The Continuing Archaeological Investigations on the Northeast Coast of San Salvador Island, Bahamas

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances in the Archaeology of the Bahama Archipelago" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Youngstown State University archaeologists have conducted research on San Salvador Island since 1995, initially under the direction of Gary Fry and, later, of Thomas Delvaux and Matt O’Mansky. This research has focused on three sites on the east side of the island: the North Storr’s Lake site (SS-4), the Fresh Lake site (SS-7), and the Dim Bay site (SS-5). Extensive excavations have been conducted at both SS-4 and SS-7 while work at SS-5 is in the early stages. Despite the relative proximity of these three sites to one another, each is distinct in function. SS-4, the only one of the sites for which radiocarbon dates have been obtained, was clearly a habitation site. Preliminary research at SS-5 indicates that that site was likely a temporary campsite, based on its exposed location and paucity of artifacts. The nature of SS-7 is more ambiguous with abundant shell beads and other artifacts recovered but no clear evidence of long-term occupation. In this presentation, we describe the settings of these three sites and compare the distribution of artifacts as we continue to refine our understanding of the pre-contact occupation of San Salvador.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Advances in the Archaeology of the Bahama Archipelago

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25627