Gestion des ressources culturelles Cultural Resource...

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Gestion des ressources culturelles

Cultural Resource Management and Public Archaeology

Gestión de los recursos culturales

01Session - Sessíon

Sommaire • Contents • Contenidos

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The Unpublicised: an Inside View of the National Prehistoric Collection

of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Proceedings

Kathy Martin - St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Trust

rachel Moses - St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Trust

[email protected]

Abstract This presentation is aimed at showing some of the formally unpublicised artefacts from the National Prehistoric Collection of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The Collection was started by Dr Earle Kirby more than forty years ago under the auspices of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) National Trust and was housed at the Botanic Gardens in the old Curator’s House. In recent times, the Collection has been moved to the Carnegie Building, the headquarters of the SVG National Trust, and is open to the public daily. New items have been added from the Archaeological excavations taking place around the country in the third millennium. On exhibition and in storage are domestic and ceremonial utensils, items of personal adornment, tools and weaponry made of ceramic, lithic and faunal materials. The exhibit spans the time from A.D. 160 to the period of contact.

Keywords : Museum, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, National Collection, Cayoid, Grave goods

Resumé La collection national de la préhistoire de Saint-Vincent et les GrenadinesCette présentation vise à montrer quelques-uns des artefacts non publiées officiellement de la Collection National de la Préhistoire de Saint-Vincent et les Grenadines. La collection a été lancée par le Dr Earle Kirby plus de quarante ans sous les auspices de la Saint-Vincent-et-les Grenadines (SVG) National Trust et a été logé à la Chambre dans les jardins botaniques de l'ancien conservateur. Ces derniers temps, la collection a été déplacé à l'édifice de Carnegie, le quartier général de la Fiducie nationale SVG, et est ouvert au public tous les jours. De nouveaux éléments ont été ajoutés des fouilles archéologiques en cours à travers le pays dans le troisième millénaire. Sur l'exposition et de stockage sont des ustensiles domestiques et rituelles, les articles de parure personnelle, des outils et des armes en céramique, lithique et faunique. L'exposition recrée l'époque de A.D. 160 à la période de contact.

ResumenLa colección nacional de prehistoria de San Vicente y las Granadinas Esta presentación tiene por objeto poner de manifiesto algunos de los artefactos sin conocerse oficialmente de la Colección Nacional de Prehistoria de San Vicente y las Granadinas. La colección fue iniciada por el Dr. Earle Kirby hace más de cuarenta años bajo los auspicios de la San Vicente y las Granadinas (SVG) National Trust y fue ubicado en los Jardines Botánicos en la antigua Casa de la curaduría. En los últimos tiempos, la colección se ha trasladado al edificio de Carnegie, la sede de la Fundación Nacional de SVG, y está abierto al público todos los días. Los nuevos elementos se han añadido a partir de las excavaciones arqueológicas que tienen lugar en todo el país en el tercer milenio. En la exposición y en el almacenamiento son utensilios domésticos y ceremoniales, objetos de adorno personal, herramientas y armas hechas de materiales de cerámica, lítica y fauna. La exposición abarca el tiempo desde A.D.160 al período de contacto.

Sommaire • Contents • Contenidos

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Actes du 24e congrès de l’AIAC - 2011 Kathy Martin • Rachel Moses

The 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Congress for the Study of Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Lesser Antilles, now IACA, was celebrated in 2011. We bear in mind the mission of the founding fathers to exchange information between the territories of the Caribbean Basin and to establish commonalities. In this regard, much has been established by our predecessors at the St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Trust (SVGNT) and within IACA on diagnostic characteristics identified as markers for ceramic artefacts specific to certain chronological periods. In the case of the Windward Islands, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), these include Insular Saladoid, Modified Saladoid, Troumassoid and Suazoid . In this article we now wish to put on record some of the more puzzling pieces from the National Prehistoric Archaeological Collection of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; pieces which have only recently been found or dated and indeed specimens which remain very much an enigma.

The newest breakthrough in SVG concerns the solving of ‘The Island Carib Problem’. Preliminary findings on the excavation of the single component Argyle site (Hoogland, Hofman & Boomert 2011) indicate that the ceramic artefacts found there were either European or Amerindian from the Cayoid period. The Kalinago or Garifuna people who made this Cayoid pottery were therefore those who were present at the Encounter with the Europeans. A special display of Cayoid pottery has been set up at the National Trust Museum by Dr. Arie Boomert. It displays pieces from the type site on the Cayo River at Sandy Bay (site designation MzCe2), as well as specimens from Fancy (NaCf2), Overland (MyBd1), Colonarie Beach (LwCe5), Spring (KuCe3), Argyle (KuCe6) and Brighton Beach (JsCf1).

The more ceremonial Cayoid pottery has similarities with Koriabo phase of the Guiana’s from where the last wave of Kalinagos migrated. The shape of the pot shown in Figure 1, with a flattened rim, modelled handle and appliquéd motif on the body, typifies one type of Cayoid vessel. Modelling takes on a new dimension with the hollow backed frogs from Overland (Figure 2). More utilitarian ware is represented by the scratched pottery the women would probably have continued to make. A craft honed in the Suazoid period. One particular pot (Figure 3), found at Brighton, closely resembles a dry coconut and raises the possibility of the colonially introduced coconut coming into the hands of the Kalinago/ Garifuna people.

