1 CULTURAL SEQUENCE IN SOUTHWESTERN

IRVING ROUSE CLARK MOORE

Research on the prehistoric archeology of Haiti has been largely limited to the main urban centers. Local prehistorians, such as Bastien

(19^M, Fisher (19^6), and Roumain (19^3), have worked around the capital of Port-au-Prince in the south. Foreigners have operated mainly out of

Cap Haitien on the north coast—Rainey (19^1) and Rouse (1939, 19^1) east of that city, Hamilton and Hodges (1982) in its vicinity, and Barker (l96l) to its west, along the peninsula leading to Cuba (Fig. l). The much longer southwestern peninsula, extending towards , has received little attention. Work there is needed to round out our knowledge of Haitian prehistory.

Our paper is concerned with the outer half of the southwestern penin­ sula, that is, with the Departments of Sud and Grande Anse, which the

Indians called Guacayarima (Sauer 1966, Fig. 7) . The Spanish colonial writers disagree about the inhabitants of this region. Pedro Mártir de

Anglería and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo say that they were savages who lived in caves (Zayas y Alfonso 1931: 13-lM , while Alonso de Santa Cruz and Andres Morales refer to their wildness and lack of agriculture (Sauer

1969: h&). On the other hand, Father las Casas (1951, 2: 2U0) reports the presence of farming villages.

If the first four authors are correct, the historic Indians of Gua­ cayarima were still in the Archaic Age, but if we are to believe las Casas, they had advanced into the Ceramic Age. Accepting the majority opinion,

Zayas y Alfonso (1931: l1*), Rouse (19^8: Map 8), and Sauer (1966: 1+8) have Figure 1. Map of Haiti. 5

likened the situation in our study area to that at the far end of Cuba, where Archaic culture did survive until historic time. However, the fact that Guacayarima is a Tainan name suggests that Ceramic-Age Indians, speak­

ing Tainan, had indeed occupied it, as indicated by las Casas * One aim of our research was to test this possibility against the archeological record.

The word Guacayarima means "back of the island" (Arrom 19Ô0: 100-1).

The Ceramic Indians so named it because their ancestors, coming from South

America, had expanded westward through Hispaniola into Jamaica at the ex­ pense of the Archaic Indians. We hoped to obtain archeological evidence aboux their forward progress; did they conquer Guacayarima on their way to

Jamaica, occupy it afterwards, or completely bypass it? Our third and final aim was to investigate the degree of interaction between the proto-

historic Indians of Guacayarima and those of Jamaica. Las Casas (1951,

2: 356) tells us the Indians at the other end of Hispaniola made daily trips to Puerto Rico just to pass the time of day. This is evidenced archeologi- cally by the existence of close similarities between the remains in eastern

Hispaniola and western Puerto Rico. We wished to learn whether interaction between Guacayarima and Jamaica had produced equally strong resemblances.

Archeological Research

Some archeological evidence was already available. In describing the

French colony of Saint Domingue, Moreau de Saint-Mêry (1T97: -1275) reports the existence of a large, presumably Archaic shell mound near Les Cayes on the south shore of our study area (Fig. l). He also mentions the discovery of pottery around Les Cayes, at Port Salut farther west, and at Jêrêmie on the north shore. They support las Casas' contention that the people who lived there had passed from the Archaic into the Ceramic Age. 6

The first modern research in the study area was carried out in the

1930's by Herbert J. Krieger, of the U.S. National Museum, and Godfrey J.

Olsen, on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, of

New York City. In 1931, Krieger located four Archaic shell mounds on Ile à

Vache, off the south shore (Pig. l), and trenched one of them (Krieger 1932: llU). In 1933, Olsen dug a second trench in this or a neighboring mound

(Moore 1982: 189-91). Neither has published his results. Jacques Roumain followed up their research with a reconnaissance in the 19^0's, but we have been unable to find a record of it.

Rouse became interested in Olsen1s assemblage because it resembles

several which Rainey (19^1) and he (1939, 19^1) had excavated in northern

Haiti. He published an analysis of it in the Bulletin du Bureau d'Ethnolo­

gie de la République d'Haiti (Rouse 19^7). He was dissatisfied with this publication because the printer had inadvertently omitted his illustrations

and also because he had been unable to determine the relationship of the

specimens to the stratigraphy of the site. To remedy the latter deficiency, he and Moore relocated the site in 198l and Moore dug another trench there.

