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FAUNAL REMAINS from the ARCHAIC and ARCHAIC CERAMIC SITE of VEGA DEL PALMAR, CUBA Roger H. Colten Peabody Museum of Natural

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FAUNAL REMAINS from the ARCHAIC and ARCHAIC CERAMIC SITE of VEGA DEL PALMAR, CUBA Roger H. Colten Peabody Museum of Natural Journal of Caribbean Archaeology Copyright 2014 ISBN 1524-4776 FAUNAL REMAINS FROM THE ARCHAIC AND ARCHAIC CERAMIC SITE OF VEGA DEL PALMAR, CUBA Roger H. Colten Brian Worthington Peabody Museum of Natural History National Park Service P.O. Box 208118 Southeast Archeological Center 170 Whitney Avenue, 2035 East Paul Dirac Drive, Suite 120 New Haven, CT 06520-8118, USA Johnson Building Tallahassee, Florida 32310 [email protected] [email protected] The earliest occupants of Cuba were hunter-gatherers that arrived from Central America approximately 5,000 years ago. While the broad outlines of Cuban prehistory are known, a lack of quantified faunal data and a limited number of radiocarbon dates hinder our ability to describe the subsistence economy in local and regional contexts. In this paper we present new vertebrate faunal data and radiocarbon dates from the pre-ceramic and early ceramic site of Vega del Palmar which is located near Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba, comparing the Archaic occupation with ceramics to the Archaic occupation that lacks ceramics. Les premiers occupants de Cuba étaient des chasseurs-cueilleurs qui sont arrivés d'Amérique centrale il ya environ 5000 années. Alors que un aperçu général de la préhistoire cubaine est connus, un manque de données faunistiques quantifiés et un nombre limité de dates radiocarbone entravent notre capacité à décrire l'économie de subsistance dans des contextes locaux et régionaux. Dans cet article, nous présentons de nouvelles données faunistiques vertébrés et les datations au radiocarbone du site pré-céramique et début céramique de Vega del Palmar, qui est situé près de Cienfuegos sur la côte sud de Cuba; on compare l'occupation Archaïque avec des céramiques à l'occupation Archaïque qui manque de céramique. Los primeros habitantes de Cuba fueron cazadores-recolectores que arribaron desde América Central hace aproximadamente 5,000 años. La prehistoria de Cuba se conoce a grandes rasgos, pero nuestra capacidad para describir la economía de subsistencia en contextos locales y regionales es limitada, debido a la falta de información cuantitativa sobre la fauna y al número limitado de fechas de radiocarbono. En este artículo presentamos nuevos datos sobre la fauna vertebrada, y nuevas fechas de radiocarbono del sitio precerámico y cerámico temprano de Vega del Palmar, localizado cerca de Cienfuegos en la costa sur de Cuba. Además analizamos la ocupación arcaica con presencia de cerámica en comparación con la ocupación arcaica con ausencia de cerámica. Journal of Caribbean Archaeology, 14, 2014 Page 23 Faunal Remains Vega del Palmar, Cuba Colten and Worthington Introduction 1930s until the 1970s. Some of the The broad chronology of the Archaic objectives of this program were the or preceramic cultures of Cuba is reasonably establishment of a regional chronology and well known but the subsistence economy is the determination of the origin of the people not thoroughly documented due to the of the Caribbean islands (Mintz 1960; limited dated and quantified faunal Osgood 1942). While the various field information for this early time period projects focused on ceramic age cultures of (deFrance 2013; Newsom and Wing Venezuela, Trinidad, Antigua, Puerto Rico, 2004:142). Furthermore, our understanding Haiti and Cuba are fairly well known, there of Cuban prehistory is hampered by a small were additional projects that emphasized set of radiocarbon dates and limited preceramic or Archaic age sites. The faunal accessibility of research results (Cooper data in this paper are derived from one of 2010; Cooper and Thomas 2012). Our those projects, Paul G. Hahn’s (1961) late objectives in this paper are to present 1950s study of the chronology of preceramic quantified vertebrate faunal data from the sites in Cuba that included survey and Vega del Palmar site located in south-central excavations at several archaeological sites as Cuba, present two new radiocarbon dates, well as museum collections analysis. and demonstrate the value of museum At the time of Hahn’s research in the collections for archaeological research. We late 1950s there were few radiocarbon dates selected this site for analysis because it for the Caribbean and prehistoric includes both preceramic and early ceramic chronology was based largely on ceramic components containing vertebrate faunal seriation. Hahn’s research focused on remains. Comparing the vertebrate faunal establishing a chronological framework for remains from ceramic and early ceramic the Cuban preceramic cultures using non- occupations at a single site can shed light on ceramic artifacts. Fortunately, he collected the relationship between early pottery vertebrate fauna and samples of invertebrate production and subsistence. fauna and the collections are curated at the The ceramics from Vega del Palmar Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale are of the Pre-Arawak Pottery Horizon type