Caribbean (Geographic Keyword)
226-250 (537 Records)
When Bahamian scholar and educator Arlene Nash Ferguson wrote about the history of the famous Bahamian festival of Junkanoo, she began her story with enslaved people taking action under cover of darkness. Freed from labor for the two day Christmas holiday, the enslaved went into “the bush” at night time, adorned their bodies with decorations found in the natural world, and reenacted, recreated, and created dances, songs, and traditions reflecting their African heritage. Nighttime afforded...
From Beads to Biographies: a Microwear Study of Late Pre-Colonial Ornaments from the Dominican Republic (2017)
Bodily ornaments are found throughout the Greater Antilles and have been generally regarded as items belonging to high-status individuals. Many studies have focused on their iconographic designs, meaning, and exchange among so-called "Taíno" societies (AD 1200-1500). However, much of the biography of stone and shell ornaments is poorly known, as raw materials, technologies of production, systems of attachment, and modes of deposition have not received comparable attention. This is partially...
From Borinquen to Barbados: A Caribbean Cave Art Ritual Complex (2015)
Caribbean archaeology has provided us with evidence of a cultural mosaic that united diverse ecologies, ideologies and identities in sophisticated networks of art and ritual. Caves and cave art were fundamental to these networks. This paper outlines a complex of cave-related ritual activity across the Antilles, supported by art-historical, archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence. This proposed "Cave Art Ritual Complex" may turn out to have far-reaching implications for issues of cultural...
From foraging to incipient horticulture: The Archaic era in the coastal zone and offshore islands of northeast South America (2016)
At the onset of the Holocene scattered small-game hunters, fishers and foragers occupied the northern South America. Such residentially and logistically mobile groups also traversed occasionally the relatively open landscape of Trinidad, judging from the individual find of a Lithic spearhead of Canaima/Atures type in this island. By then movement from the mainland to Trinidad was still easy due to the existence of a land bridge. Following its flooding as a result of the post-Pleistocene sea...
From Frog to Bat: The Extraordinary Bestiary of the Pre-Columbians from the Caribbean (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Intangible Dimensions of Food in the Caribbean Ancient and Recent Past" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Zooarchaeological studies bring information on the history of the vertebrate faunas during the last 30000 years and especially on their relationships with human activities since 5000 years in the Lesser Antilles. In such an oceanic island environment, the Pre-Columbians have mainly exploited animals from the...
From Prison to Tourism: Historical Evolution and Population of Presidio de la Princesa. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Primary Sources and the Design of Research Projects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Presidio de la Princesa is one of the oldest prisons in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, currently housing the headquarters of the Puerto Rico Tourism Board. This paper presents an analysis of blueprints and historical documents to chronologically delineate changes to the spatial distribution and activity areas while it served as a...
From Sea to Shining Sea: The Influence of Bill Dickinson’s Pacific Island Ceramic Petrography on Caribbean Research (2015)
Bill Dickinson’s research in the Pacific is widely known and considered to be one of the most exemplary cases of transdisciplinary research between archaeologists and the geosciences. The collaborative effort cultivated between Dickinson and the archaeological community over the last 50 years has led to new ways of understanding how and when peoples colonized islands, and the exchange systems that developed through time, among other important issues. One of the most significant outcomes of these...
From Spanish Shipwrecks to Coastal Development: The Archaeologist as Adventurer, Public Enemy and Philosopher (Did Anybody Say Scientist?) (2016)
Forty years of research in submerged prehistoric sites, shipwrecks, masonry forts, pirates, colonial wars, bridges, piers, lighthouses, eroding highways, fishing communities, estuarine shantytowns, beachfront condos, hotels, resorts, abandoned Olympic swimming pools, deep-water outfalls, trans-oceanic fiber-optic cables, etc., provide first-hand data for my own conflict theory of coastal evolution. From the earliest prehistoric hunters to my own research, the coast is a place of endless...
From the Sea to the Smoker: A History of Sea Turtle Exploitation on St. George's Caye, Belize (2018)
Historic literature frequently mentions the exploitation of sea turtles throughout the Caribbean by indigenous populations and early settlers alike. Large and abundant, these animals provided a readily accessible protein source for European and African populations as they traveled. A review of documents held by the Belize Archives and Records Service reveals that sea turtle capture and sale was once a large contributor to Belize’s coastal economy. Commonly called "turtlers", 25% of the...
From Theory to Real Life applications: Citizen Science in Heritage and Sustainability in Barbuda (2015)
The small sister island of Antigua, Barbuda, has been the center of archaeological and paleoenvironmental investigations over the last nine years. Archaeological presence on the island has progressed from seasonal projects with some local volunteers to the creation of two museums and a research center with a permanent presence on the island. This transition assisted in the founding of the first ever NGO on island, The Barbuda Research Complex focusing on research, heritage, education,...
Gazing Upward: New Directions at Betty's Hope Plantation, Antigua, West Indies (2015)
Plantation archaeology in the Caribbean region has been grappling with the complexities of plantation life through studying asymmetrical power relationships, spatial organization, and other important avenues of research. As there is no one "size fits all," this provides an opportunity to explore new approaches and methodologies in plantation research. For my presentation, I propose that Betty’s Hope—a 300-year-old sugar estate located on the island of Antigua—serves as a laboratory to test new...
Generating a temporal baseline of human-animal exploitation in varying ecological environments between 1300CE and 1900CE for the Caribbean island of Saba (2017)
The archaeological study of historical human-environment interactions is important to elucidate the inherent links between cultural and biological/environmental diversity through time. Such studies are particularly significant in island settings, often characterized by sensitive biogeographical and ecological histories underlying current environment and social conditions. Zooarchaeology is a leading sub-discipline in the study and creation of archaeological human-environment interaction...