Rouse (1982b) then published a revised version of his analysis of the Olsen

collection, with the illustrations, and Moore (1982) followed it with a report on his own fieldwork.

Moore did survey as well as excavation on Ile à Vache, and has since extended the survey through the western half of the peninsula. The present paper is based upon his fieldwork. We shall proceed chronologically, first considering the Archaic-Age sites and then the Ceramic-Age sites, and shall attempt to determine the sequence of cultural complexes within each of them. 7

Archaic Age

Moore has located 39 non-ceramic sites (Fig. 2). The largest ones are concentrated along the south side of the peninsula between the Baie d'Aquin and the Baie des Cayes and on Ile à* Vache. They lie near the shore. While most are in the vicinity of mangrove swamps, their abundant shell refuse indicates that food gathering was not oriented there but towards shallows bays and open water. The oysters presently abundant on the mangroves do not appear to have been exploited (Moore 1982).

Insofar as can be told, all the sites belong to the Casimiroid series of complexes (Barreroid or Mordanoid in the terminology of Veloz Maggiolo

1980: 36). None except Cacoq. 2, the excavated shell heap on Ile à Vache, can be assigned to a complex within that series. Moore's surface collections from the other sites are not large enough to identify their complexes.

The Cacoq 2 finds may be attributed to the Couri complex, as defined by Rainey (19^1) and Rouse ( 19^+1 ) in northern Haiti. They include examples of all the types of ground stonework distinctive of that complex: axes with single or double bits, bowls, milling stones, rectangular hammer-grinders, balls, and pegs (cf. Rouse 1982b, Pis. 1, 2 with Rouse 19^1, Pis. 1, 5).

Cacoq 2 has also yielded a mortar and pestle, which are missing from the

Couri complex, but this may be an adaptive rather than a stylistic differ­ ence; Cacoq 2 is on a coastal lagoon while the Couri sites were on an interior savanna, to Judge by a local place name. The other types of ground stone artifacts are too nondescript or too rare to serve as the basis for compari­ son, as are the bone and shell artifacts.

The Couri complex is further characterized by macroblades of flint, trimmed only on their edges. Krieger (19M) obtained the two commonest Scale : Icm — 9km ? km «S I -1_ I

He a Vache -18- A Archaic sit O OsHonoid M. Meiliacoid C Chicoid sit

Figure 2. Map of the Southwestern Peninsula, summarizing the results of Moore's site surv 9

types, stemmed spearheads and straight-edged knives, from his trench, but we cannot be sure that he dug the same site as Olsen. The latter encoun­ tered only a single piece of outer cortex struck off in the preparation of

a prismatic core (Rouse 1982b, PI. 1,A). While Moore excavated no macro- blades, he did collect a prismatic core, spearheads, and knives from the

surfaces of neighboring sites (op. cit.: ITT). These finds lead us to

believe that the Casimiroid tradition of flintworking was indeed present at

Cacoq 2.

'The Cacoq assemblages are also linked to the Couri complex by a style of decoration that occurs on axes, vessels, and ornaments as well as non- utilitarian objects. Both engraving and sculpture were practiced, engrav­ ing to make complex rectilinear designs featuring hatched areas, and sculpture to produce eared projections comparable to those on the so-called

Carib stones of the Lesser Antilles (Rouse 1982b, Figs. 1-2, Pis. 1,F_, (3 and

2,A, JE). Moore found additional examples of this art in his survey and

Langworthy (1980) has obtained a complete bowl decorated with it from a rock shelter near Jacmel at the base of the peninsula.

The Museo del Hombre Dominicano arranged for one of Moore's shell samples from Cacoq 2 to be analyzed at the Weizmann Institute of Science in

Israel. Its date of llU0±50 B.C. corresponds nicely to those of 1030 and

905 B.C. for the El Porvenir site in the Dominican Republic, which has yielded

Couri-type artifacts but not the latter's artwork (Rouse and Allaire, MS,

Table h).

With further excavation, it should be possible to identify earlier

Archaic complexes on the southwestern peninsula. The Cabaret complex, now known only from central Haiti (Roumain 19^3), ought to be there, since it 10

appears to be ancestral to the Couri complex (Cruxent and Rouse 1969). The still earlier and simpler Seboruco-Mordan complex of Cuba and the Dominican

Republic is another possibility (Kozlowski 1974: 37-69; see our Fig. 3).

