The Caribbean is home to a rich and dynamic culture of people whose history spans over hundreds of years chronicling the battles, myths, traditions, struggles and accomplishments of the great people who inhabited these islands. Little is truly known of the first settlers of the Caribbean islands, namely the Amerindians (Caribs and Arawaks) and the Tainos, as they did not have the ways and means of recording their history as the Europeans did. By the time the Europeans settled in the islands the Amerindians along with their history died off quickly.
We can learn much more about the Amerindians by studying the remains of their culture which they have left behind.
In the Caribbean today, archaeologist both professional and amateur have discovered numerous Amerindian sites.
Through the archaeological research of these sites much more can be known about the early Amerindian settlers. These sites reveal the customs and way of life of the Amerindian people through the study of the tools, utensils, shells and skeletal remains which they have left behind.
The first known recorded inhabitants of the Caribbean islands were members of the Ciboney Tribe or Sibonays known as the ‘The Stone People’. They were called the Stone people because unlike the Caribs and the Arawaks who specialized in clay pottery, the Ciboneys only produced stone artifacts. Evidence of their occupation of the islands is found in the stone tools and utensils, dating back to as early as 500 BC, which have been found on sites such as Commerette Point in St. Lucia and in parts of Jamaica and the Bahamas. These finds include mortar and pestles, grinding stones used for grinding cassava and stone phallic symbols.
In St. Lucia, it is believed that the Ciboneys did not inhabit the island to settle because of the low concentration of artifacts found, rather it is believed that they merely paused in St. Lucia as part of their migratory route up the island chains.
The later groups of Indians which came to the islands were the Arawak Indians, who arrived in 200 AD, followed by the Caribs Indians who arrived in 900 AD. The first home of the Arawak Indians were in the forest of the Amazons stretching from Peru to as far as Guyana. Some settled on the coast of the Guyana’s whilst others moved up the island chains. It is believed that the Caribs followed the Arawaks up the island chain.
To date, one of the most interesting and unique archaeological sites discovered is the Anse Lavoute Site on the north eastern coast of St. Lucia. Lavoute is an important archaeological site dating to the Late Ceramic Age, i.e. between AD 800 and 1400 and it seems to have been part of a network of mobility and exchange amongst Amerindian communities of the southern Lesser Antilles to the Greater Antilles in the north. The site was first discovered by Mr. B. H. Easter of the St. Lucia Archaeological and Historical Society, in 1958.
Some of the finds at that time included many pottery fragments, pieces of jasper, and worked stone on or near the surface of the site.
On subsequent visits in 1958 by more members of the Archaeological Society anthropomorphic adornos and incised shell ornaments were also found.
In 1963 incidental to an estate construction being carried out along the northern point of Anse Lavoute, a large female figurine was found in 3 pieces protruding 4 inches above the surface .The figure was dated 1500 AD and depicted a woman carrying a basket of cassava over her head.
In 1964 an extensive excavation was carried out by Adelaide K and Ripley P. Bullen from the Florida Museum of Natural History in which more finds were unearthed; sherds, plates, griddles footed vessels, stone pendants and ceremonial axes.Other stone artifacts such as red, green and yellow jasper and pieces of smoothed coral were also found. The Amerindians used the hard coarse flakes of the Jasper Stones to grate Manioc (Cassava).
A number of red painted sherds which were found had neatly polished lower edges and an incised front face. The great care and design is suggestive of ceremonial value and could also represent carryovers from an early Arawak period as they may be products of Arawak potters captured by the Caribs.
Historically, the Caribs were occupying the Greater Antilles when the first group of colonizers came to the Caribbean around 1500 A.D. Stories were told to the colonizers of the Caribs recently capturing the islands from the Arawaks and taking any remaining Arawak women as secondary wives. The Caribs were still in possession of the Lesser Antilles in 1623-1650 when the islands were first settled by Europeans.
In 2009 a team of Archaeologist from the Leiden University in the Netherlands assisted by the University of Florida and the St. Lucia Archaeological Society conducted an extensive rescue excavation on the Anse Lavoutte site for two reasons, firstly the site is being sold out for construction of an extensive resort and golf course and secondly, due to erosion of the site by wave action and also the trampling of the site by vehicles and horses. Due to this erosion, a number of human skeletal remains had been exposed at the site prompting the need for immediate excavation.The excavation was held in May-June 2009 and will pick up again in January of 2010.
The finds included, Amerindian graves totaling 60
Carib Pottery
As well as a disposal area in which were found shell remains, fishnet weights and large pieces of sherds.
Assessing the maiden areas (disposal sites) and the quantities and distribution of the artifacts found at the Anse Lavoutte site, archaeologists believe that the Amerindians occupied the site for a period of no more than 100-200 years.
Other interesting finds included a vomiting stick made from the bone of manatee. This was used by shamans of the tribe to purge themselves. Similar vomiting sticks were also found in the Greater Antilles in the Dominican Republic which could also suggest that this site had a Greater Antillean Connection.
The presence of the above traits at the Lavoute site support the correlation that it was inhabited by island Caribs.
