Reevaluating human colonization of the Caribbean using chronometric hygiene and Bayesian modeling

Abstract

Human settlement of the Caribbean represents the only example in the Americas of peoples colonizing islands that were not visible from surrounding mainland areas or other islands. Unfortunately, many interpretive models have relied on radiocarbon determinations that do not meet standard criteria for reporting because they lack critical information or sufficient provenience, often leading to specious interpretations. We have collated 2484 radiocarbon determinations, assigned them to classes based on chronometric hygiene criteria, and constructed Bayesian colonization models of the acceptable determinations to examine patterns of initial settlement. Colonization estimates for 26 islands indicate that (i) the region was settled in two major population dispersals that likely originated from South America; (ii) colonists reached islands in the northern Antilles before the southern islands; and (iii) the results support the southward route hypothesis and refute the “stepping-stone model.”

The pre-Columbian site of Roseau (Guadeloupe, F. W. I.): intra-site chronological variability of the subsistence strategies in a Late Ceramic archeological vertebrate assemblage

“…In order to improve our understanding of the chronology of the deposit and to test its stratigraphic coherence, we took advantage of twenty new 14 C samples obtained during a study on the isotopic profile of rice rat teeth recovered from the site (Goedert et al 2020). The dates were performed on the dentine of the teeth of single individuals of known species in order to eliminate reservoir and old carbonate effects, in accordance with radiometric hygiene requirements (Napolitano et al 2019). Eight of the twenty radiocarbon dates are of known stratigraphic origin ( Fig.…”

“…The first human populations to colonize these islands (between 5800 and 2500 cal years B.P. (Archaic Age)) were non-ceramic populations (Siegel et al 2015;Bérard 2019;Napolitano et al 2019). They were later replaced around ca.…”

First records of modified snake bones in the Pre-Columbian archaeological record of the Lesser Antilles: Cultural and paleoecological implications

“…Existing archaeological data document the earliest human colonization of this region between 7000 and 5500 cal. BP by aceramic (Archaic) Amerindian groups (Fitzpatrick, 2015;Napolitano et al 2019;Siegel et al, 2015). The first populations producing ceramics arrived around 2500 cal.…”

A database of lapidary artifacts in the Caribbean for the Ceramic Age

“…The database compiled in this study aims at consolidating and disseminating data about lapidary artifacts in the Caribbean islands recovered from archaeological excavations or surveys for the period before the arrival of the Europeans in the archipelago. Thus, while the end limit is well known around the end of the 15th century (depending on the islands), the start limit may be different for each island based on the current knowledge of the first human occupations in the Antilles (Napolitano et al 2019). However, the start of Early Ceramic period, supposed to represent the beginning of lapidary production in this region, is generally set to ca.…”