This chapter demonstrates the advantages of a survey-centered approach for examining cultural lan... more This chapter demonstrates the advantages of a survey-centered approach for examining cultural landscapes on Montserrat. Our case study focuses on the multi-method survey of the Potato Hill landscape employed during the 2013 field season of the Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat project. Potato Hill’s artifact assemblage is the largest and among the earliest historic-period collections of artifacts to be recovered on Montserrat from the 49 archaeological sites we have surveyed since 2010. The evidence suggests that Potato Hill was a non-elite settlement occupied by multiple communities and households between the late seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Understandings of Potato Hill’s changing use and inhabitants over the course of its long occupational history are situated within our survey results from the surrounding landscape, especially historic-period sugar plantations and military structures. This case study raises several questions concerning methodological approaches, temporal categories, scales of analysis, and material culture classification in Caribbean historical archaeology.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Nov 11, 2018
The social life of the newly created 'laboring classes' in the post-emancipation Caribbean has be... more The social life of the newly created 'laboring classes' in the post-emancipation Caribbean has been relatively unexamined across a number of disciplinary perspectives. This state of affairs can be explained through the dearth of documentary evidence that explicitly details the everyday lives of the newly emancipated (preventing historians from easily reconstructing their experiences) and the continuing focus of archaeologists on the plantation era of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This paper argues for the need to bring together a variety of sources to enable researchers to gain a better understanding of this important, transitional time in Montserratian history. Using evidence gathered from archives in the Caribbean, North America and the British Isles, materials excavated from a previously undocumented structure in the marginal north of the island, and local memories of education on Montserrat, this paper illuminates an almost forgotten aspect of the lives of nineteenth-century laboring classes on the island: the aspiration of education.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Mar 1, 2015
A major obstacle to understanding Montserrat's sugar industry and the oftencontentious social dyn... more A major obstacle to understanding Montserrat's sugar industry and the oftencontentious social dynamics that accompanied it has been the absence of a comprehensive study of the small Caribbean island's plantation-era cultural landscape. We employ a multi-scalar approach, combining archival research and archaeological survey data, to trace the island's shifting socio-cultural composition and fluctuating sugar industry over the course of two centuries (ca. 1650-1850). Adopting an island-wide perspective on the interpretation of Montserrat's plantation-era remains, we expand the breadth and depth of understandings about the island's sugar society through comparative, multi-sited analyses. Our findings underscore the importance of extending Caribbean plantation studies beyond individual estates.
Abstract The volcanically devastated landscape of Montserrat and its social fabric comprise what ... more Abstract The volcanically devastated landscape of Montserrat and its social fabric comprise what Maria calls a “traumascape”—a site of tragedy and catastrophe that is also a place of coping and resilience. How Montserratians engage with trauma is evident in how they remember their recent and historical pasts, and in how they are reinventing aspects of their heritage in order to sustain a distinctly Montserratian identity for the future. Such a process of coping presents challenges for conducting archaeology in collaboration with the community. In this article, we describe the experiences of a recently established project on the island (Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat) and discuss the potential for, and the obstacles involved in, developing longer-term, sustainable forms of collaboration between archaeologists and local Montserratian communities when facing the unusual circumstances of volcanic disaster and hazard.
Page 1. The Cyclades and the Greek Mainland in LC I: The Evidence of the Pottery* JOHN F. CHERRY ... more Page 1. The Cyclades and the Greek Mainland in LC I: The Evidence of the Pottery* JOHN F. CHERRY AND JACK L. DAVIS Abstract The distribution of mainland pottery in the Cyclades during LC I, together with information ...
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Jul 31, 2021
Caribbean sugar mills were powered by water, animals, wind, or steam, yet the evidence indicates ... more Caribbean sugar mills were powered by water, animals, wind, or steam, yet the evidence indicates major differences between islands in terms of which mill type predominated. We suggest that windmills offered few, if any, advantages over animal mills and several serious disadvantages. Why, then, were so many windmills built during the eighteenth century on some of the islands of the eastern Caribbean and so few on others? Here, we draw on Costly Signaling Theory to help explain these patterns. The preference for windmill-building may have had less to do with functional requirements or economic efficiency than with cultural competition, the signaling of membership of the planter class, and the display of power throughout the plantation landscape.
The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, Apr 21, 2021
In a recent paper published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, John Terrell (2020)... more In a recent paper published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, John Terrell (2020) objected to the proposition that islands can offer model systems to study human behavior and ecodyn...
Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology, 2013
Between 1979 and 1989, AIR Studios on the Caribbean island of Montserrat was a premier recording ... more Between 1979 and 1989, AIR Studios on the Caribbean island of Montserrat was a premier recording destination for a galaxy of top rock-and-roll stars. Forced to close by Hurricane Hugo, the property has suffered further damage from the ongoing eruptions of the Soufriere Hills volcano since 1995. Access is now restricted, but it has nonetheless become a virtual and actual place of tourist pilgrimage. In 2010 archaeologists from the Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat project (SLAM) surveyed the ruins of AIR Studios, carefully recording the spatial layout of the studio, documenting remnant material culture abandoned at the time of the studio’s closure, and excavating ash-covered pavement slabs inscribed by musicians during the studio’s heyday. Further research revealed that certain elements of the studios had been systematically stripped from the premises after 1989 and, in some cases, have since been reincorporated into other buildings across the island.
... Roman numerals indicate obsidian regions as identified by Keller et al. ... Syunik Obsidian S... more ... Roman numerals indicate obsidian regions as identified by Keller et al. ... Syunik Obsidian Sources Geological and topographic setting The Armenian Highlands is an area of intense tectonic activity; within Armenia alone 450 volcanic domes have been recorded (Karapetian 1972 ...
The Annual of the British School at Athens, Nov 1, 1991
I: Oi cmygCMpic, xai 01 aXAeg ygaxrec; fiagrugieg yid TO vrjai, Tigoowjioygacpia-TO7ioyga<pt'a-na... more I: Oi cmygCMpic, xai 01 aXAeg ygaxrec; fiagrugieg yid TO vrjai, Tigoowjioygacpia-TO7ioyga<pt'a-nagadoaeig-lazogia (Athens 1988). Robert = I,. Robert. \Sur un decret des Koresiens au Musee de Smyrne'. Hellenka 11-12 (1960) 132-76.
Acknowledgments for assistance are given below under appropriate sections. All illustrations exce... more Acknowledgments for assistance are given below under appropriate sections. All illustrations except 580 JAMES C. WRIGHT ETAL. Melos, Lakonia, Thessaly, and elsewhere.2 These researches established archaeological sequences, defined regional artifact and settlement types, and provided an overview of settlement from prehistoric times on. After World War II a series of extensive, but more systematic, surveys in many areas of the country was conducted by R. Hope Simpson and colleagues.3 Meanwhile a continuing tradition of geographic studies described natural as
This chapter demonstrates the advantages of a survey-centered approach for examining cultural lan... more This chapter demonstrates the advantages of a survey-centered approach for examining cultural landscapes on Montserrat. Our case study focuses on the multi-method survey of the Potato Hill landscape employed during the 2013 field season of the Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat project. Potato Hill’s artifact assemblage is the largest and among the earliest historic-period collections of artifacts to be recovered on Montserrat from the 49 archaeological sites we have surveyed since 2010. The evidence suggests that Potato Hill was a non-elite settlement occupied by multiple communities and households between the late seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Understandings of Potato Hill’s changing use and inhabitants over the course of its long occupational history are situated within our survey results from the surrounding landscape, especially historic-period sugar plantations and military structures. This case study raises several questions concerning methodological approaches, temporal categories, scales of analysis, and material culture classification in Caribbean historical archaeology.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Nov 11, 2018
The social life of the newly created 'laboring classes' in the post-emancipation Caribbean has be... more The social life of the newly created 'laboring classes' in the post-emancipation Caribbean has been relatively unexamined across a number of disciplinary perspectives. This state of affairs can be explained through the dearth of documentary evidence that explicitly details the everyday lives of the newly emancipated (preventing historians from easily reconstructing their experiences) and the continuing focus of archaeologists on the plantation era of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This paper argues for the need to bring together a variety of sources to enable researchers to gain a better understanding of this important, transitional time in Montserratian history. Using evidence gathered from archives in the Caribbean, North America and the British Isles, materials excavated from a previously undocumented structure in the marginal north of the island, and local memories of education on Montserrat, this paper illuminates an almost forgotten aspect of the lives of nineteenth-century laboring classes on the island: the aspiration of education.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Mar 1, 2015
A major obstacle to understanding Montserrat's sugar industry and the oftencontentious social dyn... more A major obstacle to understanding Montserrat's sugar industry and the oftencontentious social dynamics that accompanied it has been the absence of a comprehensive study of the small Caribbean island's plantation-era cultural landscape. We employ a multi-scalar approach, combining archival research and archaeological survey data, to trace the island's shifting socio-cultural composition and fluctuating sugar industry over the course of two centuries (ca. 1650-1850). Adopting an island-wide perspective on the interpretation of Montserrat's plantation-era remains, we expand the breadth and depth of understandings about the island's sugar society through comparative, multi-sited analyses. Our findings underscore the importance of extending Caribbean plantation studies beyond individual estates.
