Preceramic Faunal Exploitation at the Las Obas Site, Cuba
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Preceramic Faunal Exploitation at the Las Obas Site, Cuba Roger H. Colten,1 Elizabeth Terese Newman2 and Brian Worthington3 1Division of Anthropology, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, P.O. Box 208118, New Haven CT 06520-8118 USA —email: [email protected] 2Stony Brook Southampton, 252 Chancellor’s Hall, 239 Montauk Highway, Southampton NY 11968 USA 3Southeastern Archaeological Research, Inc., 315 NW 138 Terrace, Jonesville FL 32669 USA Abstract In 1956 Paul Hahn excavated two trenches at the preceramic site of Las Obas near Manzanillo in southeastern Cuba. Our analysis of vertebrate faunal remains from this site shows that while the as- semblage from Las Obas is dominated by the remains of hutia, bones of fish, birds and reptiles are also well represented. This paper focuses on the ecological and economic implications of the verte- brate faunal assemblage from Las Obas and also presents two new radiocarbon dates for the site. Keywords Hutia, preceramic, zooarchaeology, Cuba. Introduction ramic subsistence patterns on Cuba and more se- curely dating these important collections. We In 1956 and 1957 Paul Hahn surveyed and exca- begin with a general ecological and cultural con- vated at several locations in southern Cuba as part text for the island of Cuba, discuss Hahn’s re- of his dissertation research on the chronology of search, present two new radiocarbon dates for the preceramic cultures in the region. Hahn’s study in- site and, finally, discuss the size and composition cluded the excavation of two trenches at the pre- of the collected vertebrate faunal remains, draw- ceramic site of Las Obas, near Manzanillo in ing tentative conclusions about subsistence pat- southeastern Cuba (Hahn 1961). (Hahn used the terns of Cuban preceramic people. expression “non-ceramic” to describe the Archaic sites and the cultures that did not make ceramics; Environmental Context more recently, this part of Caribbean prehistory has been called “preceramic,” although recent re- Cuba is a geologically old island that has been sep- search indicates that some Archaic or pre-Sal- arated from the surrounding continents for mil- adoid sites include pottery [Keegan 2006]. For the lions of years (Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee purposes of this paper, we use “preceramic” to in- 1999). The modern nation of Cuba includes dicate these pre-Saladoid sites of the region, in- 110,860 km2 of land, approximately one-half the cluding those excavated by Hahn.) Although he land area of the Caribbean Islands. The main is- was primarily interested in artifacts and chronol- land of Cuba is approximately 1,200 km long. The ogy, Hahn’s excavations at this site yielded a large terrain is mostly flat, with some rolling plains, al- assemblage of vertebrate faunal remains, perhaps though in the southeastern part of the island there as many as 150,000 bones and bone fragments. are rugged hills and mountains. The highest ele- Here we present an analysis of a sample of these vation is the peak of Pico Turquino at 2005 m remains, with the objective of investigating prece- above sea level. There are few inland lakes and Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50(1):75–84, April 2009. © 2009 Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University. All rights reserved. • http://www.peabody.yale.edu 76 Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50(1) • April 2009 Figure . The Las Obas site (in circle), near Manzanillo, Cuba (Carta de la República de Cuba 1933). only one navigable river. The climate is tropical, the extinction of the megafauna and human hunt- with a dry season from November to April and a ing in the Greater Antilles is a topic of consider- rainy season from May to October. The Las Obas able discussion (Fleming and McPhee 1999). site is located in the low-lying southeastern sec- After the demise of the megafauna, Cuba sup- tion of Cuba. Because of Cuba’s size and varied ported no large terrestrial mammals. It has been terrain, there are undoubtedly regional subsis- traditionally assumed that Cuba’s early prehistoric tence variations that we cannot address with this human populations subsisted largely on marine analysis. resources. Here we argue that the subsistence Cuba’s age and isolation, along with its size strategies of the indigenous people of Cuba were (the 16th largest island in the world, and the diverse and included mammals, birds, fish, rep- largest nation in the Caribbean), have resulted in tiles and invertebrates. Although our research fo- unique and diverse flora and fauna. Thanks to cuses on animal remains from this site, plants evolutionary processes associated with island were surely a major part of the prehistoric human ecology, Pleistocene and early Holocene Cuba