Genuine Reproductions: Ethics, Practicalities and Problems in Creating a Replica of a Zemi from Carriacou (2018)
When is a copy not a fake? In 2014, the Carriacou Archaeology Project (University of Oregon; University of London) excavated a unique stone zemi at the Grand Bay site on the island of Carriacou, Grenada. The decision was made to create casts of the zemi in order to facilitate simultaneous display of the object in multiple island museums. It was hoped this would allow both museums to advocate the small island of Carriacou as a site of particular archaeological significance, to stimulate...
Geochemical analysis of Spanish-style amphorae in the Mexican Caribbean (2016)
Fragments of Spanish-style amphorae known as botijas, which date from the Mexican colonial period, were recently recovered in excavations at the port of Campeche, Mexico. Despite being common finds amongst artefacts recovered from colonial-period sites, they have not been sufficiently studied under an archaeological science approach. This would allow understand aspects related with the production and circulation of these vessels. The sample of botijas that was recovered from excavations in the...
Geomorphological Assessment of Plantation Farmscapes in Antigua, West Indies (2016)
Geomorphological survey and analysis of anthropogenically modified soils surrounding the Betty’s Hope Plantation in Antigua, West Indies, sought to model the impacts of colonial farming on local landforms. Sugarcane was extensively farmed across the island from the mid-17th century until independence from Great Britain in 1981. Physical and chemical analysis of subsurface soils and sediments was conducted to understand the landscape legacies of British colonialism on landscape modification. This...
Geophysical Investigations of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Sites on Sint Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean (2021)
This is an abstract from the "NSF REU Site: Exploring Globalization through Archaeology 2019–2020 Session, St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sint Eustatius served as a free port in the late seventeenth century, enabling the island to prosper in a evolving global economy. To better understand the role Sint Eustatius played in globalization, archaeological assessments have occurred at SE094 (Fort Amsterdam), SE095...
GIS Illuminates Site Formation Processes: Archaeology of the Fortín de la Perla (2015)
This is the first archaeological investigation into a 17th century Spanish fortification whose remnants lie within a dynamic urban slum setting in La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Fortín de la Perla does not enjoy protection by any government or cultural agency and its condition has substantially deteriorated due to natural and cultural processes. During the first quarter of the 20th century, parts of the Fortín’s structure and immediate surroundings were settled by poor workers and country...
"A Glittering Speculation": Archaeology of Jamaica’s First Coffee Boom, 1790–1806 (2018)
In the late 18th century, the British colony of Jamaica entered the first of its several boom periods in coffee production. A highly addictive product that was at the time primarily a luxury good for a small domestic market, overproduction on the island resulted in attempts by the coffee industry to expand their markets in Great Britain and the European continent to the middle and working classes. Meanwhile, the rush to get coffee to the market resulted in a rapid expansion in the number and...
Guns, Shipwrecks, and Investigations of Spanish Colonial Trade and Privateering in the 17th Century: The Chagres River Maritime Borderland, Panamá (2015)
For more than 500 years, Panamá’s Chagres River has been a nexus for maritime activity. The river served as the original trans-isthmian passage between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean where precious metals, gems, and other commodities were transported in support of Spain’s empire and mercantilist policies. The wealth created by this trade led to the establishment of Spanish cities, ports, and fortifications on either side of the isthmus protecting the maritime borderland of Spanish...
Haitian Creole: Grammar - Texts - Vocabulary (1953)
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.
Having Reservations: A Discussion on Recognizing the Dynamic Qualities of "Food" within Archaeological Contexts from the pre-Columbian Caribbean (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Intangible Dimensions of Food in the Caribbean Ancient and Recent Past" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Food is a biological necessity, but it is also created and used through culturally defined practices and perceptions, including capture, cultivation, and/or collection, preparation, consumption, disposal, and even secondary deposition. This paper challenges us to think more critically about how we identify,...
Healthcare, Life, and Death on St. Croix, USVI from the Late 19th Century to Early 21st Century (2022)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1888, the Danish government established a leper hospital on the Caribbean island of St. Croix, that was rebuilt in 1909, updated and expanded in the 1930s as part of the New Deal, and closed in 1954. In the 1960s, some buildings were removed, and others reused as part of the LBJ Gardens housing development that was occupied until around 2014. Archaeological, geophysical, and historical...
Heritage and City Foundations in Nineteenth-Century Havana, Cuba (2016)
According to national legend, Havana, Cuba, was founded under the shade of a ceiba tree whose branches sheltered the island’s first Catholic mass and meeting of the town council (cabildo) in 1519. The founding site was first memorialized in 1754 by the erection of a baroque monument in Havana’s central Plaza de Armas, which was reconfigured in 1828 by the addition of a neoclassical work, El Templete. Viewing the transformation of the Plaza de Armas from the new perspective of heritage studies,...
Heritage Organizations and Post-Hurricane Public Engagement: Knowledge Management and Lessons Learned from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. People, governments and societies have repeatedly throughout history had to respond to the effect of hurricanes on their communities and environments. Although places like the Caribbean have a long history of being impacted by natural disasters; hurricanes are seldom studied in the context of heritage management and community adaptation strategies in regards...
Hiding on Maroon Ridge: The Search for Maroon Settlements on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During the 18th century, formerly enslaved Crucians self-liberated and developed a community in the northwest hills of St. Croix. The rugged hills of St. Croix provided an ideal location for self-liberated Crucians to avoid detection and establish settlements. Archaeologists and historians have discussed the maritime marronage of...