The Archaeology of Indigenous-European Interaction at LaSoye 2, Dominica, a Sixteenth- to Eighteenth-Century Trading Settlement

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 2017, storm surges from Hurricane Maria exposed evidence of an early European colonial settlement on the Caribbean island nation of Dominica. Subsequent survey and testing established the site as a trading settlement, dating from the sixteenth until eighteenth century, a period of dynamic change in the Caribbean. The site is located on the coastline of an active trading channel between Marie-Galant, Guadeloupe and Dominica, protected by a headland called Point La Soye. Behind this point is the first sheltered anchorage for vessels voyaging from Africa and Europe, and was the territory of indigenous Kalinago groups. Two seasons of archaeological testing at the site have recovered indigenous “Cayo,” and imported European ceramic wares, syncretic artifact forms, trade items, faunal remains, and more, indicating complex interactions between indigenous groups and the European traders. This site offers a rare opportunity to examine the consequences of informal European colonialism on the Caribbean frontier.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33285