Abstract The volcanically devastated landscape of Montserrat and its social fabric comprise what ... more Abstract The volcanically devastated landscape of Montserrat and its social fabric comprise what Maria calls a “traumascape”—a site of tragedy and catastrophe that is also a place of coping and resilience. How Montserratians engage with trauma is evident in how they remember their recent and historical pasts, and in how they are reinventing aspects of their heritage in order to sustain a distinctly Montserratian identity for the future. Such a process of coping presents challenges for conducting archaeology in collaboration with the community. In this article, we describe the experiences of a recently established project on the island (Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat) and discuss the potential for, and the obstacles involved in, developing longer-term, sustainable forms of collaboration between archaeologists and local Montserratian communities when facing the unusual circumstances of volcanic disaster and hazard.
Page 1. The Cyclades and the Greek Mainland in LC I: The Evidence of the Pottery* JOHN F. CHERRY ... more Page 1. The Cyclades and the Greek Mainland in LC I: The Evidence of the Pottery* JOHN F. CHERRY AND JACK L. DAVIS Abstract The distribution of mainland pottery in the Cyclades during LC I, together with information ...
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Jul 31, 2021
Caribbean sugar mills were powered by water, animals, wind, or steam, yet the evidence indicates ... more Caribbean sugar mills were powered by water, animals, wind, or steam, yet the evidence indicates major differences between islands in terms of which mill type predominated. We suggest that windmills offered few, if any, advantages over animal mills and several serious disadvantages. Why, then, were so many windmills built during the eighteenth century on some of the islands of the eastern Caribbean and so few on others? Here, we draw on Costly Signaling Theory to help explain these patterns. The preference for windmill-building may have had less to do with functional requirements or economic efficiency than with cultural competition, the signaling of membership of the planter class, and the display of power throughout the plantation landscape.
The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, Apr 21, 2021
In a recent paper published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, John Terrell (2020)... more In a recent paper published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, John Terrell (2020) objected to the proposition that islands can offer model systems to study human behavior and ecodyn...
Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology, 2013
Between 1979 and 1989, AIR Studios on the Caribbean island of Montserrat was a premier recording ... more Between 1979 and 1989, AIR Studios on the Caribbean island of Montserrat was a premier recording destination for a galaxy of top rock-and-roll stars. Forced to close by Hurricane Hugo, the property has suffered further damage from the ongoing eruptions of the Soufriere Hills volcano since 1995. Access is now restricted, but it has nonetheless become a virtual and actual place of tourist pilgrimage. In 2010 archaeologists from the Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat project (SLAM) surveyed the ruins of AIR Studios, carefully recording the spatial layout of the studio, documenting remnant material culture abandoned at the time of the studio’s closure, and excavating ash-covered pavement slabs inscribed by musicians during the studio’s heyday. Further research revealed that certain elements of the studios had been systematically stripped from the premises after 1989 and, in some cases, have since been reincorporated into other buildings across the island.
... Roman numerals indicate obsidian regions as identified by Keller et al. ... Syunik Obsidian S... more ... Roman numerals indicate obsidian regions as identified by Keller et al. ... Syunik Obsidian Sources Geological and topographic setting The Armenian Highlands is an area of intense tectonic activity; within Armenia alone 450 volcanic domes have been recorded (Karapetian 1972 ...
The Annual of the British School at Athens, Nov 1, 1991
I: Oi cmygCMpic, xai 01 aXAeg ygaxrec; fiagrugieg yid TO vrjai, Tigoowjioygacpia-TO7ioyga<pt'a-na... more I: Oi cmygCMpic, xai 01 aXAeg ygaxrec; fiagrugieg yid TO vrjai, Tigoowjioygacpia-TO7ioyga<pt'a-nagadoaeig-lazogia (Athens 1988). Robert = I,. Robert. \Sur un decret des Koresiens au Musee de Smyrne'. Hellenka 11-12 (1960) 132-76.
