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AbstractDue to its proximity to coastal South America and settlement during the early phase of insular Caribbean occupation, Curaçao’s archaeological record offers potential evidence for early overwater exploration and regional interaction. Here, we report new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates on charcoal from C-1426 at Saliña Sint Marie, an Archaic rockshelter site that extends Curaçao’s occupation back to 5735–5600 cal BP, some 290–850 years earlier than the established settlement chronology. This finding makes the C-1426 rockshelter Curaçao’s earliest known archaeological site and among the oldest in the insular Caribbean. We describe the site and the archaeological context of dating and conclude by considering the implications of Curaçao’s revised occupation chronology for initial Caribbean settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological research on Carriacou in the southern Grenadines has demonstrated that despite its relatively small size, the island was inhabited prehistorically for at least a thousand years (ca. AD 400-1400) and has an unusually large number of sites. Over the past decade we have conducted research at two major coastal village sites- Grand Bay and Sabazan-that have revealed an archaeologically rich heritage, but one that is also extremely threatened as a result of looting, sand mining, and tidal erosion. Here we provide a brief summary of research from seven field seasons on Carriacou with a focus on results from the 2014 project in what has become one of the longest continuously running field programs in the region. Results demonstrate that Carriacou was: 1) settled slightly later in time (ca. AD 400) compared to nearby islands with higher elevations; 2) engaged in widespread exchange with other islands and possibly mainland South America as evidenced by the discovery of translocated animals, non-local pottery, and ritual objects; and 3) heavily focused on the exploitation of marine resources for subsistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Grenadine Islands in the southern Lesser Antilles have received relatively little attention by archaeologists compared to other regions of the Caribbean. However, research over the last ten years on Carriacou, the largest and southernmost island in the Grenadines, has significantly improved our understanding of when these islands were settled in prehistory and subsequent cultural changes that occurred from ca. AD 400 to 1400. An extension of this research project into the smaller islands of Mustique and Union in May 2010 has now provided preliminary data with which Carriacou and other nearby islands such as St. Vincent and Grenada can be compared. Here we provide a description of the sites we investigated and present analysis of recovered archaeological remains through subsurface testing. This represents the first concerted effort by archaeologists since the 1970s to investigate the Grenadines and also reports a new site on Mustique known as Lagoon Bay. Results of this and previous research demonstrates that numerous villages developed in the Grenadines during the terminal Saladoid period and fluoresced shortly thereafter during the Troumassoid period (ca. AD 600 - 1300). Preliminary analysis of materials recovered, including pottery and mollusks, as well as several new radiocarbon dates, provide a framework for guiding future research at these sites, most of which are threatened by development, agricultural activities, and/or erosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]