanish, but there’s increasing evidence that the culture continued to be vibrant until the middle of the 16th century.”

Some of that evidence comes from another site in Cuba: Los Buchillones, a coastal settlement about 200 miles west of El Chorro de Maíta. First excavated in 1998 by a Cuban-Canadian team, Los Buchillones is the site of the only known intact Taíno house. In the last decade, continuing study of the site and the surrounding region by Mr. Valcárcel Rojas and Mr. Cooper has revealed a community with trade networks all over the Greater Antilles that survived into the Spanish colonial period in the early 17th century.

Clearly, they would have known about Europeans’ presence, but chose to avoid contact, unlike El Chorro’s chieftains. It may have kept them alive longer.

Together, the sites hint at an array of tactics not documented by the Europeans. “Most accounts seem to be based on the idea that Europeans ‘acted’and Taíno ‘reacted,’ ” said Elizabeth Graham of University College London, who with her husband, David Pendergast, first excavated Los Buchillones. “In the case of El Chorro de Maíta, the Taíno were clearly being proactive.”

The finds at El Chorro also help to fill a hole in the study of the Caribbean past created by Cuba’s political isolation. Archaeology of the island has been little known outside of its borders since the 1959 revolution. Very few foreign archaeologists have dug there, and the few field reports published by Cuban archaeologists, mostly trained by Soviet scholars, are difficult to get outside the country.

In recent years, there have been efforts to bring Cuban archaeology out of the long shadow cast by the 45-year-old United States sanctions. In 2005, the scholarly volume Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology assembled a dozen English-language reports in one place. (In it is a paper Mr. Valcárcel Rojas co-wrote about El Chorro de Maíta.) The relatively new Journal of Caribbean Archaeology currently has its first Cuban paper in peer review.

For most American archaeologists, papers published by their international colleagues are about as close as they are going to get to Cuba these days. Since 2004, the Bush administration has greatly tightened restrictions on educational travel to Cuba; programs under 10 weeks are now prohibited. Last summer, Florida went a step further, banning public universities from spending money on research in countries the State Department considers state sponsors of terrorism, including Cuba. Both sets of regulations are being challenged in court.

Last spring, Mr. Valcárcel Rojas was denied a visa to attend the annual Society for American Archaeology conference in Puerto Rico. Dr. Martinón-Torres and Mr. Cooper presented the research — which received Cuba’s highest academic prize — without him.

Still, the British-Cuban team is seeking a three-year grant in hopes of uncovering the trade and social networks that connected El Chorro’s inhabitants — in particular, the effects of the brass-gold trade on those connections. And there is European behavior to puzzle out, too.

“We would expect the Europeans to load up with brass in their cargos, but we haven’t found that brass in Cuba,” Dr. Martinón-Torres said. “It’s possible it hasn’t been recognized by archaeologists. We expect if both sides were happy with this exchange, there must be more evidence of it.”