Jolly Beach is an Archaic period site on a small island off the northern coast of Antigua, in the Lesser Antilles. Oldest levels date between 5000 to 2000 BC, and radiocarbon data exist for materials dating between 1800 and 1600 BC. Compared to other sites on the island, which are mainly shell middens, Jolly Beach presents different stone tools, like blades, ground-stone artifacts, net weights, mortar and pestles, along with shell beads and pendants. Other typical tools are small axes made out of shells.
Archaeologists believe that the Archaic lithic technology represented at Jolly Beach revealed influences from both the Greater and Lesser Antilles traditions, especially from Trinidad. However, a big difference with the Lesser Antilles, where the so called Ortoiroid tradition arose, is the presence at Jolly Beach of refined stone blades. These stone tools are more refined than the usually roughly made ground stones and other tools typical of the Ortoiroid technology and are more similar to the materials of the Greater Antilles cultures and Central America, where it probably originated. Some archaeologists, however, suggest that this refined production depends on the high quality of the raw material, mainly chert, available in Antigua.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Caribbean, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Saunders Nicholas J., 2005, The Peoples of the Caribbean. An Encyclopedia of Archaeology and Traditional Culture. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California.
Wilson, Samuel, 2007, The Archaeology of the Caribbean, Cambridge World Archaeology Series. Cambridge University Press, New York.