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Berman, MJ. the Lucayans and Their World. P. 151-172 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FORTEENTH SYMPOSIUM ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BAHAMAS Edited by Craig Tepper and Ronald Shaklee Conference Organizer Thomas Rothfus Gerace Research Centre San Salvador Bahamas 2011 Cover photograph – “Iggie the Rock Iguana” courtesy of Ric Schumacher Copyright Gerace Research Centre All Rights Reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or information storage or retrieval system without permission in written form. Printed at the Gerace Research Centre ISBN 0-935909-95-8 The 14th Symposium on the Natural History of the Bahamas THE LUCAYANS AND THEIR WORLD Mary Jane Berman Center for American and World Cultures 105 MacMillan Hall Miami University Oxford, Ohio, 45056 ABSTRACT Lucayan cultural zones or sub-areas (Granberry 1956). Early published accounts have The people who permanently settled depicted the Lucayans in highly generalized, the Bahama archipelago are known as the ahistorical terms. These images were based Lucayans; the English term for the Spanish on small numbers of small-scale excavations word, “Lucayos.” Previously published ac- confined to only a few islands. Our current counts of Lucayan history have presented understanding of Lucayan lifeways, highly generalized accounts of their life broadened by increased numbers of ways and depicted them in largely ahistori- excavations, fine-grained artifact recovery, cal terms (e.g., Keegan 1992, 1997; Sears the addition of paleoethnobotanical, and Sullivan 1978) partly because radiocar- zooarchaeological and geoarchaeological bon dating had not been applied universally analyses, and the application of radiocarbon to excavated sites and because temporal var- dating, is far richer and more complicated iability in Lucayan ceramics was over- than previously realized. This research looked. Much of the research reported in the reveals inter-island differences in the timing early publications was based on surface col- and origin of colonization, geographical and lected artifacts and small-scale excavations temporal ceramic variability, localized limited to a few islands. Larger scale, sys- environmental adaptations, and contrasting tematic excavations on more islands, fine- political economies among the islands. grained data recovery, and the integration of radiocarbon dates, and zooarchaeological, INTRODUCTION paleothnobotanical, and geoarchaeological findings, offer a more complicated picture of The Bahama archipelago is divided Lucayan culture. We now believe that into three climatic zones based on rainfall Lucayan history can be divided into three and temperature, which affect vegetation periods (Figure 1): Non-Lucayan (A.D. 700- types and distributions: moist subtropical 1300), Early Lucayan (A.D. 700/800-1100), (Abaco, Andros, Grand Bahama, New Prov- and Late Lucayan (A.D. 1100-c. A.D. 1530) idence, also known as the Pine Islands); and that Lucayan culture differed geograph- most tropical (the central islands, Acklins ically and temporally. While there are nu- Island, Cat Island, Crooked Island, merous shared characteristics among the is- Eleuthera, Exumas, Long Island, Rum Cay, lands, there are inter-island differences in Samana Cay, San Salvador); dry tropical colonization history and sociopolitical or- (Great Inagua, Little Inagua, Mayaguana, ganization. There is also variation in envi- and the Turks & Caicos) (Sears and Sullivan ronmental adaptations among the islands. In 1978). Slight temperature and rainfall gradi- contrast, ethnohistoric descriptions only re- ents exist in a north-south pattern. The envi- veal some of the geographical variation that ronmental zones correspond roughly to three the archaeological record has brought to 151 The 14th Symposium on the Natural History of the Bahamas light. For example, during the fifteenth cen- iguanas, and a large tortoise (Geochelone tury, the Lucayans of the northern and cen- sp.) that is now extinct. The Coralie site was tral Bahamas spoke Ciboney Taíno, a Taíno permanently abandoned before the end of dialect of northern Cuba and the northwest the 12th century. and western Hispaniolan provinces of A second wave of people who Marien and Xaragua, while the Lucayans of established outpost colonies on Middle the Turks & Caicos spoke Classic Taíno Caicos, Grand Turk, Providenciales, and (Granberry and Vescelius 2004:15). Because their off shore cays during the eleventh of similarities in language and some forms through the thirteenth centuries, is attributed of material culture, particularly ceramics, it to an influx of Meillacan Ostionoid peoples is suggested that the Lucayans of the central from northern Hispaniola. These sites and northern islands possessed economic