"Caribbean-Indian
Spring: Clues to early Tainos?", by Marion Lloyd, Associated Press: "SAN
JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Deep in a cave in the remote rain forest of the
Dominican Republic, an underground spring may hold clues about the first
Indian group to make contact with Spanish explorers. U.S. archaeologists
won permission Wednesday night to explore the spring, which they believe
was the ceremonial heart of the Tainos (tah-EE-nohs) Indians five centuries
ago. The Indiana University team, along with local archaeologists, will
dive more than 200 feet beneath the jungle floor to recover artifacts,
and will excavate a nearby cave. Preliminary dives have recovered more
than 200 artifacts from the spring, including dozens of pottery vessels
and a chieftain's wooden ceremonial chair. 'We believe this area was the
heart of the Taino Caribbean civilization, and our findings should yield
priceless information about the first contact between the Spanish and the
Indians in the New World," said Charles Beeker, director of Indiana's underwater
science program'…"
Carriacou—Who’s
Involved?—a brief page outlining the international participants in
an archaeological project focused on the history of Carriacou.
Grenada
Archaeological Artifacts: “About The Artifacts: Excavated at the Pearls
Site on the Island of Grenada. This collection consists of decorative pottery
elements. The elements depict a variety of motifs, sculpted as mythological
creatures, birds, bats, frogs, monkey etc. The pottery elements date from
the First through the Fourth Centuries AD.”
"Hello
Columbus", by Matt Crenson, AP Science Editor: [the article itself
is located half way down the page] "…A professor of underwater science
at Indiana University, Beeker first saw the well at La Aleta last year,
while searching for shipwrecks from Columbus' second voyage to the New
World. Now, in the dense tropical forests of the easternmost Dominican
Republic, he and his colleagues are uncovering lost remnants of the first
contact between the Old World and the New. 'There's no doubt that this
is a very special place for archaeologists in terms of what we stand to
learn,' says Geoff Conrad, director of Indiana University's Mathers Museum.…The
Indian side of the story has been lost to history. But archaeologists have
found cave paintings near La Aleta that may give a partial account from
the Indian point of view. The walls of Jose Maria Cave, a few miles from
the well, depict Indians growing, harvesting and making bread from a local
plant known as guayiga. The paintings also show the Indians offering the
bread to the Spanish as a tribute. Because the conquistadors were more
interested in gold than farming, they needed the bread to feed the inhabitants
of Santo Domingo and other nearby colonies…"
John W.
Foster, Senior State Archaeologist, California State Parks, and Charles
D. Beeker, Director of Underwater Science, Indiana University: Archaeological
Study of a Limestone Sinkhole: Diving in Manantial de la Aleta East National
Park, Dominican Republic: This site has been an important landscape feature
for many centuries. It is thought to be the water source described by the
chronicler Bartoleme de Las Casas in the first decade of the sixteenth
century for the capital village of Cotubanama, the Taino cacique. This
site and its people were destroyed in a bloody war with the Spaniards in
1503.
Joint
Royal Ontario Museum-Cuban Ministry of Science Research Team Discovers
Second Taino House in Cuba: New findings are the first physical evidence
of Taino housing constructed over water—extract: “(Toronto, ON, April
1, 1999) Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) today announced that a joint
Canadian-Cuban archaeological team has discovered a second Taino (pronounced
tie-no) building underwater at the site of Los Buchillones (pronounced
lows booch-ee-own-ace ) on Cuba's north coast. Revealing new information
about the Taino, an important but little-known Precolumbian people, this
finding provides the first archaeological evidence that the buildings were
constructed over water on pilings. In February 1998, the significant discovery
of a similarly preserved Taino house was made by the same ROM team of researchers
at a nearby location….”
Pre-Columbian
People of Anguilla, from the Anguilla Guide: “The rich and dynamic
Amerindian history of the island is beginning to be reconstructed as a
result of recent work by the Anguilla Archaeological and Historical Society
and archaeologists from numerous institutions such as the Carnegie Museum
of Natural History, the University of Maine at Farmington, and the University
of Pittsburgh….” (not the usual rehashing of exotic myths of cannibalism
and, this site provides a useful synopsis of key archaeological and ethnohistoric
data.)
Pre-Columbian:
"The rich
and dynamic Amerindian history of the island is beginning to be reconstructed
as a result of recent work by the Anguilla Archaeological and Historical
Society and archaeologists from numerous institutions such as the Carnegie
Museum of Natural History, the University of Maine at Farmington, and the
University of Pittsburgh."
“Pre-Columbus
village unearthed on Virgin Islands,” in Lancaster Intelligencer Journal,
December 11, 1990, p. A3: Excerpt—“ CHARLOTTE AMALIE, St. Thomas (AP)
-- Bulldozers at an island construction zone on St. Thomas have unearthed
an archaeological site that could date to 900 years before Columbus first
visited the Virgin Islands. Archaeologist Elizabeth Righter and volunteers
from the National Park Service in Atlanta are carefully documenting the
dig, and indications are it is about 1,400 years old…”
“Rediscovering the
Taino Indians”—extract: “Director of the SPEA Environmental Systems
Application Center, Professor Bill Jones was back in the Domnican Republic
again this past summer. For the past two years, Jones has been a member
of the team of archaeologists searching for evidence of the Taino Indians
in a remote tropical forest in the Domincan Republic…."
Taino:
Voices from the Past-A brief introduction to Taino culture history: "In
recent years, however, spectacular finds have rekindled interest in the
original inhabitants of the Caribbean. In 1997, for instance, archaeologists
found the remains of a major Taino city on the eastern most part of the
Dominican Republic. The discovery of the city's long-hidden ceremonial
plazas and homes "is going to give us more insight into the Taino than
has ever been known before," says Indiana University archaeologist Charles
Beeker."
This page was last updated on: Tuesday, 30 December, 2003.