Provisioned and Caught: Historic Perspectives on Diet in the Danish West Indies

Summary

Historic records indicate that during the late 18th and into the 19th century preserved North Atlantic fishes were shipped to the West Indies as a relatively cheap source of protein to feed enslaved persons and also the planter class. However, in historic zooarchaeological analyses of faunal assemblages from the Caribbean, the presence of these food remains is often not identified. Using two sites from the Danish West Indies, a case will be made for the use of fine-screen techniques to ensure adequate recovery of these remains to provide a more complete dietary picture and definitive evidence of provisioning. Additional faunal data show a predominance of marine fish and mollusk remains and limited use of domestic species.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20715