Lucayan Burials in the Bahama Archipelago

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.

The first archaeological evidence for the native peoples of the Bahama archipelago was found in dry caves, many of which were excavated for cave earth to fertilize agricultural fields. Human remains were found in some of these caves, but in such small numbers it was thought this could not have been the only location in which the Lucayans interred their dead. The use of SCUBA for pleasure and scientific purposes has led to a dramatic increase in the investigations of underwater caves, caverns and sink holes. As a result, human remains have increasingly been found throughout the archipelago leading to the assumption that the Lucayans buried their dead only in the caves (dry and submerged) throughout the Bahama Archipelago. However, recent discoveries in Long Island along with previous discoveries in Abaco and Middle Caicos have revealed burials in open-air environments. This presentation is an overview of all known burial sites in the Bahama Archipelago and gives an update on the analysis of these remains. We will also discuss the similarities and differences between dry cave, submerged and open-air burials. We conclude with some thoughts on the cultural significance on the various types of burials.

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23184