En Bas Saline

The details of Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage to the Caribbean long have both fascinated and frustrated scholars as well as a wider public. The grounding of his flagship, the Santa María, on Christmas Eve on the north coast of Hispaniola, the construction of a fort close to the site of the ship's destruction, the hospitality and assistance provided by local ruler Guacanagarí, Columbus's decision to leave a sizable contingent of men behind on the island he called Isla Española when he returned to Europe, and the subsequent destruction of the fort are well known through several surviving accounts. Yet questions surrounding these events remain. When Columbus returned to the site of the fort, La Navidad, in 1493, he found that none of the Spaniards had survived. He received varying accounts of their deaths and the role that Guacanagarí might have played in their fate.One unsettled question is the precise location of the fort and its relationship to a substantial Indigenous community at what has been thought to be the location; the community, in present-day Haiti, long predated the arrival of Spaniards and continued in existence for some time after contact. The presumed site of the fort, today known as En Bas Saline, is the subject of Kathleen Deagan's new volume, which summarizes and contextualizes the archaeological work that has been conducted there starting in the late 1970s (when William Hodges first went there) and continuing from the early 1980s until 2003. Deagan herself played a major role in this work, which entailed the collaboration of agencies and institutions in Haiti and the United States and of many scholars and volunteers who labored under often-difficult conditions.Although the bulk of the work took place some years ago, integrating the material into a single volume makes it possible for Deagan not only to present a complete picture of the excavations done to date and their results but also to situate these findings within the rapidly growing body of archaeological work that focuses on the period before and after the arrival of Europeans in the Caribbean. By writing the book now rather than 20 years ago, she is able to compare data from En Bas Saline with evidence from sites elsewhere in the Caribbean that affords comparable insights into Indigenous communities as they existed at the time of contact and into the impact—or lack of such—of Europeans' intrusion into the region in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.The book's first five chapters address Taíno history, culture, sociopolitical organization, and social structure, highlighting migration, exchange, and community definition. The sixth chapter focuses on En Bas Saline, the excavations that have taken place there, and their results. Chapters 7 through 12 address the types of evidence found during the excavations and the aspects of Indigenous life that they illuminate, including foodways and technology, artisanal production, community and ritual spaces, and households. Although much of the content of these chapters is technical, Deagan's discussions for the most part are accessible to the nonspecialist. In delineating both the potential and the limitations of the evidence for understanding a range of cultural and socioeconomic patterns, she is able to offer conclusions that are clear, nuanced, and well substantiated by the data. The book's final three chapters, which focus on Columbus and on whether La Navidad indeed was built in proximity to the community at En Bas Saline, provide an interesting overview of the community in the postcontact period.Deagan concludes that En Bas Saline was a long-standing and very large community with elite-commoner distinctions that were reflected in housing types, diet, and ritual involvement. Was it Guacanagarí’s community? She leaves that question unresolved. As she writes, “The identification of En Bas Saline as the Taíno town in which La Navidad was built is . . . based on archaeological, geographical, and documentary evidence that neither confirms nor rejects that identification” (p. 246).En Bas Saline is a welcome addition to the growing archaeological literature that has changed and expanded our understanding of the Indigenous Caribbean before, during, and following European intrusion. Deagan emphasizes the collaborative nature of this work and the contributions of other archaeologists. She is modest about her own very substantial contributions to our knowledge of the early Spanish period in Hispaniola and Florida. Her important work has shown how archaeological evidence can deepen and enrich scholarship that is based primarily on contemporary records and chronicles

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