Paleoethnobotanical Analysis of a Classic Taino Ritual Site at Cinnamon Bay, St. John (AD 1000–1490)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster presents preliminary analysis of paleoethnobotanical data from excavations at a Classic Taino site (AD 1000–1490) located at Cinnamon Bay on St. John, US Virgin Islands. Excavations began in 1992 when it was determined that the site was at risk of being lost to erosion. Until now, there has been no analysis of the paleoethnobotanical samples taken from the site. The goal of our study is to fill in the gaps of ritual foodways, offerings, and other ethnobotanical practices, such as medicinal or technological use of plants by the people who frequented this site prior to European conquest. In the Caribbean, limited macrobotanical studies have been conducted due to concerns about the level of preservation. However, the studies that have been completed have produced important insights into plant use by past Caribbean peoples, and our purpose is to eventually integrate the paleoethnobotanical data from Cinnamon Bay with existing zooarchaeological data from the site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36970.0