Caribbean (Other Keyword)
1-25 (87 Records)
Christianity anchored the material practices and social institutions of the Spanish settlers in the New World and while Christian friars undoubted arrived in Jamaica with the initial group of settlers in 1509, the Jamaican abbacy was not formally founded until 1515. The ecclesiastical authorities used temporary thatch and wood structures for worship at the capital of Sevilla la Nueva until funds were provided for the construction of a stone church in 1524. The abbey however, was not quite...
Afterlives of Slavery on the Post-Emancipation Caribbean Plantation (2017)
This paper offers some opening remarks that introduce the conceptual framework informing this session. A rich body of archaeological literature has investigated plantation slavery in the Caribbean region, but far less attention has been paid to the post-emancipation landscape and the significant transformations that affected the lives of laborers. We seek to address how a focus on the post-emancipation Caribbean plantation landscape can provide unique insights into how notions of freedom were...
Ancient networks of the Caribbean: Interaction and Exchange across the Historical Divide (2017)
In this paper, we present multiple lines of evidence for the existence of interwoven and dynamic ancient networks in the Caribbean. This region is characterized by a long and unique history of social relationships between communities and peoples at various temporal and spatial scales. Through time, Caribbean networks of human mobility and the exchange of goods and ideas were shaped by expanding and contracting group territories, fission and fusion of local communities, and variable degrees of...
Archaeology and Digital Heritage at the Chief Jacko Site: Landscapes of Maroons in Dominica (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Global Archaeologies of the Long Emancipation", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. For more than 50 years hundreds of self-emancipated Africans inhabited the mountainous interior of the Caribbean island of Dominica (Wai’tukubuli) where they formed various communities who actively resisted European colonialism and slavery not only to maintain their freedom, but to assist in liberating enslaved Africans throughout...
"Back to the Soil": Community Archaeology and Heritage Tourism in Eleuthera, Bahamas (2016)
Over the past several decades there has been a great deal of archaeological excavation and analysis of both U.S. and Caribbean plantations. However, many of these research projects are designed to address archaeological research questions rather than some of the pressing problems faced by descendant communities concerning their heritage. In 1994, UNESCO launched their “Slave Route” project, with the aim of “contributing to a better understanding of the causes, forms of operation, issues and...
Bayamanaco and the Cayman: The Mythic origin of Manioc Cultivation, Amazonia-Antilles (2017)
Recent trace analysis of Greater Antillean culinary implements finds a paucity of evidence for manioc until late times. This is anomalous since it was believed that manioc accompanied the first truly horticultural and ceramic-producing groups, the Saladoids, from the Orinocan lowlands of South America through the Lesser Antilles to Puerto Rico at 800-500 B.C. Such late occurrence also contradicts the fact that manioc is a lowland cultigen, spanning northern tropical South America. Actual tubers...
Between Seascapes and Sandscapes: An Archaeological Approach of the Insular and Coastal Nautical Spaces in the Colombian Caribbean during the 18th and 19th Centuries (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "In Small Islands Forgotten: Insular Historical Archaeologies of a Globalizing World", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Interdisciplinary approaches from maritime, coastal, island, nautical and underwater archaeology have been developed in recent years in Colombia, particularly on the island of Tierrabomba in Cartagena de Indias, the islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina and La Guajira Peninsula...
Black Female Slave in the Caribbean: An Archaeological Observation on Culture (2016)
The relationships between white men and black female slaves resulted in the formation of new ethnic identitites and social structures associated with their mixed-heritage or "mulatto" children. Sources like artwork and ethno-historical accounts of mulatto children in areas of the Caribbean and the role of African female slaves lend unique insights into social dynamics and cultural markers of modern populations. This paper examines the historical narratives and archaeological findings of black...
Black Pitch, Carved Histories: Prehistoric wood sculpture from Trinidad’s Pitch Lake (2015)
Since 6000 BC, if not earlier, Trinidad has been the gateway into the Caribbean for waves of South American migrants - the first stepping stone in the long chain of islands that make up the archipelago. Its critical position to the settlement of the Caribbean is reflected in its deep archaeological record, documenting the complex interactions between its diverse peoples over millennia. Unique among its archaeological sites is Pitch Lake, one of the largest natural deposits of asphalt in the...
The Breaking and Making of Ceramics in the Pre-Columbian Caribbean: A Technological Approach to Grog Identification (2015)
Grog is a technological phenomenon present in archaeological assemblages spanning widely across time and space. Traditionally defined as a grounded down, previously fired ceramic used as temper during clay preparation, grog belongs to a wider category of additives which increase porosity and reduce shrinkage, thereby lessening the likelihood of vessel crack progression during the drying and firing stages of ceramic production. Beyond this basic description of its functional properties, grog has...
British Peasant Ideologies and Technological Approaches to Marginal Caribbean Landscapes (2017)
British colonial ideology originated, in part, from a view of the proper relationship between people, land, and government that was rooted in the ecology of Britain itself. This view was informed in the Caribbean by Barbadian and other large-scale sugar planting colonies, but the British Virgin Islands are ecologically and politically distinct. This paper employs high-resolution satellite imagery and GIS modeling to explore what happens when a British "peasant" ideology is laid onto a very...
Caribbean landscapes during the late-precolonial and early-colonial periods (2016)
People in the Caribbean have been interacting with their landscapes for at least 8,000 years (Trinidad), sometimes in ways that leave only subtle traces of actions and in others the evidence is dramatic. Over this span we see variable trajectories of landscape engagements, ranging from early relatively intense activities followed by abandonment to continuous occupations throughout prehistory to places occupied late in the historical sequence. First colonizers to the Caribbean modified and...