University. (Rodríguez Ramos et al. 2008) not Hahn travelled throughout Cuba in Ostionoid or later types and therefore this 1956 and 1957 meeting with archaeologists, study can provide information on changes in studying museum collections, visiting subsistence associated with this type of archaeological sites, and excavating. Hahn ceramic production on Cuba. The excavated at seven sites and collections from radiocarbon dates contribute to the four of those sites are curated at the Peabody chronological framework for early ceramic Museum of Natural History at Yale production and the quantified vertebrate University, New Haven, CT. The sites faunal data add substantially to the corpus of represented in the Yale Peabody Museum such information, being nearly unique for collections are Las Obas, Los Caracoles, and Cuba and the broader Caribbean region for El Guayabo from the area north of the Archaic period. Manzanillo, and Vega del Palmar near the Yale University and the Peabody Bay of Cienfuegos. The collections from La Museum of Natural History at Yale had a Barrigona 1 and Caney El Gato in very active archaeological field research southwestern Camaguey province, and Cayo program in the Caribbean region from the Caracol near the Bay of Cienfuegos, are curated in Cuba (Lourdes Dominguez, Journal of Caribbean Archaeology 14, 2014 Page 24 Faunal Remains Vega del Palmar, Cuba Colten and Worthington personal communication 2013). The excavation, and collections visits as well as Peabody Museum obtained Hahn’s Cuban some 35mm slides from his family in May research field notes on his survey, of 2013. Figure 1. Map of Cuba showing the approximate location of the Vega del Palmar site. The Vega del Palmar Site of shells, soil, ash, and other refuse.” The Vega del Palmar Site is located Although Hahn lists the main shell types in near the south coast of Cuba southeast of the each strata (scallop, venus, mussel, conch, Bahía de Cienfuegos, in the Cienfuegos oyster, snail, pecten, etc) he did not province of Cuba (Figure 1). Hahn systematically collect shells. The Vega del described the Vega del Palmar site as a Palmar site seems ideally situated to access refuse midden located on a hilltop near a variety of ecological zones including the where the Rio Arimao divides into two nearby river, the laguna and the bay, the arms, one leading to the Caribbean on the coastal zone, and the local terrestrial south coast and the other leading to the habitats. The site had been previously Laguna Guanaroca which is connected to the described by Gonzáles Munoz (1952) but Bahia de Cienfuegos (Hahn 1961:97). Hahn published data from the site was limited at (1961:98) describes the deposit as “a typical the time of Hahn’s research. shell midden made up of numerous Hahn excavated a single two meter interstratifying layers and lenses composed square unit in the site. The unit was Journal of Caribbean Archaeology 14, 2014 Page 25 Faunal Remains Vega del Palmar, Cuba Colten and Worthington excavated in 15 cm arbitrary levels to a effect (Ascough et al. 2005) can affect depth of 1.5 meters. Although Hahn radiocarbon dates from shells but this issue screened soil at some of the other sites he has not been systematically addressed for excavated, at Vega del Palmar he does not Cuba. In the Caribbean region the known seem to have used screens but “the soil was Delta R values suggest limited impact from carefully searched for artifacts” (Hahn the marine reservoir effect, perhaps making 1961:98). Despite the lack of screening, the actual dates only about 50 years older Hahn recovered about 5,700 bones from this (Broeker and Olson 1961; Lightly et al. site. Hahn determined the chronology of the 1982). site largely by the presence of prehistoric The new radiocarbon dates are in the ceramics in the upper levels of the midden expected stratigraphic order with the older and a single radiocarbon date, although that date deeper in the ground. These dates are date (Y-465, 960 +/- 60 BP; Devey et al. consistent with published Caribbean 1959:168), run in 1959, seems anomalous in chronologies for the pre-ceramic or Archaic light of the two new dates described below. age (Rouse 1992; Wilson 2007) and the Hahn’s radiocarbon sample was an later date is similar to that obtained from Las aggregation of small pieces of charcoal Obas, another site excavated by Hahn in the found scattered among shells and ash at 1950s (Colten et al. 2009). These two dates depths ranging from 110 to 115 cm below from Vega del Palmar “bracket” those from surface (Hahn 1961:218), not a single item, the Las Obas site and therefore extend the which might partially explain the range of dated faunal material derived from inconsistency between the 1959 radiocarbon Hahn’s excavations. date and the recently analyzed samples. The radiocarbon result received by For the current analytical project’s Hahn (Y-465; charcoal; 960 +/- 60 BP) radiocarbon dating we picked two individual appears anomalous because it is from shells, one from the 15-30 cm level relatively deep (105-120 cm) in the site but (Cittarium pica, the West Indian top shell or is younger by several hundred years than the magpie shell) and one from the 120-135 cm youngest of the two recently obtained dates.
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