New Perspectives on Early Migrations in the Western Caribbean

Building a regional picture of the early peopling of the Western Caribbean is a challenging task. One of the main issues is the lack of a consistent, large scale chronological framework that would allow us to reconstruct direction(s), frequencie(s) and causes of past population movements. Our session focuses on skeletal remains as ancestors that provide both biological and cultural information, and examines the identity of the early migrants, their mode of subsistence and reasons behind their migrations. We present research on ancient DNA (aDNA), archaeology of subsistence practices (including paleoethnobotany and isotope analyses), mortuary archaeology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and analyses of place names (toponymy) in order to contextualize ancestral remains within their historical, cultural, natural and ideational worlds. We particularly encourage discussion of data sets on chronometric and stratigraphic dating of relevant sites in the region. The presented results point to the multidirectionality of early migrations and to the complexity of interactions between the islands and the adjacent continental regions, calling for different scales of inquiry into the process of early peopling of the Western Caribbean.