Cerami c Age

To date, Moore has located 1^5 pottery-bearing sites within the study area. They are more or less evenly distributed along the coast. By contrast, his intensive survey of Ile à Vache yielded only a single small deposit.

Let us discuss the peninsular sites first. Most lie on high ridges within 3 km. of the shore; a few are on low ground near beaches. They

yielded pottery of all three ceramic series recognized in Hispaniola,

Ostionoid, Meillacoid, and Chicoid (Fig. 3).

Ostionoid series. Pottery of the Ostionoid series was observed only

at Morne Oneuf, near Miragoane, and Morne Reserve, near Grand GoSve (Fig. 2).

In both cases it was the minority ware within a mixed Meillacoid-Chicoid

deposit. We assume that, if and when excavations are undertaken, it will

be possible to isolate the Ostionoid pottery in a separate component,

representing the earliest ceramic occupation on the southwestern peninsula,

as is the case in the rest of Hispaniola (Fig. 3).

Moore's finds include red-slipped sherds, one with a sharply angled

shoulder and another with molded limbs. They recall Kurt Fisher's

collection from Grande Saline, a site lU km. west of Port-au-Prince at the base of the peninsula, where redware is also associated with Meillacoid pottery. A complete redware vessel was obtained in the 1950's from a nearby cave (Kurt Fisher, personal communication). WESTERN PERIPHERY JAMAICA CHANNEL MONA PASSAGE

Wt j I mm Cuba Coico» /500 I'lo'f A.D

PALMETTO 1200 40-

900_ CAYO AD RE0ON0O

600 CAYO 4 0 REDONDi

400 4.0.

100 GUAYABO GUAYABO AD. BLANCO BLANCO

CAYO COFRESI KRUM BAY Z000 BC CABARET MOR DAN SEBO­ RUCO CASIMIRA 4000 BC SALAOOlO SERIES ELENOID SERIES j ; fifcj CHICOIP SERIES

OSTlONOlO SERIES MELLIACOIO SERIES

BEGINNING OF POTTERY * POSSIBLE EARLIER OCCURRENCES OF POTTERY f LA HUECA

Figure 3. Chronology of the Greater Antilles. 12

Meillacoid series. Most of Moore's sites are purely Meillacoid. Their pottery, however, is not the same as the classic Meillac pottery of northern

Haiti. The closest classic Meillac comes to our study area is in Fisher's collection from Grande Saline, at the base of the peninsula. All the sites in the outer part of the peninsula belong instead to a local style, which we shall call Finca after the site northeast of Cayes in which Moore made his original find (Fig. 2). Like classic Meillac, this style appears to have developed out of the previous Ostionoid pottery. Its sherds continue to be thin, hard, and grit tempered, but are no longer polished or red-slipped

(Fig. 4). There is a shift in emphasis from open- to closed-mouth bowls, with their rims often folded outward (Fig. 4-a). Molded lumps and lines are replaced by incision and applique work, done in such a way as to ac­ centuate the coaserness of the vessel surface (Fig. 4, 4-e). Zoomorphic heads and limbs also make their appearance (Fig. 4-a) .

The Finca style is less complex than classic Meillac. With one excep­ tion, it lacks the latter's strap handles, and its lugs are smaller and simpler (Fig.4.g). The hatched areas on its shoulders are spaced apart ins­ tead of extending continuously around the vessel (Fig. 4, a-e). They are done only in incision, not applique work. Meillac's crosshatching and punc­ tated areas are missing. 2 Finca more closely resembles the White Marl style in Jamaica (Fig. 3) .

The two share almost all of the foregoing traits, but White Marl has a number of additional features, such as massive, perforated wedges, notched ridges on the keel, and horizontal-line incision. The Fairfield or Montego Bay style of northwest Jamaica is still more elaborate (Fig. 3). 13

k

Figure 4. Pottery of the Finca style. 14

Chicoid series. The only site within the study area where Moore found

Chicoid pottery was at Miragoane, on its eastern edge (Fig. 2). To follow

up this occurrence, he proceeded eastward beyond the area towards Port-au-

Prince, and made additional finds in five sites around Grand Goâve (Fig. 2).

In both places, Chicoid sherds were mixed with Ostionoid and Finca pottery

but they presumably represent a separate and later occupation, as they do

elsewhere in Hispaniola (Fig. 3). They have the typical modeled-incised

head lugs, curvilinear incised designs, and lines ending in dots.