It has long been recognised that the Amerindian societies of SVG held important ceremonies. The prodigious number of elaborate petroglyphs stands evidence of this, as does the Saladoid bat stand from Arnos vale swamp (Kirby & Wall 1977). Found in 2011 by surface collection on an exposed archaeological horizon close to a small Suazoid section of the Escape site was a strap handle with anthropomorphic modelling (Figure 4). It appears to be in the form of a fasting Shaman. The red painted face is uppermost with punctated nostrils and open mouth. The figure is propped up on forearms and the skeletal back bone curves around the handle. Two

feet join the handle to the pot. The ‘Shaman’s’ face is similar to many Suazoid Adornos in the museum.

The fasting shaman would also appear to feature on a bottle in the collection (Figure 5). The neck is decorated with a well presented head which would have provided a grip for holding the bottle. The facial features are modelled and there is a row of nubbins on the back of the character, suggestive of a backbone.

Presumably an incense burner, Figure 6 has no base. This Union Island pot in front view features a jovial anthropomorphic visage mounted on a white on red body. The mouth is open and the tongue thrust out. From the side view the appearance changes to a zoomorph. Attributes of a frog appear in this figure.

Ceremony concerning death has come to the fore with the excavation of some 60 burials at the Argyle 2 (JtCe2) and Escape (KuCe5) sites during the 2009-2012 period. Some indicated status, as with the extended primary burial number 6 at Escape replete with its beads and axes (Moravetz & Callaghan 2009). Others showed rank through the presence of ceramic grave goods, as in the flexed primary burial 37, also at Escape. This burial (Figure 7) contained six pots, four of them complete, interspersed with large river stones. The largest pot is a white on red bell shaped Saladoid vessel measuring 36cm in diameter and 35cm high. It is black painted inside and pitted at the bottom as in the manner of ouicou containers. The pattern of decoration on the outside is virtually complete and would lend itself to interpretation at some stage. Pot 4 in Figure 7, with its single loop handle, decorated spout and white in filled incised patterning is one of three found recently in the area. Initial enquiries among Caribbean archaeologists indicate vessels of this type have yet to be indentified elsewhere in the region (2011, Guzman & MacKay). On the other side of the island, at Buccament West (KuEi1), a pot burial was found (Figure 8). The pot contained the head and torso with long bones below. Also it contained probable animal bones yet to be identified. The inner sides of sherds from the base were covered with soot. Vestiges of this can still be seen in the reconstructed pot illustrated.

A recent find in a surface collection on the Argyle 2 Saladoid site has proved difficult to interpret (Figure 9). Made of what appears to be well preserved animal bone the piece has twelve holes that are somewhat evenly spaced and the two ends show fracture lines and partial holes suggesting that this is a section from a much longer artefact. The fragment we have measures 49mm x 5mm. It has been suggested it may have been used in weaving.

Bone of course also is valuable to us in its raw state, as a pointer to past diets and fauna. Figure 10 shows the jaw bones of rodents. The agouti above and below the white lower half mandible is from the now extinct rice rat. The specimens were collected from a Suazoid

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food midden at Brighton Beach. From the same midden a shell artefact stands out as particularly intriguing (Figure 11). It seems to be made from the inner coils of a queen conch shell. Carved on the outside is a geometric pattern with lines and dots. Initial consultations with archaeologists at the IACA Congress of 2011 support the view that it may be a Zemi with a stylized frog leg design. St. Vincent and the Grenadines is well known for its eared axes. Figure 12 shows a different and exceptional axe; weighing 14kg it measures 381mm in length and its maximum diameter is

330.2mm. With these properties it is unlikely to be anything other than ceremonial. Work stones of various sizes are present on the beaches and rivers throughout St. Vincent, but manufacture would still present challenges.

The St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Trust would be most grateful for any feedback on the pieces featured here and for any information regarding similar artefacts elsewhere in the region or in other museum collections further afield.

Hoogland, Menno, Hofman,Corinne, Boomert, arie,Argyle, St. Vincent: new insights into the Island Carib occupation of the Lesser Antilles - Paper presented at the 24th Congress of the International Association of Caribbean Archaeologists in Martinique, 2011

Kirby, earle & Wall, Janet A unique Barrancoid Pot - Paper presented at the 7th Congress of the International Association of Caribbean Archaeologists, 1977

Moravetz, iosif & Callaghan, richardArchaeological Impact Mitigation at Escape, St. Vincent and the Grenadines - Presented at the 23rd Congress of the International Association of Caribbean Archaeologists in Antigua, 2009

de Guzman, Margareta & MacKay, JodePreliminary report on the SVG Public Archaeology Programme 2011 Excavations at Argyle (JtCe2)The SVG

References Cited

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Figure 1: Cayoid ceremonial potFigure 2: Cayoid body sherd with modelled frogs from OverlandFigure 3: Scratched Cayoid pot shaped like a coconut from Brighton Beach

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Figure 4. Pot Handle from Escape

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Figure 5. Effigy bottle - provenience uncertain

Figure 8. Buccament West pot burial

Figure 6. Effigy Incense Burner from Union Island

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Figure 7. Burial 37 at Escape contained four almost whole pots.

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Figure 11. Shell artifact from Suazey food middenat Brighton beach

Figure 9. Bone artifact from Argyle 2

Figure 10. Lower mandible bones of agouti (Dasyprocta leporina) and rice rat (Oryzomyini spp.) from Brighton Beach

Figure 12. Unusual ceremonial stone axe

provenience uncertain(Large ceremonial stone axe

adjacent to typically sized 17 cm axe)

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