Caribbean (Geographic Keyword)
101-125 (537 Records)
Haitian Vodou is a syncretic religion that combines elements of West African beliefs and indigenous Taino culture overlaid onto a rigid framework of forced Catholicism. One aspect of the religion that has not been investigated is the modern use of caves as a specialized local for various types of rituals, each having a specific purpose. This paper will discuss the use of both ethnographic and archaeological investigative techniques to differentiate the various purposes of cave ceremonies and...
The CCitRes Initiative: Using Citizen Science and Public Archaeology to Build Heritage Management Capacity in Curaçao (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Caribbean islands face significant heritage management capacity shortfalls that undermine local direction and control of archaeological research for community benefit. The Curaçao Citizen Researcher (CCitRes) Initiative uses citizen science and public archaeology to develop archaeological capacity on one such island, Curaçao, and empower communities to...
CCompositional Analysis of Low-Fired Coarse Earthenware Excavated Archaeologically from Two Anguillan Eighteenth- to Nineteenth-Century Plantation Sites (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the preliminary results of neutron activation analysis (NAA) and laser ablation ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) conducted at the University of Missouri Research Reactor’s Archaeometry Lab on coarse earthenware sherds recovered archaeologically from two plantation-era sites on Anguilla, the Wallblake Estate site and the Hughes Estate site. Using...
Ceramic Classification and Social Process (2016)
Sir Flinders Petrie revolutionized archaeological ceramic analysis in 1904 by developing ‘sequence dating’ —the relative dating of strata, buildings or tombs based on changes in formal and stylistic attributes of vessels overtime as determined by seriation. Since the efficacy of sequence dating is directly related to the quality of the typology upon which it is based, stylistic typologies and classification of ceramic have been the norm for the last century, despite their manifold limitations....
Ceramic Manufacturing and Distribution Networks in Early Jamaica: Interpretive Implications of LA-ICP-MS and NAA Analyses on Coarse Earthenwares from 18th-Century Plantation Contexts (2018)
Archaeologists have long been intrigued by hand‐built, open‐fired coarse earthenwares found on 18th‐ and 19th‐century sites occupied by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and United States. In Jamaica, these hand‐built coarse earthenwares, often referred to as Yabbas, were likely manufactured and marketed by enslaved specialists. Several different varieties of glazed and/or kiln‐fired coarse earthenwares, not easily assigned to a known ware-type, are also routinely found in plantation contexts....
The Cerillos Valley Projects, Puerto Rico: a Regional Perspective (1995)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Challenging environments: ancient DNA research in the circum-Caribbean (2016)
Ancient DNA (aDNA) studies have had a major impact in archaeology. However, until now most aDNA studies have been conducted on samples from cold or temperate environments, as DNA degrades more rapidly at higher temperatures. With average annual temperatures of over 25°C, the Caribbean represents a particularly challenging environment for aDNA research and very few aDNA studies have been conducted in the Caribbean to date. Yet, there are many questions in Caribbean archaeology that could be...
Changing Patterns of Status among White Soldiers and Africans at Brimstone Hill Fortress (2016)
British occupation of Brimstone Hill Fortress on St. Kitts from 1690 to 1854 developed in response to local conditions relating to the economics and organization of enslaved labor and to the strategic needs of maintaining a military garrison. The use, size, placement, and chronology of structures, and their associated material culture show that African slaves differed depending on ownership and military status, whereas branch affiliation (Ordnance, Medical, Artillery, or Infantry) and to a...
Characterisation of charcoal assemblages from the ceremonial center of Tibes, Puerto Rico (2016)
Charcoal assemblages from five different excavation units dug at the ceremonial center of Tibes, Puerto Rico, have been studied in order to get information on human use and selection of woody taxa during the past. This archaeobotanical data will be related to the archaeological information which includes different features and cultural materials such as lithic artefacts, sherds, shells, human burials, and faunal remains.
Chitons and Clams, Cash and Carry: an archaeological exploration of the impact of enslaved children’s foraging strategies on 18th-century enslaved households in Jamaica (2016)
Attempts at understanding the economic and social strategies used by enslaved people in the early modern Atlantic World require sophisticated models of human interaction, models that allow archaeologists to precisely investigate the complex behavioral strategies that underlie artifact patterns. Here Optimal Foraging Theory provides the framework for identifying the fishing and foraging activities of enslaved children and adults laboring at the Stewart Castle Estate, an 18th-century Jamaican...
Chronological Evidence of Material and Landscape Changes Associated with a Shift in Colonial Control at the Morne Patate Plantation, Dominica (2017)
Morne Patate Plantation in southern Dominica (occupied between the 1740s and 1950s) provides us with an opportunity to examine a setting that underwent major changes in social organization and economic engagements associated with the shift in colonial control of the island from the French to the British in 1763. This paper presents an overview of the chronology of the archaeological contexts at the site and changes in settlement organization. This material record provides evidence for discrete...
Circulating Ceramics in the Eighteenth Century (2016)
Purpose of this paper is to examine our ability to model trade connections through the use of ceramics and quantitative methods. Ceramic collections from various eighteenth Caribbean sites will be examined through a statistical model for inter-island trade. I shall argue that consumptive patterns are knowable and testable through the archaeological record. Finally, the connections developed from the importation of various goods, such as ceramics, provide opportunities to test ideas about...
