Plant Use at Cinnamon Bay, St. John, USVI: A Window into Taíno Ecology and Ritual

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances in Macrobotanical and Microbotanical Archaeobotany Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper presents the analysis of paleoethnobotanical data from excavations at a Classic Taino site (1000 CE–1490 CE) at Cinnamon Bay, a shoreline ritual site located on St. John in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). 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. In the Caribbean, limited macrobotanical studies have been conducted due to concerns about the level of preservation, but previous analyses of soil samples from Taíno habitation sites including Trunk Bay on St. John and the Tutu Village site have provided baseline evidence for what comprised the Taíno diet. Although those analyses are important to our understanding of Taíno domestic economy, there has been a lack of analysis of ritual sites. This paper provides insights into ritualistic plant use by the Taíno that have previously been uninvestigated. We explore potential overlap with dietary resources from domestic habitation sites, including forest resources and agricultural staples, but pay particular attention to how plant use activities were connected with the ceremonial life of the ancient occupants of Cinnamon Bay.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Advances in Macrobotanical and Microbotanical Archaeobotany Part 1   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39647.0