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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]

Presents the black and white photograph "View of the profile along the northern section of the Grand Bay Site," by Michiel Kappers.