We do not yet know enough about them to be able to assign them to a specific

style.

We may conclude from their distribution that Chicoid pottery extended

out onto the peninsula only as far as the beginning of the province of Gua-

cayarima. Within the province, Meillacoid pottery apparently survived until historic time, as it did in Jamaica (Fig. 3).

Other ceramics. Moore encountered traces of the Spanish colony of

Salvatierra de la Sabana, founded in 150U, at Redon on the plain of Cayes

(Fig. 2). He collected majolica pottery and olive-Jar fragments typical of the time, including the Yayal Blue-on-white type» There were also Indian

sherds, but not enough of them to establish whether the Finca style survived

into the historic period.

Moore's ceramic site on Ile à* Vache remains to be considered. It consists of a small scatter of plain, unidentifiable sherds. Olsen had previously collected lU Chicoid sherds from a cave at Anse Dufour on the

island (Moore 1982: 196). We assume that both assemblages were laid down by transients engaged in trade or religious observances. 15

Conclusions

Our finds indicate that las Casas was right in reporting the existence of agricultural villages in the province of Guacayarima. Finca-pottery sites are large enough to have been good sized villages, and they contain griddles for processing cassava.

The authors who disagreed with las Casas may have been misled by the

Finca people's peripheral position and by their consequent failure to ad­ vance from the Meillacoid to the Chicoid series. In pottery, if not in the rest of their life-style, they were Sub-Tainos rather than classic Tainos.

We were less successful in achieving our second goal of tracing the advance of the ancestral Ostionoid invaders at the expense of their Archaic predecessors. It is still not clear whether the Ostionoids conquered Guaca­ yarima or passed it by, leaving it to be colonized by their Meillacoid successors.

As for our third aim of determining the degree of interaction between the Indians of Guacayarima and Jamaica during protohistoric time, we have found a close cultural resemblance between the two places. They may be said to constitute a single Jamaica Channel area, comparable to the culture areas previously distinguished by Rouse (1982a, Fig. 2) in other parts of the Greater Antilles: the Windward Passage area, extending acrosB the channel of that name from Cuba to Hispaniola; the Mona Passage area, from

Hispaniola to Puerto Rico; and the Vieques Sound area, from Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands (Fig. 5).

The potsherds on opposite sides of all four passages tend to be more like each other than they are like the pottery in the rest of their own 16

islands (Fig. 2). For an explanation of this anomaly, we may turn to las

Casas' statement that the Indians of his time made daily trips back and forth across the Mona Passage. The passage dwellers apparently interacted so strongly with each other that they developed and maintained similar life-styles.

Long stretches of land such as the southwestern peninsula have had the reverse effect. They have hindered interaction, promoted local variation in culture, and as a result have caused the formation of frontiers like the one which cuts across the middle of the peninsula, separating the Meillac-Chicoid sequence at its base from the Finca style at its tip (Rouse 1983). Figure 5. Culture areas in the Greater Antilles. 18

Izotes

1. Our research was carried out under the auspices of the Institut de Sau­ vegarde du Patrimoine National, directed by Albert Mangones. We wish to thank him for his advice and assistance.

2. At the Congress, Linda Robinson informed us that she has recently made a survey of sites on in the Jamaica Channel (Fig. 1) on behalf of the U.S. Navy. To judge from a brief description she sent us of the pottery found there, it provides a connecting link between the Finca and the White Marl styles.

Bibliography

Arrom, José Juan, 1980. Estudios de lexicografía antillana. Colección

Investigaciones, Casa de las Americas, La Habana.

Barker, Paul, 1961. Les cultures Cadet et Manigat : Emplacements de villages

précolombiens dans le Nord-Oest d'Haiti. Traduction de Gerard Gayot.

Bulletin du Bureau d'Ethnologie de la République d'Haiti, Série III,

no. 26, pp. 1-70. Port-au-Prince.

Bastien, Rêmy, 19UU. Archéologie de la Baie de Port-au-Prince (rapport

préliminaire). Bulletin du Bureau d'Ethnologie de la République

d'Haiti, no. 3, pp. 33-38. Port-au-Prince.

Casas, Fray Bartolomé de las, 1951. Historia de las Indias. 3 vols.

Edición de Agustín Millares Carlo. Fondo de Cultura Económica,

México.

