Mortuary Practices at the Pre-Columbian Site of Indian Creek, Antigua - Preliminary Results

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper discusses the preliminary results from recent excavations at Indian Creek, Antigua that have helped identify, document, and recover four late period Saladoid burials. Despite this being the longest continuously inhabited site on Antigua, and one of the longest continuously inhabited sites in the Caribbean, only one other complete burial has been recovered from this site. These excavations offer a glimpse into the mortuary practices of late Saladoid people, with regards to burial position and geographic location within the site in addition to cultural practices such as cranial modification and artifact and ecofact inclusion. This research marks the first systematic excavations used to explore areas outside of the deeply stratified middens surrounding the site with the goal of gaining a better understanding of mortuary practices and how space was utilized during this period on Antigua. We also look to compare our results with other pre-Columbian burial sites in the Caribbean. Lastly, we will discuss some of some ongoing and future research related to isotopic dietary reconstruction and identifying genetic relationships between these individuals using aDNA.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39436.0