Targeting the Jamaican Ostionoid

The Blue Marlin Archaeological Project

Bibliographic Data

ID8902806
AuthorsSabrina R Rampersad (0000-0003-1295-5245, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume55
Issue2
Pages23-42
Publication date2009-06-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCaribbean Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-6495 • E-ISSN: 2470-6302
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00086495.2009.11829757
OpenAlexW332656702
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited10

Status of Jamaican Prehistory and Redware Studies The study of Jamaica's earliest prehistory has yet to receive concentrated and widespread attention from archaeologists. One reason for this is that, until recently, too few professional archaeologists have existed on the island, and fewer still have been tempted by, or equipped for, the study of the island's prehistory. This situation is changing gradually as university-trained archaeologists continue to emerge in Jamaica, nonetheless, such a positive development is counteracted by a persistent negative: professional archaeologists outside Jamaica have generally not addressed the island's rich prehistoric resource. Thus, within the entire Caribbean, Jamaica remains one of the least known islands prehistorically. Even within the Greater Antilles, knowledge of Jamaica's pre-Columbian peoples lags behind that of Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The work of the Blue Marlin Archaeological Project on Jamaica's south coast (Figure I)2 is seeking to address the paucity of knowledge concerning the earliest known occupation of Jamaica, the Ostionan Ostionoid culture,3 informally referred to as 'Redware.' This culture predated the arrival (on Jamaica) of the better-known Taino (Meillacan) prehistoric populations by about two hundred years. The present archaeological remains of both cultures show that Jamaican Redware and Taino peoples were two distinct cultural entities, at least in their early stages, although it is suspected - but not proven - that the Redware culture became assimilated into that of the Taino through a process of social and cultural interaction over time. Thus, the Redware culture could well have evolved into what we now recognize as Taino, without the intermediate stages of such development yet apparent in the thin archaeological record. At its outset, the Redware culture is distinct from the Taino culture by the characteristics of its ceramics, its habitation preferences, and by its dietary habits. For example, the presence of red slipped or red painted ceramics in Redware assemblages (hence the term Redware) is not known in Taino assemblages. These ceramics bear a fine sand temper in contrast to unslipped and unpainted Taino wares with coarser tempers. The settlement pattern of Redware peoples at present reflects a coastal orientation where people lived within 100 metres of the shoreline, while the later Taino populations generally preferred inland locations on high ground overlooking the sea, although some coastal Taino sites are known on Jamaica. Only two radiocarbon dates (Vanderwal, 1968, p. 130; Keegan, 2000a, para. 2)4 have been obtained for the Jamaican Redware, which presently place this cultural sequence between c. A.D. 650 and c. A.D. 850. 5 The Taino culture is known by a more sizeable collection of radiocarbon dates from a number of sites, which place it between A.D. 800 to AD. 1494. Thus, it was the later prehistoric peoples, the Tainos, whom Columbus met when he arrived on Jamaica, with all visible traces of the Redware peoples having disappeared by that time. The sparse archaeological record so far supports the disappearance of the Jamaican Redware culture within prehistoric time, and thus, Redware peoples were unseen, unaffected, and unrecorded by historic populations. At the time of writing, no earlier culture, either ceramic or aceramic, predating the Redware sequence has been reported on Jamaica. It is likely that this circumstance is not an accurate reflection of prehistoric reality, since both ceramic and aceramic complexes have been found in pre-Ostionoid sequences on neighbouring islands of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico). Concerning the earliest occupation of Jamaica, one writer notes: It is quite remarkable that such a large land mass in the Americas went uncolonized for so long. It may well be that evidence of earlier occupations or at least visits will eventually come to light, for Jamaica is just beginning to receive the intensity of archaeological research that the other Greater Antillean islands have experienced (Wilson, 2007, p

Archaeology · Ethnology · Geography · Prehistory · West indies · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies

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