On the shoals of giants: natural catastrophes and the overall destruction of the Caribbean’s archaeological record

Fitzpatrick, Scott M.

doi:10.1007/s11852-010-0109-0

Cited by 44 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…It is also an important heritage site due to both its indigenous and historic components. Destruction of the site through multiple mechanisms is still ongoing (Fitzpatrick 2012;Hanna and Jessamy 2017). Ceramic adornos and lapidary items illegally removed from Pearls are part of multiple private collections (Boomert 2007;Hofman and Hoogland 2016).…”

Section: The Site Of Pearls Grenadamentioning

confidence: 99%

Lapidary production in the eastern Caribbean: a typo-technological and microwear study of ornaments from the site of Pearls, Grenada

Falci

Knaf

Gijn

et al. 2020

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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The present paper examines bodily ornaments made of semiprecious lithic materials from the site of Pearls on the island of Grenada. The site was an important node in long-distance interaction networks at play between circum-Caribbean communities during the first centuries of the Common Era. Pearls was an amethyst bead-making workshop and a gateway to South America, from where certain lapidary raw materials likely originated. The importance of the site for regional archaeology and local stakeholders cannot be overstated. However, it has undergone severe destruction and looting over the decades. Here, we present a study of a private collection of ornaments from Pearls, which combines raw material identification, typo-technological analysis and microwear analysis. We identify great diversity in lithologies and in techniques adapted to their working properties. Multiple abrasive techniques for sawing, grinding, polishing and carving are identified. Furthermore, the use of ornaments is examined for the first time. Finally, we contrast our dataset to other Antillean sites and propose management patterns for each raw material. Our approach ultimately provides new insights on ornament making at Pearls and on its role in regional networks.

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Section: The Site Of Pearls Grenadamentioning

confidence: 99%

Lapidary production in the eastern Caribbean: a typo-technological and microwear study of ornaments from the site of Pearls, Grenada

Falci

Knaf

Gijn

et al. 2020

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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“…Environmental vulnerability is also linked to environmental justice for these historically contingent and economically divergent communities. The impacts of climate change exacerbate existing risks, including earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and volcanic activity, contextualized within island-specific socioenvironmental vulnerabilities (21,22). The opportunities for postdisaster migration and costly reconstruction vary greatly between the islands of the Caribbean.…”

Section: Case Study 1-caribbean Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeology, environmental justice, and climate change on islands of the Caribbean and southwestern Indian Ocean

Douglass

Cooper

2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Climate change impacts island communities all over the world. Sea-level rise, an increase in the frequency and intensity of severe weather events, and changes in distribution and health of marine organisms are among the most significant processes affecting island communities worldwide. On islands of the Caribbean and southwestern Indian Ocean (SWIO), however, today’s climate change impacts are magnified by historical environmental injustice and colonial legacies, which have heightened the vulnerability of human and other biotic communities. For some islands, archaeological and paleoecological research offers an important record of precolonial climate change and its interplay with human lives and landscapes. The archaeological record suggests strategies and mechanisms that can inform discussions of resilience in the face of climate change. We detail climate-related challenges facing island Caribbean and SWIO communities using archaeological and paleoecological evidence for past climate change and human response and argue that these cannot be successfully addressed without an understanding of the processes that have, over time, disrupted livelihoods, reshaped land- and seascapes, threatened intergenerational ecological knowledge transfer, and led to increased inequality and climate vulnerability.

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“…Beginning approximately 6,000 years ago, there were four waves of human colonization of the West Indies (Lithic, Archaic, Ceramic, and European), the first from Mesoamerica and the next two from South America (Davis 2000;Fitzpatrick and Keegan 2007;Fitzpatrick 2012Fitzpatrick ,2015Siegel et al 2015) and the last from Europe. These movements were more likely influ¬ enced by seafaring technology and ocean currents than by geographic distance.…”

Section: Guild Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, the Soufriere volcano on St. Vincent buried several prehistoric sites under a deep blanket of ash, around 295 AD (Bullen and Bullen 1972). Such eruptions may have been a deterrent to prehistoric settlement in the southern Lesser Antilles (Callaghan 2007(Callaghan , 2010Fitzpatrick 2012).…”

Section: Guild Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bats of Saint Lucia, Lesser Antilles

Pedersen¹,

Kwiecinski²,

Genoways³

et al. 2018

Special Publications - The Museum, Texas Tech University

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Eight species of bat have been previously recorded from the island of Saint Lu¬ cia: Noctilio leporinus, Monophyllus plethodon, Artibeus jamaicensis, Brachyphylla cavernarum, Ardops nichollsi, Sturnira paulsoni, Molossus molossus, and Tadarida brasiliensis. Herein, we add a ninth species to the fauna-Pteronotus davyi. These nine species represent nine genera from four families: Noctilionidae, Mormoopidae, Phyllostomidae, and Molossidae. This fauna includes four trophic guilds: N. lepori¬ nus (piscivore/insectivore), M. plethodon (nectarivore/pollenivore), A. jamaicensis x schwartzi, B. cavernarum, A. nichollsi, and S. paulsoni (frugivores), and P. davyi, M. molossus, and T. brasiliensis (insectivores). Based on its geographic location, the bat fauna of St. Lucia is enigmatic in regard to species dispersal along the Lesser Antillean archipelago. Natalus stramineus and M. martiniquensis are present on Martinique im¬ mediately to the north, and Micronycteris buriri, P. fuscus, Glossophaga longirostris, and Artibeus lituratus are found on St. Vincent directly to the south, yet these six species are conspicuously absent on St. Lucia. Moreover, the St. Lucian population of Artibeus resides at the northern edge of a fascinating hybrid zone involving three species, A. jamaicensis, A. planirostris, and A. schwartzi. In light of these observations, we provide a framework for analyzing the biogeographical patterns of the regional fauna to see if there is something about St. Lucia that is unique. We posit that a number of complex geological and ecological factors account for the depauperate bat fauna observed on the island as well as the formation of the Artibeus hybrid zone in the southern Lesser Antilles.

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On the shoals of giants: natural catastrophes and the overall destruction of the Caribbean’s archaeological record

Cited by 44 publications

References 46 publications

Lapidary production in the eastern Caribbean: a typo-technological and microwear study of ornaments from the site of Pearls, Grenada

Lapidary production in the eastern Caribbean: a typo-technological and microwear study of ornaments from the site of Pearls, Grenada

Archaeology, environmental justice, and climate change on islands of the Caribbean and southwestern Indian Ocean

Bats of Saint Lucia, Lesser Antilles

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