The Caribbean region includes a series of islands, divided into the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, the Bahamas archipelago and the Virgin Islands.
The Greater Antilles consist of the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic (the colonial Hispaniola). The Lesser Antilles include the islands of Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, St. Vincent, Barbados, Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Marie Galante, St. Maarten and Anguilla.
Caribbean Archaeology
Although most of the areas and smaller islands are still poorly known archaeologically, Caribbean archaeology has a long history that includes studies on archaic sites and population dynamics, early pottery making cultures, contact period cultures, such as Tainos and the Caribs, as well as colonial history.
The first interest in the past of the Caribbean arose among the colonizing Europeans: in the 16th century, Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote extensively about Caribbean cultures. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Danish and Swedish archaeologists Gudmund Hatt and Sven Loven wrote about Caribbean culture history.
More recent research includes the work of Ricardo Alegría, Luis Chanlatte Baik, Ripley and Adelaide Bullen, Edgar Clerc, Cayetano Coll y Toste, José Cruxent, Desmond Nicholson, Estrella Rey, Jacques Petitjean Roget, Irving Rouse, Ernesto Tabío, and Marcio Veloz Maggiolo.
Environment and Climate
The bigger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the island of Haiti and Dominican Republic are characterized by a varied geography, composed of coastal zones, internal valleys and elevated areas, whereas the smaller islands have a dominant coastal environment.
The Caribbean area is characterized by a subtropical climate, with abundant rains and hurricanes through June and November, and a dry season the rest of the year. Environmental zones varied from tropical desert to rainforests, in the higher elevations. Marine environment includes beach, estuarine, reef and deep-water zones, with different fauna and vegetation.
Caribbean Population
The Caribbean islands were the last of the American large regions to be populated. People who already lived in Central America, probably the Yucatan peninsula, and in northern South America first moved into the Caribbean about 6000 years ago.
The oldest evidence of people reaching the Caribbean comes from Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as Trinidad, in the Lesser Antilles. These hunter-gatherers who paddled into their canoes out of the coast of South and Central America used stone tools such as grinders, like mortars, manos, and flake tools. They collected shellfish and estuarine mollusks, hunted manatees, crocodiles, sea turtles and whales.
A second wave of colonization reached the Caribbean around 500 B.C. and these people brought with them agricultural techniques and the first pottery. Specific cultures developed then in the different Caribbean regions.
Caribbean Cultures
The late Caribbean cultures, the ones encountered by the Europeans, had a sophisticated and complex life style and social organization. Many groups were organized in cacicazgos, independent communities ruled by local leaders (caciques). They were divided into two social classes: nobles and commoners. Most pre-Columbian Caribbean groups included craft artisans who worked stone, wood and created jewelry, carvings woodworking, pottery and textiles.
Caribbean Prehistory Timeline
- Learn about the chronology of Ancient Caribbean.
Caribbean People
Among the different culture and people of prehistoric and contact period Caribbean we can include: Archaic cultures such as, Casimiroid, Ortoid, Ostionoid, the later Saladoid culture, and the best known Tainos, Ciboneys, and Island Caribs, who were the groups encountered by the Spanish
Caribbean Site
- Caguana
- Maisabel
- Tibes
- Hacienda Grande
- Pueblo Viejo
- Banwari Trace
- Los Buchillones
- Paso del Indio
- Levisa rock shelter
- Jolly Beach
- Funche Cave
- Seboruco
- Couri
- Madrigales
- Casimira
- Mordán-Barrera
- Ortoire
- Krum Bay
- Cayo Redondo
- Guayabo Blanco
- La Hueca
- Hope Estate
- Cedros
- Chacuey
- Palo Seco
- Punta Candelero
- Sorcé
- Tecla
- Golden Rock
- El Atadijizo
- Laguna Limones.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to North American archaeology, 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