Acknowledgments for assistance are given below under appropriate sections. All illustrations exce... more Acknowledgments for assistance are given below under appropriate sections. All illustrations except 580 JAMES C. WRIGHT ETAL. Melos, Lakonia, Thessaly, and elsewhere.2 These researches established archaeological sequences, defined regional artifact and settlement types, and provided an overview of settlement from prehistoric times on. After World War II a series of extensive, but more systematic, surveys in many areas of the country was conducted by R. Hope Simpson and colleagues.3 Meanwhile a continuing tradition of geographic studies described natural as
Journal of Field Archaeology, 37(4): 316-327, Nov 2012
The volcanically devastated landscape of Montserrat and its social fabric comprise what Maria Tum... more The volcanically devastated landscape of Montserrat and its social fabric comprise what Maria Tumarkin (2005) calls a ‘‘traumascape’’—a site of tragedy and catastrophe that is also a place of coping and resilience. How Montserratians engage with trauma is evident in how they remember their recent and
historical pasts, and in how they are reinventing aspects of their heritage in order to sustain a distinctly Montserratian identity for the future. Such a process of coping presents challenges for conducting archaeology in collaboration with the community. In this article, we describe the experiences of a recently
established project on the island (Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat) and discuss the
potential for, and the obstacles involved in, developing longer-term, sustainable forms of collaboration
between archaeologists and local Montserratian communities when facing the unusual circumstances of volcanic disaster and hazard.
This article describes what appears to be the first archaeological application of airborne LiDAR ... more This article describes what appears to be the first archaeological application of airborne LiDAR survey to historic-era landscapes in the Caribbean archipelago, on the island of Montserrat. LiDAR is proving invaluable in extending the reach of traditional pedestrian survey into less favorable areas, such as those covered by dense neotropical forest and by ashfall from the past two decades of active eruptions by the Soufrière Hills volcano, and to sites in localities that are inaccessible on account of volcanic dangers. Emphasis is placed on two aspects of the research: first, the importance of ongoing, real-time interaction between the LiDAR analyst and the archaeological team in the field; and second, the advantages of exploiting the full potential of the three-dimensional LiDAR point cloud data for purposes of the visualization of archaeological sites and features.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 19(2): 356-383, 2015
A major obstacle to understanding Montserrat’s sugar industry and the often- contentious social d... more A major obstacle to understanding Montserrat’s sugar industry and the often- contentious social dynamics that accompanied it has been the absence of a comprehensive study of the small Caribbean island’s plantation-era cultural landscape. We employ a multi-scalar approach, combining archival research and archaeological survey data, to trace the island’s shifting socio-cultural composition and fluctuating sugar industry over the course of two centuries (ca. 1650–1850). Adopting an island-wide perspective on the interpretation of Montserrat’s plantation-era remains, we expand the breadth and depth of understandings about the island’s sugar society through comparative, multi-sited analyses. Our findings underscore the importance of extending Caribbean plantation studies beyond individual estates.
Only five years ago, Montserrat was a blank spot on the distribution map of islands in the Lesser... more Only five years ago, Montserrat was a blank spot on the distribution map of islands in the Lesser Antilles where petroglyphs were known. In January 2016, hikers in Soldier Ghaut, a deeply incised watercourse in the northwest of the island, came upon a panel of nine petroglyphs engraved on a nearly vertical wall of volcanoclastic tuff. Soon afterward the petroglyphs were documented by the Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat project (SLAM). Then in January 2018 an additional petroglyph was spotted on a large slab of rock, detached from the rock wall on the opposite side of the ghaut. At the invitation of the Montserrat National Trust (MNT) and with European Union funding, Susana Guimarães and Christian Stouvenot traveled to Montserrat in 2018 to assist in further studies at the site. They conducted photogrammetric documentation and photography under enhanced lighting conditions and inspected the petroglyphs and their context in detail in order to advise MNT about their conservation and provisions for public access. This report presents this new group of petroglyphs and their landscape setting and considers questions of dating and interpretation.