Other interesting archaeological sites include Troumassee and Pointe de Caille on the southwest coasts of St. Lucia .Archaeologists have found evidence of eight or nine settlements. Remains of cooking pits, tools, pots and ornaments have been discovered at Troumasse.Artifacts have also been found on the banks of the river Ger and on the two headlands of the Canelles River near Pointe de Caille. The site of Pointe de Caille is by far the most extensively excavated site on the island and the most visited by researchers on the island, The University of Vienna, Austria conducted extensive research there in the 1980’s in which a number of burial sites were found. The site is considered to be very important and of special interest because not only does it yield evidence of all of the Amerinidan cultures that occupied St. Lucia but also it reveals their diet well. as the shells and bones of the animals that the Amerindians ate are preserved on this site. This is rare as many of the Amerindian sites on St. Lucia have only pottery and stone tools and not many faunal remains.
The Saltibus and Parc Estate sites in the south east of the island contradict much of what is accepted for Island Arawak archaeology because of their interior location as most Amerindian sites are located on the coast. It was once believed that the Arawaks were dependent on the sea, and that sites in the interior were the product of activities such as hunting or cutting large trees for canoe making. But the Saltibus and Parc Estate sites are situated far in the interior, away from any coastline. It is believed that the Arawaks exploited the good soils for their agriculture and gathered the resources found along the river in the valley below and along the ridge lines. Iguanas, crabs, crawfish, rice rats and other animals of the interior provided the protein they needed in the absence of marine fish.
Rock Art found in Dauphin St. Lucia.
Dominica shares a very rich history along with the rest of the Caribbean it has the only surving kalinago tribe in all of the Lesser Antilles. This year the island made a significant contribution in the recently concluded International Association of Caribbean Archaeologist (IACA) conference by producing four new research papers on archaeological research being conducted on the island.
Dr. Arie Boomert of the Lieden University in the Netherlands presented a paper on the discovery of ancient Amerindian villages in Dominica, more specifically villages of the Cayo Culture. Steve Lenik, a PHD Student from Syracuse University presented a paper on the first colonial site of Grand Bay and Zach Beier, another PHD Student from Syracuse, presented a paper on the analysis of the Fort Shirley/ Cabrits Garrison.
Dominican anthropologist Dr. Lennox Honychurch has also done extensive work establishing an archaeological store and research center for the preservation of archaeological artifacts at the Fort Shirley Garrisons.
The Woodford hill site on the north east of Dominica is also a rich Amerindian site.
and various pottery, stone and shell have been recovered there. The site is dated to 600
A.D similar to the sites found directly across the channel on Marie Galante.
Recently, archaeologist Dr. Benoit Berard of the Université d’Antilles-Guyane in Martinique together with his team of students conducted a research based project in Soufriere on the south west coast of the island.
The "South- survey Dominica" as it is called is an archaeological mission which began in 2005 with the support of the French ministry of foreign affairs. It was initially designed to research the early ceramic occupations of the island and research was primarily based on the analysis of a few collections already existing. The Soufriere site, found in the seventies, is composed of an important early cedrosan saladoid occupation covered by volcanic deposits. Cedrosan Saladoid is descriptive of the type of artifacts found at the site, it got it’s name from the Yale anthropologist Irving Rouse from the Cedros site in Trinidad and is usually dated from 400- 800 A.D although earlier versions have been discovered.
The site had been excavated earlier by Petitjean Roget who went two times to Dominica, in 1976 and 1977, and did two important things one, a general survey of the island, finding 24 new sites, and a small excavation of the early saladoid site of Soufrière. During his work he found a few other early saladoid sites in the south of the island. These findings are at the origin of the research program of the South Dominica archaeological mission.
The remains coming from the excavation of the Soufrière site were essentially composed of ceramic elements. The high acidity level of the sediments did not permit the preservation of the faunal remains and only few lithic artifacts have been found.
A total of 2500 sherds have been analyzed and linked with the early saladoid occupation of the Soufrière site. The interpretation of which are still in progress.
The findings revealed that the early ceramic occupation of Soufrière is without doubt cedrosan saladoid but when compared with other ceramics found in other Lesser Antillean islands such as Martinique in the Vivé, Fond Brulé and Moulin l'Etang sites they demonstrated great similarity. This similarity is visible in all stages, Sizes and shapes of the vessels, relative proportion of the different decoration techniques and designs produced by those techniques.
The great similarity of the early ceramic productions coming from the north of Martinique and South of Dominica is not sufficient to demonstrate definitively the existence of a mobility and exchange within the islands however, Dr. Berard and his team hope to create a comparative analysis of the early ceramic collections of Marie Galante and Guadeloupe in the north and St. Lucia in the south to ensure that they have been able to locate a cultural mobility and exchange between the Amerinidans.
Cedrosan type artifacts from Guadeloupe
Amazing...
ReplyDeleteWe are still here. We the taino would appreciate that you stop adding to the paper genocide that we under go as well.as the other genocides we faced. Daka taino
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