existed until the A.D. 1300s when the and cultural ties with the people of northern Meillacan abruptly and unexpectedly ceased Cuba and were ethnically the same or bio- establishing colonies in the Turks & Caicos. logically descended from them, while the Concurrently, during the late eleventh Lucayans who lived in the Turks & Caicos century and extending into the A.D. 1200s, were politically a part of the Hispaniolan numerous Lucayan sites were established on Taíno cacicazgo system. Middle Caicos and the Lucayans and Meillacans lived in close proximity. Non-Lucayan (A.D. 700-1300) The earliest known Meillacan site, located on Pelican Cay, just north of Middle From the time of its earliest Caicos, dates to cal. A.D. 980-1180 (cal. peopling, the Turks & Caicos served as a A.D. 1050) (two sigma) (Sinelli 2010). In colonial enclave of Hispaniolan cultures the middle of the twelfth century, Meillacan (Keegan 1992:58, 1997, 2007, Keegan et al. settlements were established on Middle 1998). The earliest evidence for human Caicos, Middleton Cay, Long Cay, and occupation of the archipelago comes from Providenciales. All of these sites produced the Coralie site located on the north coast of radiocarbon dates of A.D. 1160-1170. Grand Turk. The site, which was occupied Meillacan colonies were also established on by Ostionan Ostionoid peoples from Ambergris Cay and Horse Cay. These sites northeastern Hispaniola or Puerto Rico dates were intermittent, perhaps, seasonally- to A.D. 705-1100 and overlaps for a brief settled occupations. Sinelli (2010) argues period with the next influx of colonists, the that the communities were initially set up to Meillacans and the Lucayans. export resources—conch from the rich The remains at the site suggest conch beds to the south of Middle Caicos repeated visits for short period of times that and fish from the teeming reefs to the north occurred for only part of the year. The food – to a growing Hispaniolan population that remains allow us to gauge the impacts of could no longer support itself locally. As humans on animals that had no prior human time passed, however, the sites focused on (Carlson 1999; Carlson and Keegan 2004). the production of beads that were The earliest Ostionan occupants mainly presumably exported to Hispaniola. Drills, consumed large ground-dwelling birds, made from chert that was imported from iguanas, green sea turtles and large Hispaniola, were used to manufacture the carnivorous fishes. During later occupations, beads. Middletown Cay, which was first a consumption patterns shifted to smaller, seasonally-occupied Meillacan site located tree-dwelling birds, smaller sea turtles and off the coast of Middle Caicos, grew into a 152 The 14th Symposium on the Natural History of the Bahamas large, permanently occupied settlement have been efforts to understand the containing a large dense midden, numerous contribution of plant foods to the diet, residences and a north-south oriented oval macrobotanical recovery has failed to yield plaza. Because of it size and large public plant food remains for the Meillacan space, Sinelli (2010) has suggested that it occupation (Newsom and Wing 2004). was home to a cacique who coordinated its economic activities. As a result of its Earliest Human Presence burgeoning population, a sister settlement was established on nearby Long Cay. Like Evidence for the earliest human other Meillacan occupations, Middleton Cay presence of the central and northern was abandoned suddenly (Sinelli 2010). Bahamas is known provisionally from During the early to mid A.D. 1200s, Preacher’s Cave (Eleuthera) where a triton Meillacan sites were established on Grand shell (cal. A.D. 560-720, 2 sigma) was Turk and its off-shore cays. The found adjacent to the cave (Carr et al. 2006). Governour’s Beach, Corktree Beach, Gibbs The shell has a circular hole cut in the outer Cay, and Cotton Cay sites were also bead- wall attributed to human modification. More making locales that were occupied certain evidence for human occupation repeatedly, perhaps seasonally, for short comes from the cave where a burial periods of time (Carlson 1993, 2010; Sinelli dating to A.D. 810-1010 was exhumed 2010). By the late A.D. 1200s/early A.D. (Schaffer et al. 2012). Human skeletal 1300s, Meillacan peoples ceased to visit remains from Sawmill Sink blue hole on Grand Turk. The sudden abandonment of Abaco date to B.P. 1040 ±40 (Steadman et the Governour’s Beach site is attributed to a al. 2007:19899) implies that the northern growing and expanding Lucayan presence Bahamas had been settled or at least visited and reflects the dominant position they were by that time. Evidence from cores from assuming in the Turks & Caicos (Carlson several ponds on Abaco suggests human 1993; Keegan 2007). landscape
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