Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1990 - 113

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people were probably not organized in
large chiefdoms like the Taino, many
aspects of their culture - especially their artistic motifs and ceremonial objects - were
employed by the Taino up until the time of
European contact.
Between a.d. 500 and 700 a number of
changes took place in the Caribbean. In addition to a shift in native eating habits from
land to sea animals, archaeologists have
identified changes in the way houses were
constructed and villages laid out. On some
islands many new villages were established,
possibly reflecting population growth. There
were also changes in the way ceramics were
made and decorated: potters stopped using
the white on red painting to decorate their
pots, which were now generally thicker and
less finely made than the Saladoid ceramics.
This later ceramic style is called Ostionoid,
after the site of Ostiones in Puerto Rico.
At about this time another migratory
push took place. Ostionoid people began
moving into the highlands of Puerto Rico
and into Hispaniola, Jamaica, Cuba, and
eventually the Bahamas. When they moved
into areas never colonized by the Saladoid
people, the newcomers either conquered or
assimilated the aceramic hunters and gatherers who had been there for thousands of
years. It is unclear whether this was a
peaceful meeting, or a bloody conquest of
the sort the islands would experience when
European
the Europeans arrived.
perceptionsof
The culture of the descendents of the
Amerindians
Saladoid people who stayed in the Lesser
varied. In this
Antilles did not remain static. They stayed seventeenth -century
in contact with both the Indians that moved engraving, America
into the Greater Antilles and those of the
sits on a giant
South American mainland, and their sociearmadillo while
ties were enriched by the interactions in
Europeans battle
both directions. When the Spaniards araboriginesand
cannibals roast
rived, they called these Lesser Antillean
human flesh.
people "Caribs" (from the native word for
the root crop manioc), and viewed them as
dangerous warriors who ate human flesh.
Spanish chroniclers drew such a sharp contrast between the Taino or Arawaks of the
Greater Antilles and the Caribs of the
Lesser Antilles that for a long time the two
56 Archaeology

groups were viewed as quite different, unrelated peoples. Now, while acknowledging
the importance of continued South American contact in Island Carib society, many
archaeologists and historians are inclined
to view the Caribs and the Taino as two
branches of cultural development with
shared Saladoid roots.
Populations in the Greater Antilles grew
rapidly, and new villages were established
both on the coasts of these islands and on
the river systems inland. In the interior,
colonization required greater emphasis on
freshwater fish and shellfish as well as new
farming techniques that enabled the growing of crops in limited space. By the time the
Spaniards arrived, the Caribbean Indians
were building up mounds of soil and fertilizing them intensively
so the land never had
to lay fallow to regain
its fertility.
Soon after moving into the Greater
Antilles, the Ostionoid people began to
build ball courts and
ball court complexes.
These courts were
usually rectangular
and often as large as
100 by 150 feet or
The
was
leveled, and standlarger.
ground
slabs
of
stone
or
embankments
of earth
ing
were built up around the perimeter. On this
court, they played a game using a natural
gum rubber ball. Bartolomé de Las Casas,
a Spanish priest who tried to protect the Indians from destruction in the Caribbean
and later in Central America, described the
game like this:
"Twenty or thirty stood at either end of a
long enclosure. Those at one end would toss
the ball to those at the opposite extreme and
it was then smitten by whoever was nearest:
with the shoulder, if the ball flew high, which
made the ball return like lightning; and if it
flew close to the ground, quickly putting
their right hand to the ground and leaning
on it, they would smite the ball with the

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Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1990

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1990
