De Waal, 2003, Pre-Columbian Site Patterns in the Eastern Guadeloupe Area [IACA Proceedings article] (original) (raw)

Waal M.S. de (2003), Pre-Columbian Site Patterns in the Eastern Guadeloupe Area. An Archaeological Survey of La Désirade, Petite Terre and Pointe des Châteaux (1998-2000). In: Proceedings of the XXth International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology no. 20. 75-84. A PhD study (1997-2003) focusing on socio-political, economic and ritual organisation and interaction on La Désirade, Petite Terre, and Pointe des Châteaux (Guadeloupe, F.W.I.) is currently being carried out at Leiden University (The Netherlands). It aims to obtain information on pre-Columbian organisation and interaction through the analysis of archaeological sites and their assemblages, as well as diachronic site patterns. At the start of this study no reliable site inventories, prerequisites for the investigation of pre-Columbian site patterns, were available for the research area. Therefore, a survey method, consisting of systematic and intensive field-walking procedures and small-scale sub-surface tests, was designed in order to provide fast, detailed, and systematically made micro-regional site inventories. The required fieldwork was carried out from 1998 to 2000. This paper focuses on the aims, methodology, accuracy and results of the fieldwork campaigns and the diachronic pre-Columbian site patterns that were identified.