Cruxent, J. M. and Irving Rouse, 1969. Early Man in the West Indies.

Scientific American, vol. 221, no. 5, pp. U2—52. New York.

Fisher, Kurt, 19^6. Une amulette du site de Merger. Bulletin du Bureau

d'Ethnologie de la République d'Haiti, Série II, no. 1, pp. Ul-U2.

Port-au-Prince. 19

Hamilton, Jennifer M. and William H. Hodges, 1982. Bayaha; A Preliminary

Report. Musee de Guanaba, Limbe, Haiti,

Kozlowski, J. K., 1971*. Preceramic Cultures in the Caribbean. Zeszyty

Naukowe, Uniwerstytetu Jagiello-n*skiego, vol. 386, Prace Archeologiczne,

Zeyst no. 20. Warsaw and Cracow.

Krieger, Herbert W., 1932. Culture Sequences in Haiti. Exploration and

Fieldwork of the Smithsonian Institution in 1931, pp. 113-12U.

Washington.

Krieger, Herbert W. , 19^. Letter to Irving Rouse. U.S. National Museum,

Washington.

Langworthy, Margaret, I98O. Correspondence with Irving Rouse. Florida

State Museum, Gainesville.

Moore, Clark, 1982. Investigation of Preceramic Sites on Ile à Vache, Haiti.

Florida Anthropologist, vol. 35, no. k, pp. 186-199. Miami.

Moreau de Saint-Mêry, M. L.-E., 1T9T- Description topographique, physique,

civile, politique et historique de la partie fracaise de l'île Saint-

Domingue, vol. 3. Société de l'Histoire des Colonies Française, Paris.

Rainey, Froelich G., 19^+1. Excavations in the Ft. Liberté Region, Haiti.

Yale University Publications in Anthropology, no. 23. New Haven.

Roumain, Jacques, I9U3. L'outillage lithique des Ciboney d'Haiti. Bulletin

du Bureau d'Ethnologie de la Republique d'Haiti, no. 2, pp. 22-27.

Port-au-Prince.

Rouse, Irving, 1939. Prehistory in Haiti, a Study in Method. Yale Univer­

sity Publications in Anthropology, no. 21. New Haven.

Rouse, Irving, 19U1. Culture of the Ft. Liberté Region, Haiti. Yale Uni­

versity Publications in Anthropology, no. 2h. New Haven. 20

Rouse, Irving, 19^7. Ciboney Artifacts from Ile à Vache, Haiti. Bulletin

du Bureau d'Ethnologie de la République d'Haiti, Série II, no. 2,

pp. 16-21, no. 3, pp. 6l-66. Port-au-Prince.

Rouse, Irving, 19^8. The West Indies. In "Handbook of South American

Indians," edited by Julian H. Steward, vol. U, pp. U95-565. Bulletin

of the Bureau of American Ethnology, no. 1U3. Washington.

Rouse, Irving, 1982a. Ceramic and Religious Development in the Greater

Antilles, Journal of New World Archaeology, vol, 5, no. 2, pp. ^5-55.

Los Angeles.

Rouse, Irving, 1982b. The 01sen Collection from Ile à Vache, Haiti.

Florida Anthropologist, vol. 35, no. U, pp. I69-I85. Miami.

Rouse, Irving, 1983. La frontera taina: su prehistoria y sus precursores.

Comunicación presentada en el simposio sobre La Cultura Taina en el

Museo Arqueológico Nacional de Madrid, días 12 y 13 de abril 1983.

Rouse, Irving and Louis Allaire, MS. Eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, and

the West Indies. In "Chronologies in South American Archaeology,"

edited by Clement W. Meighan, in press. University of California,

Los Angeles.

Sauer, Carl 0., 1969. The Early Spanish Main. University of California

Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.

Veloz Maggiolo, Marcio, 1980. Las sociedades arcaicas de Santo Domingo.

Museo del Hombre Dominicano, Serie Investigaciones Antropológicos,

no. l6i Fundación García Arevalo, Inc., Serie Investigaciones, no. 12.

Santo Domingo. 21

Zayas y Alfonso, Alfredo, 1931. Lexicografía antillana: Diccionario de

voces usadas por los aborígenes de las Antillas Mayores y algunos de

las Menores y consideraciones acerca de su significado y de su forma­

ción. Segunda ediciSn. 2 vols. Tipos.-Molina y Cia,, La Habana.