Coastal Change and Human Dynamics: Preliminary Results of Sediment Core Analysis (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Coastal change can have major impacts on human livelihood security, in the past as well as the present. Sediment cores from coastal wetlands can be used as archives to reconstruct ancient landscapes and coastal environments as well as to understand the impact of ancient sea level inundation and intense atmospheric events. This study presents the preliminary...
Coastal Erosion and Archeological Resources on National Wildlife Refuges in the Southeast (1983)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Coastal Erosion and Extreme Atmospheric Events: Climate Change and Coastal Cultural Heritage in Puerto Rico (2018)
Islands and coastal zones preserve the cultural heritage of maritime traditions and livelihoods. The expected environmental impacts linked to climate change present a severe threat to their preservation, placing heritage at risk of being completely lost, possibly in an instant. Coastal cultural heritage in Puerto Rico has been the focus of research for the last two years, starting with a risk assessment, and continuing with plans for monitoring, documentation and possible intervention. However,...
Coastal resource exploitation during the late ceramic age on Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean (2016)
Leiden University recently initiated a long-term field project on Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean, which focuses on the human exploitation of resources in dynamic coastal environments. The location of the Den Bon site - behind a large inland bay bordered by mangroves and on the edge of a tidal flat – suggests an explicit interest in resources that derive from such environments. Previous research has indicated that island-specific resources were fundamental in the creation of larger regional networks in...
Codes of ethics and archaeology in practice: "communal archaeology" and citizen science towards the advancement of the discipline (2015)
Adherence to codes of ethics is central to successful and respected practice of archaeology. The SAA’s Code of Ethics includes eight principles that address critical broad issues, including the importance of in-situ long-term conservation and protection of archaeological sites (Principle 1), establishing beneficial working relationships with all parties (Principle 2) and the importance of public outreach (Principle 4). Even though, as members of the SAA, we agree that these principles are the...
Collagen Fingerprinting (ZooMS) and Caribbean Archaeological Fish Assemblages: Methodological Implications for Historical Fisheries Baselines and Conservation Applications (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Caribbean Sea is the most species-rich sea bordering the Atlantic. However, its high biodiversity and endemism face unprecedented anthropogenic threats. Although zooarchaeological data broadly indicate regionally variable Indigenous human impacts on fisheries in the past, elucidating outcomes of human impacts beyond class (e.g., Actinopterygii) is...
Colonial Archaeology of San Juan De Puerto Rico: Excavations at the Casa Rosa Scarp Wall, San Juan National Historic Site, Puerto Rico (1988)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Colonial Cuba: From Indian to Creole (2018)
The construction of the Indian as a colonial category was one of the first resources of domination implemented by the Spaniards in the Antilles. The term with its social, economic and cultural implications served to homogenize and differentiate populations, to eliminate identities of origin and to build a destiny of subordination and disappearance. In Cuba this category was transformed over the last five centuries and adjusted to various historical circumstances. The historical and...
Colonial Encounters in Lucayan Contexts (2017)
There are numerous examples of material and bodily flows (e.g., human transfer, enslavement) between the Lucayans and the Spanish during the period of late fifteenth and early sixteenth century colonial encounters. A variety of indigenous and Spanish items circulated, as relationships were established. These are known from ethnohistoric accounts and archaeological evidence from several different islands and sites located in the Bahama archipelago, including San Salvador, Andros, Long Island,...
Colonial Encounters in the Southern Lesser Antilles (2017)
During the colonisation processes, vast webs of social relationships emerged between Amerindians, Europeans, and Africans in the Lesser Antilles. The intercultural dynamics that materialized during this period were likely contingent on local and regional networks of peoples, goods and ideas which had developed in the Caribbean over the previous 5,000 years. This paper focusses on the impacts of colonial encounters on indigenous Carib societies by studying transformations in settlement pattern...
Colonization, Transformation and Continuities in the Indigenous Caribbean (2018)
The indigenous peoples of the Caribbean were the first to have suffered European colonization of the Americas. From the arrival of Columbus in 1492 the insular territories were transformed in a massive slave raiding arena in which the knowledge of so-labelled ‘indios’ was used and manipulated by the Europeans and transferred across the Caribbean Sea. Indigenous peoples were put to work in the goldmines and farms of Hispaniola, Cuba and Puerto Rico or in the pearl fisheries in Cubagua. On the...
The Colony of a Colony? The Establishment of Plantations in Dominica, c. 1730-1763 (2017)
This paper draws on archival documents held in Dominica, France, and Martinique in order to trace the establishment of a plantation economy that was integral to—yet technically outside the sphere of—French colonial rule in the early modern Americas. Prior to the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, European settlement in Dominica was formally prohibited by a series of treaties. Yet surviving notary and Catholic parish records reveal that in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, a number...
Coming to the Islands: Strontium and Oxygen Isotope Investigation of Human Mobility in the Bahamian Archipelago (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in the Archaeology of the Bahama Archipelago" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Initial settlement of the Bahamian archipelago is currently thought to have derived from Cuba and/or Hispaniola. The first forays may have been seasonal, with permanent settlement not in evidence until ca. AD 1000. As well as initial settlement, we might expect a continued movement of individuals between the Greater Antilles and the...