AMS Radiocarbon Dates Establish Ballcourt Site Chronologies for Toita and Llanos Tuna in Precolonial Puerto Rico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study addresses the relative paucity of dated archaeological sites in Puerto Rico and expands the islands’ existing database of radiocarbon dates. Our project focuses on developing AMS radiocarbon chronologies from two ballcourt sites: Toita, located in central eastern Puerto Rico, and Llanos Tuna, located in southwestern Puerto Rico. Current evidence, based on ceramic sequences established by Rouse (1952), suggests that Llanos Tuna was occupied from roughly AD 600 to 1200 and Toita was occupied from roughly AD 600 to 1500. AMS radiocarbon dates were taken from hutia bones, a nonnative rodent that was introduced to the island by early Hispaniolan communities. This project also directly dates the management and consumption of hutia on the island for the first time. Bayesian modeling and summed probability distributions (SPDs) of dates allow for greater resolution of island chronology and reveal potential demographic trends. Determined dates are also compared to existing dates within each region and across the island.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53237