The Caves of Crown Point Tobago, West Indies

Over the last ten years radical developments in the understanding of pre- Columbian island interaction in the Caribbean have taken place. New scientific techniques have revealed the intensity and complexity of human movement, social interaction and ethnic diversity throughout the 6000 years of human occupation in the insular Caribbean (Hofman & van Duijvenbode 2011). Within this context, a new project has been developed focusing on pathways to social complexity in the Greater Antilles, articulated upon the paradigms of past human ecodynamics and creolisation. This project builds on the authors' longstanding research projects in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Puerto Rico, with a recent focus on Isla Saona and Isla de Mona. During recent work in the uninhabited Isla de Mona, some of the most complex, comprehensive and diverse assemblages of pre-Columbian iconography and cave use— including unique evidence for large-scale mining activities—have been studied.

1985

2008

2 Abstract: Abaco Island, located on Little Bahama Bank, is the most northeastern island in the Bahamian archipelago. Abaco exhibits typical carbonate island karst features such as karren, blue holes, pit caves, banana holes and flank margin caves. Landforms that resemble tropical cone karst and pseudokarst tafoni caves are also present. The three cave types of Abaco—flank margin caves, pit caves, and tafoni caves—are abundant, but each forms by very different mechanisms. Flank margin caves are hypogenic in origin, forming due to mixing dissolution at the margin of the freshwater lens. Since the lens margin is concordant with sea level, flank margin caves record the position of sea level during their formation. Flank margin caves exhibit phreatic dissolutional features such as bell holes, dissolutional cusps and spongework. Pit caves form as vadose fast-flow routes to the freshwater lens and are common on the Pleistocene eolianite ridges of the Bahamas. Pit caves are characterized b...

2002

Studies of an unusual and diverse system of caves in coastal southern Jamaica have yielded a paleoclimatic record associated with a fossil vertebrate record that provides useful insights into the poorly documented paleoecology of latest Wisconsinan and Holocene Jamaica. Episodes of significantly increased precipitation during the Holocene have left characteristic deposits of speleothems, and have supported both faunal and archaeological communities that were dependent on these mesic conditions. Deposits of fossil bat guano preserved in the caves provide a δ 13 C record of alternating mesic and xeric climatic episodes that supports the interpretation of the faunal and archaeological record.

Acta Carsologica, 2016

Cave (San Salvador, Bahami): Brezstropa jama in njen pomen pri prepoznavanju paleokraπkih jam fosilnih karbonatnih platform Prispevek obravnava podobnosti v razvoju krasa kvartarne karbonatne platforme na otoku San Salvador in devonske karbonatne platforme na platoju Krásná na Moravskem. Za obe obmoËji so znaËilne jame, katerih nastanek lahko razloaeimo s ≈flank margin« modelom in so nastale v obmoËju sladkovodnih leË med obdobji relativno visoke morske gladine, v Ëasu relativno stabilne halokline, kar potrjujejo razliËne πtudije jamskih zapolnitev. V obeh primerih so jamske sedimentne zapolnitve genetsko primerljive -obalni in eolski sedimenti ter breËe. KljuËne besede: karbonatne platforme, ≈flank margin« jame, brezstrope jame, spektrometrija z gama aearki in karotaaea vrtin, zgornji devon, kvartar, otok San Salvador, Bahami, Severna Moravska, »eπka republika.

Spot Valley cave was located by Mr David Fletcher and was mapped by Dr James Lee in 1970. He reported that fragments of human bones and teeth were found in crevices against the walls and in the floor associated with numerous potsherds of White Marl (Meillacan) type. The collection now kept at the University of the West Indies consists of 693 potsherds and 1 reconstructed vessel as well as a small chert component. The study of the human remains has shown that there were a minimum number of 8 individuals here, 4 adults and 4 juveniles, some of them showing pathological lesions. Dr Lee reported that there were about a dozen poorly preserved pictographs applied to the cave wall in black pigment, in the same style as those at Mountain River cave. He illustrated some of these pictographs in the form of drawings which he presented to the 11 th IACA Congress in 1985. A new survey of the interior of the cave has now been carried out, and a photographic record of the pictographs made, thanks to the kind cooperation of the present owner of the property, Mr David Lee.

2002

Papers from the Institute of …, 2009

This paper reports on indigenous cave use on Mona island, Puerto Rico. It includes additions to the IACA paper presentation to inform readers of subsequent fieldwork carried out in June 2014. Fieldwork confirmed extractive activities, ritual practices and artistic representations deep inside caves in more than twenty-five cave systems across the island. The evidence for indigenous activities, building on the work of predecessors such as Dr Pedro Santana and Dr Ovidio Dávila, not only dramatically expands the repertoire of pre-Columbian iconography, but has the potential to transform understandings of past cave use, as well as traditional definitions of rock art in the Caribbean. Fieldwork in June 2014 focussed on cave survey; visual documentation; sampling for dating and compositional analysis; and small-scale excavation for retrieval of samples. The cultural heritage of the caves on Mona is highly vulnerable to visitor impact. Collaborative work and research with the Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña and Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe to analyse and date the archaeology of the caves and document and protect this unique Caribbean heritage is underway.

This early archaeological research of a cave site in the Caribbean demonstrated the wealth of information still available in these sites as well as the need to reassess the notion that cave habitation was limited to early precolumbian settlement of the islands.