Caribbean's First Farmers: The Story of St. John in southwestern Trinidad (2016)
Recent starch grain analysis of three grindstones from St. John has confirmed that the Ortoiroid people of St. John (southwestern Trinidad) were in fact the first farmers of the insular Caribbean. This discovery is significant for the region as it provides proof that as far back as 7,700 years ago, early native communities in the Caribbean were actively engaged in the sowing, harvesting and processing of a range of cultivars. This paper will explore early farming at St. John in relation to...
Causes and Consequences of Colonization in the Caribbean: What Is Known and What Is Unknowable (2017)
One of the defining characteristics of humans is our propensity to migrate. However, the push or pull factors resulting in human migrations may be impossible to know in some cases. Furthermore, our sole reliance on the archaeological record may mislead our understanding of the timing and impact of migrations. Recognizing migrations in the archaeological past is made especially difficult in cases where migrating groups were small, leaving ephemeral traces of their occupations. Paleoenvironmental...
Cayman's 1794 Wreck of the Ten Sail (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The story has been passed through generations. it was the wreck of ten vessels at once, comprising one of the most dramatic maritime disasters in Caribbean naval history. Historical documents and remains of the ships confirm that the narrative is more than folklore. It is based on the loss of HMS Convert, formerly L’Inconstante, a recent prize from the French, and nine of her...
Chicken Toes and Dominoes: Dining and Recreation at Shirley Heights Fort in Antigua, West Indies (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Shirley Heights (1791-1854) was a military fort located on the former British Caribbean colony of Antigua, constructed during a period of rising tensions from French invasions of British territories and increased resistance of enslaved Africans. Excavations conducted at the Blockhouse of Shirley Heights in 2018 sought to add to the growing body of research on Antiguan military sites...
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...
The Colony and the City: Contemporary Caribbean Landscapes in Transatlantic Context (2016)
Following Raymond Williams’ critical analysis of the relationship between the English countryside and its urban counterpart in The Country and the City (1973), this paper expands Williams’ analysis to incorporate the entanglements of the colony, specifically the Caribbean post-colony of Barbados, and English urban centers. Despite studies of well-known historical relationships existing in terms of Atlantic world economics, there has been less discussion of the repercussions of...
Comparative analysis of ceramic assemblages from 18th century Caribbean enslaved populations (2015)
Multiple ceramic samples were type identified and analyzed for the use in a regional comparative analysis of enslaved populations. The sampled ceramics were obtained from multiple contexts collected from various Caribbean locations. The comparative analyses clarify social dynamics, prosperity, and sustainability within enslaved populations. Afro-Caribbean, colonial tradewares, and exotics were compared by quantifying frequency and present/absent along with the level of diversity in the local...
Conch Shells and Concrete: Differential Mortuary Treatment in Christiansted Cemetery, St. Croix, USVI (2022)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. As part of the 2021 National Science Foundation funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates Exploring Globalization Through Archaeology site investigations of the St. Croix Leper Hospital (1888-1954), team members documented over 1200 graves in the Christiansted Cemetery. After identifying the names of hospital residents from census records (1890-1940) and the names of 240 individuals...
Cores and Peripheries: Betty’s Hope, A Synergy of Approaches to the Archaeology of a Caribbean Sugar Plantation (2015)
The Betty’s Hope Field Project has been ongoing for the last eight years, and comprises two components: ongoing research and the summer field school. AS a 300-year-old sugar plantation on Antigua, Betty’s Hope offers a myriad of opportunities to explore plantation life and Caribbean archaeology. Within the theme of this year’s SHA conference on boundaries and peripheries, the paper will address some of the exciting new developments and directions our research is taking us, and how it relates...
The Cultural Landscape at Mount Plantation, Barbados: preliminary findings and future directions (2013)
As part of a wider project in Barbados and the UK, archival research, fieldwalking, and remote sensing have been carried out at Mount Plantation, Barbados. It was selected on its potential for two related research directions. First, to yield data related to the 17C transition to a sugar economy. Second, a study of created and transformed landscapes owned by the Lascelles family in Barbados and Yorkshire (UK). The archaeological investigation of Mount has the potential to yield significant...
The 'Curse of the Caribbean'? The Effects of Agency on the Efficiency of Sugar Plantations in St Vincent and the Grenadines, 1801-30 (2013)
This study estimates agency's impact on the efficiency of sugar plantations using a panel data set compiled from St Vincent and the Grenadines' crop accounts and slave registry returns. Previous work suggests that agency resulted from absenteeism and exerted a large, negative influence on estate efficiency. This contribution uses stochastic frontier models for panel data to estimate the impact of agency while controlling for crop mix, locational variables, and the size of the estate. Analysis...
Danish Colonial Health Policy and Practice on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands (2015)
During the period between 1803 and 1848, a series of medical hospitals were constructed on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands in order to provide medical services to enslaved individuals in an effort to reduce mortality and morbidity. My research seeks to interrogate how medical initiatives and treatments were implemented, contested, or received by various actors, including Danish colonial doctors and nurses, plantation health care providers, and enslaved individuals. This research will be...
Diverse Dining: Post-Emancipation Foodways in Antigua, West Indies (2017)
The role of zooarchaeology and foodways in plantation archaeology has aided in teasing out the details of daily life and shifting sociocultural habits during the colonial period. Plantation archaeology has also had a distinct focus on the African diaspora communities. However, the post-Emancipation period complicates the narrative even further as new ethnic communities were brought or drawn to the new labor requirements of plantations at this time. Post-Emancipation Antigua saw an influx of...