Early Settlers of the Insular Caribbean: Dearchaizing the Archaic (Hofman and Antczak, eds), 2019
This chapter describes a newly discovered site of Archaic Age date on Montserrat, the first known... more This chapter describes a newly discovered site of Archaic Age date on Montserrat, the first known site on the island. Previously, the oldest archaeological site was Trants, an Early Ceramic settlement with earliest colonization dates of around 500 BC. The site at Upper Blakes may document human activity on Montserrat more than two millennia earlier, thus placing it among the earliest known sites in the Lesser Antilles. Here we recount the circumstances leading to the discovery of Upper Blakes, describe the site and its setting, summarize and comment on the lithic material and its technology (especially in comparison with nearby Antigua), present its radiocarbon AMS date and reflect on the wider significance of Upper Blakes for the early occupation of the Lesser Antilles.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 2019
The social life of the newly created ‘laboring classes’ in the post-emancipation Caribbean has be... more The social life of the newly created ‘laboring classes’ in the post-emancipation Caribbean has been relatively unexamined across a number of disciplinary perspectives. This paper argues for the need to bring together a variety of sources to enable researchers to gain a better understanding of this important, transitional time in Montserrat’s history. Using evidence gathered from archives in the Caribbean, North America and the British Isles, materials excavated from a previously undocumented schoolhouse structure in the north of the island, and local memories of education on Montserrat, this paper illuminates an almost forgotten aspect of the lives of nineteenth-century laboring classes: the aspiration of education.
Montserrat is a small island in the Leeward islands of the eastern Caribbean and at present a Bri... more Montserrat is a small island in the Leeward islands of the eastern Caribbean and at present a British Overseas Territory. It has suffered greatly in recent times, first from the devastations of Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and since 1995 from the still-ongoing eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano that has caused two-thirds of the island's population to emigrate and left half the island a dangerous exclusion zone. Archaeological research here began only in the late 1970s, but work over the past four decades has now made it possible to present an archaeological history of Montserrat, from the earliest known traces of human activity on the island about 5,000 years ago to the present.
This book draws on all the available archaeological evidence (including that from the co-authors' own island-wide survey and excavation project since 2010), as well as newly available archival documents, to trace this little island's long history and heritage. This is not the story of an isolated and remote island: Montserrat is shown rather to be a place intricately connected to the flows of people and goods that have travelled between islands and across the Atlantic at various points in time, both Amerindian and historical. Despite its small size and seeming irrelevance, Montserrat has in fact always been networked into regional and global systems of connectivity. An underlying theme of this volume is resilience. It presents insights from the archaeological and documentary evidence on how the island's inhabitants have coped with often adverse conditions throughout the course of its history-hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, slavery, disease, invasions, and impoverishment-all while remaining proudly connected to heritage that celebrates the accomplishments of island residents.
International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 2021
Caribbean sugar mills were powered by water, animals, wind, or steam, yet the evidence indicates ... more Caribbean sugar mills were powered by water, animals, wind, or steam, yet the evidence indicates major differences between islands in terms of which mill type predominated. We suggest that windmills offered few, if any, advantages over animal mills and several serious disadvantages. Why, then, were so many windmills built during the eighteenth century on some of the islands of the eastern Caribbean and so few on others? Here, we draw on Costly Signaling Theory to help explain these patterns. The preference for windmill-building may have had less to do with functional requirements or economic efficiency than with cultural competition, the signaling of membership of the planter class, and the display of power throughout the plantation landscape.
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Papers by John Cherry
historical pasts, and in how they are reinventing aspects of their heritage in order to sustain a distinctly Montserratian identity for the future. Such a process of coping presents challenges for conducting archaeology in collaboration with the community. In this article, we describe the experiences of a recently
established project on the island (Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat) and discuss the
potential for, and the obstacles involved in, developing longer-term, sustainable forms of collaboration
between archaeologists and local Montserratian communities when facing the unusual circumstances of volcanic disaster and hazard.
This book draws on all the available archaeological evidence (including that from the co-authors' own island-wide survey and excavation project since 2010), as well as newly available archival documents, to trace this little island's long history and heritage. This is not the story of an isolated and remote island: Montserrat is shown rather to be a place intricately connected to the flows of people and goods that have travelled between islands and across the Atlantic at various points in time, both Amerindian and historical. Despite its small size and seeming irrelevance, Montserrat has in fact always been networked into regional and global systems of connectivity. An underlying theme of this volume is resilience. It presents insights from the archaeological and documentary evidence on how the island's inhabitants have coped with often adverse conditions throughout the course of its history-hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, slavery, disease, invasions, and impoverishment-all while remaining proudly connected to heritage that celebrates the accomplishments of island residents.