Levisa is a rockshelter site in the eastern province of Cuba, in the Caribbean islands. The deposits of the site span between 4200 to 2000 BC. Levisa produced important information about the origins of the first Caribbean migrant groups as well as about aspects of their diet, during the Archaic period.
Based on recent studies on stone tools typologies and assemblages, it seems that a probable origin for the first inhabitants of Cuba and the Greater Antilles was Central America. Lithic assemblages found in the oldest levels of Levisa, in fact, are similar to stone tools recovered from almost contemporary levels in the site of Colhá, Belize.
Furthermore, a change from a refined blade technology - found in the deepest, and therefore older levels of the site - to flake tools, recovered from more recent layers, made some archaeologists suggest that a sort of technological “regression” occurred to these first migrants while the moved from the mainland to the Caribbean. However, this change can also be attributed to a change in the resources exploited or in the available raw materials.
Furthermore, by 2000 BC, fishing and shellfish collection became more important in the diet of the inhabitants. Reliance on land mammal slowly decreases, probably because of a lifestyle modification from a terrestrial to an island environment.
Finally, in the later levels of the site, the use of shells as raw material for tools became more widespread, a further sign that people learnt to better exploit the local resources. In general, in Cuban prehistory, especially for these earlier periods, there is a decrease in the use of stone tools in favor of objects made of shell, wood, and basketry.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Caribbean, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Wilson, Samuel, 2007, The Archaeology of the Caribbean, Cambridge World Archaeology Series. Cambridge University Press, New York
Wilson, Samuel M., Iceland Harry B., and Thomas R. Hester, 1998, Preceramic Connections between Yucatan and the Caribbean, Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 342-352.