Multi-Period Landscape Survey and Site Risk Assessment on Montserrat, West Indies (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology
Within the context of climate change, sea-level rise is threatening not only coastal communities globally, but also the archaeological record of their history, knowledge, and culture. As a response, inter-institutional databases of heritage have increasingly been coupled with other widely available cyberinfrastructure to assess the magnitude of the threat and the vulnerability of cultural heritage, in order to begin the design of actionable steps or mitigation of impact. This article focuses on the coastal archaeology of Puerto Rico to evaluate the damage caused by Hurricane Maria, and to assess the reliability of desk-based vulnerability assessments in the context of disasters. The study conducted a walkover survey of 11 km of coast on the north-central portion of Puerto Rico and documented context, visible impact, and level of threat from coastal erosion, among other factors. The study concludes that, for the case study, the desk-based assessment conducted in 2017 underestimated the vulnerability of coastal resources. While two sites were predicted to be vulnerable, the survey identified eight damaged sites. These results call for heightened attention to the actual process of sea-level rise in the context of changing weather and changing water-level baselines, not just for cultural heritage, but also for coastal and marine ecosystem management and for the resilience of human communities.
Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2019
The Caribbean island of Carriacou is notable for its recurrent drought, paucity of large, native land animals, and well-developed bank and barrier reef system. These environmental conditions presented challenges and opportunities to the Amerindians, Europeans, and enslaved Africans who settled here through time. While available evidence suggests human presence has altered island ecology through agriculture, deforestation, erosion, species introductions, and extinction, overall human ecodynamics remain poorly understood. In 2018, the Carriacou Ecodynamics Archaeology Project (CEAP) initiated a field program investigating long-term human-environment interaction to reconstruct Carriacou’s landscape history. The CEAP seeks to develop high-resolution records for anthropogenic habitat modification and change in biotic communities from initial Amerindian settlement (ca. AD 400) through the colonial period (1740s–1974) up to the present. Pilot investigations comprising pedestrian survey, test pitting, site mapping, and geophysical survey targeted the coastal archaeological site Sabazan, where ca. 1,600 years of pre- and post-contact settlement are recorded. Here, we present the results of this first field season, demonstrating the potential of geophysical survey approaches in the Caribbean and the need for renewed, focused attention to Carriacou’s archaeological resources which are being rapidly lost due to coastal erosion.
Landscape Transformation During Ceramic Age and Colonial Occupations of Barbuda, West Indies
Environmental Archaeology, 2018
ABSTRACT This research documented the history of landscape transformation on the island of Barbuda in the Lesser Antilles, Caribbean through cross-disciplinary research approaches. Excavations confirmed a human presence for the seasonal exploitation of conch meat and other molluscs during the Archaic Age (c.3000–500 BC), but more substantial impacts to terrestrial ecosystems likely began during the Ceramic Age (c.500 BC–AD 1500). Our combined sedimentary and charcoal records revealed that human-induced environmental transformations began with Ceramic Age peoples as they cleared vegetation for settlements and gardens with intentional burning. Sedimentary charcoal indicated a dramatic decline in fire during post-Ceramic Age abandonment, continuing through the Colonial Period, as the dominant human activities shifted to herding, farming, and selective wood harvesting. Historical sources showed that during the Colonial Period (post-1492), the island was intermittently settled until the mid-seventeenth century, while the Codrington family of Antigua held the lease to the island from 1681 to 1870. They used the island for farming and stock-rearing, exporting meat and draught animals along with lime, timber, and subsistence crops. Macrocharcoal recovered from Colonial Period archaeological sites reflect the use of a variety of local species and wood imported to the island or harvested from shipwrecks.
Results of Preliminary Archaeological Investigation at Walkers Reserve, St. Andrew, Barbados
The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, 2021
Archaeological investigation at the Walkers sand quarry in St. Andrews, Barbados, revealed Late Ceramic A (AD 700-1000) ceramics interspersed with historic pottery, ground shell implements, faunal remains, and a historical human burial with grave goods. Observable stratigraphy was generally lacking in the investigated area with mixing of Indigenous and historic assemblages that are indicative of anthropogenic landscape and transformation most likely related to leveling activities that have taken place since the 1950s. This is the first attempt to examine cultural resources on the property, with preliminary fieldwork suggesting good potential for future research on the continuity of landscape use from Indigenous through colonial times.
Journal of Open Archaeology Data, 2019
This paper addresses a database collected and constructed as part of PhD research project on the north-western coast of the Dominican Republic. The PhD was part of the ERC Synergy Grant NEXUS 1492: New World Encounters in a Globalizing World. The database was collected during fieldwork campaigns between 2014 and 2015. Fieldwork consisted of a regional survey, material culture registry and collection, test pit excavation, and processing relevant environmental variables. The archaeological data consists of a record of 102 archaeological sites, the material culture associated with them (lithic, shell and coral objects, shell mollusk species), and the relationship between site location and a set of relevant environmental variables used for statistical analysis. This database is one of the only open access archaeological databases available at the moment in the Caribbean and can be reused by any Caribbean archaeologist working in the Greater Antilles.
2019
De Waal, M.S., Barbados’ Natural Landscapes. Conditions for Pre-Colonial Settlement, Site Preservation and Archaeological Fieldwork. In: De Waal, M.S., Finneran, N., Reilly, M.C., Armstrong, D.V. and Farmer, K. (eds) 2019: Pre-Colonial and Post-Contact Archaeology in Barbados. Past, Present, and Future Research Directions, Sidestone Press (Leiden), pp. 43-60.
Fitzpatrick_Shoals of Giants-Caribbean_JCC 2011
In this paper I review a host of natural and cultural processes that have affected the preservation and integrity of archaeological sites on islands in the West Indies, many of which are located in low-lying coastal areas. Given the position of the Caribbean lithospheric plate—juxtaposed between four others—it is no surprise that by its very nature the region is volcanically active and frequently associated with earthquake and tsunami events. This makes coastal zones, and related archaeological sites in the region, highly susceptible to a wide range of destructive natural events. The high frequency of tropical systems (hurricanes and storms) in the Caribbean and rising sea level, coupled with human activities such as sand mining, development, and looting, makes the region’s archaeological record one of the most vulnerable and threatened in the world. Ongoing research is dedicated to understanding how past populations may have been affected by these events in the past.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.