Zooarchaeological Evidence of Dietary Impacts from Contact at Maima, Jamaica

Author(s): Shea Henry

Year: 2016

Summary

Recent field research at the Taino village of Maima on the north coast of Jamaica has revealed a complex late prehistoric and contact era village settlement.  Occupied during the late prehistoric era, Maima was impacted by Columbus and his crew when they were stranded on the island for a year in 1503.  After that initial contact, the villagers were forced into labour at the nearby Spanish settlement of Sevilla la Nueva.  Faunal evidence, including shell and vertebrate bone, show that the impact of contact and colonization was swift and with severe consequences for the Maima villagers.  Few European domesticates and little change in subsistence strategies through time reveal that, for the Maima villagers, the time between Spanish contact and the abandonment of their village was sudden and complete. 

Cite this Record

Zooarchaeological Evidence of Dietary Impacts from Contact at Maima, Jamaica. Shea Henry. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434881)

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Keywords

General
Contact Jamaica Spanish Colonial

Geographic Keywords
Canada North America

Temporal Keywords
Contact Era

Spatial Coverage

min long: -141.003; min lat: 41.684 ; max long: -52.617; max lat: 83.113 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 887