had diet on Cuba. unique fauna, such as Megalocnus (MacPhee 1997), the giant ground sloth estimated to have Cultural Context weighed over 181 kg, and the giant flightless owl Ornimegalonyx oteroi (Feduccia 1999:294). Al- The earliest human occupation of Cuba may have though much of the Pleistocene megafauna was occurred between six and eight thousand years extinct by the time humans arrived on the island, ago (Moure and Rivero de la Calle 1996), with the sloths survived into the middle Holocene initial colonizers of the island arriving from Cen- (MacPhee et al. 2007). The relationship between tral America (Wilson et al. 1998). Some of the ear- Preceramic Faunal Exploitation at the Las Obas Site, Cuba • Colten et al. 77 liest reported radiocarbon dates from Cuba and tures of Cuba. Although he was primarily inter- the Caribbean region in general are 5,000 years ested in artifacts, he used relatively modern field old, or about 3100 BC (Wilson et al. 1998; Wilson methods and collected the faunal material that 2007). The broad stages of Caribbean prehistory makes our current research possible. are described by Keegan (1994:256) as Lithic The Las Obas site is located inland from Man- (4000 to 400 BC), Archaic (2000 to 100 BC) and zanillo on the south shore of a small lake called Ceramic (800 BC to AD 1492). The earliest in- Laguna Las Obas (Figure 1). The site is a shell habitants of Cuba are sometimes called the Ci- midden with a maximum depth of approximately boney (Osgood 1942), although Rouse (1989) and 1 m (Hahn 1961:27). Hahn dug two trenches Keegan (1989) suggest that they should more ap- placed at right angles to each other. Each trench propriately be called the Guanahatabeys. These was subdivided into 2 m by 2 m sections and ex- people were hunter–gatherers with stone and shell cavated in 15 cm arbitrary levels. Most of the units technology who, for the most part, did not make were excavated to a depth of 75 cm, or five levels, pottery (Moure and Rivero de la Calle 1996). The before reaching culturally sterile sand. All the soil earliest sites are dominated by flaked stone tool was screened with one-quarter-inch metal mesh assemblages. Sites dating between 4000 and 2000 and the screen residue was hand-sorted. Hahn re- BP (2000 BC to AD 1) have shell technology, al- tained all bones caught in the screens. though stone tools are still present in some sites. It The vertebrate fauna is a major component of is unclear whether these technological differences the Las Obas collection. If our two samples are are chronological, cultural or related to variation representative of the collection as a whole, there in resource exploitation. Later sites include coastal may be over 150,000 bones from Las Obas in the shell middens. Although recent research suggests collections at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural that these people made a limited amount of pot- History. Although unmodified shell was not col- tery (Keegan 2006), these earlier cultures are often lected completely, representative samples of shell called “preceramic,” because most sites do not taxa and all shell artifacts were retained. The most contain ceramic artifacts. After the arrival of peo- abundant shells in the midden were conch, oyster ple who made pottery and cultivated domesti- and cockle or scallop (Hahn did not provide more cated plants, the descendants of the Ciboney lived precise taxonomic information). While all three in marginal areas. By the time Europeans arrived, of these general invertebrate categories were portions of Cuba were occupied by Taíno people, found throughout the midden, oyster decreased farmers who grew corn and manioc, as well as in comparison to scallop from the bottom to the hunted and fished. They lived in relatively large top of the deposit (Hahn 1961:29). The artifacts villages, some of which had ceremonial centers. and faunal collection are catalogued and curated at the Yale Peabody Museum. Unfortunately, we Hahn’s Research Project do not have any of the associated field documents and Excavations at the Las Obas Site and have been unsuccessful, so far, in locating Hahn or his documents. As part of his dissertation research at Yale Uni- versity, Paul Hahn spent three and a half months Chronology: in 1956 and another three weeks in 1957 visiting Two New Radiocarbon Dates and excavating preceramic archaeological sites in Cuba. Most of his time was spent in the area We selected two shells from Trench A, Section 1, around Manzanillo in what was then Oriente to date the site using radiocarbon analysis. One Province in the southeastern part of the island. shell was taken from the 15 to 30 cm level and an- This area was selected partly on the basis of pre- other from the 45 to 60 cm level of this unit. This vious archaeological studies in the region con- excavation unit is also the source of part of the ducted by Dr.