cuban archaeological research at yale peabody ...

CUBAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH AT YALE PEABODY MUSEUM Roger H. Colten ([email protected]) Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

45 ABSTRACT Yale University and the Peabody Museum of Natural History have a long history of archaeological research in the Caribbean region including projects ranging from Venezuela through the Lesser and Greater Antilles. As a result of this research program, the Yale Peabody Museum curates one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections of archaeological material from the Caribbean. Yale’s research program included three archaeological projects in Cuba: Cornelius Osgood’s excavation at Cayo Redondo, Benjamin Irving Rouse’s survey and excavations in the Maniabon Hills, and Paul G. Hahn’s excavations at several pre-ceramic sites located along the south shore of the island. These projects varied in research focus and recovery methods but produced collections that continue to have great research potential. This paper includes a description of each of these projects and the associated collections that are housed at the Yale Peabody Museum with a discussion of some of the faunal remains recovered by Hahn. Key words: Cuba, Pre-ceramic, museum collections, faunal remains RESUMEN La Universidad de Yale y el Museo Peabody tienen una larga historia de investigación arqueológica en la región del Caribe, la cual incluye proyectos realizados desde Venezuela hasta las pequeñas y grandes Antillas. Como resultado de este programa de investigación, el Museo Peabody de Yale conserva una de las colecciones más grandes e inclusivas de materiales arqueológicos del Caribe, a nivel mundial. El programa de investigación de Yale incluyó tres proyectos arqueológicos en Cuba: las excavaciones de Cornelius Osgood en Cayo Redondo, las excavaciones de Benjamin Irving Rouse en las colinas de Maniabon y las excavaciones de Paul G. Hahn en varios sitios precerámicos localizados a lo largo de la ribera sur de la isla. Estos proyecto tuvieron diferentes enfoques y métodos, pero produjeron colecciones que siguen ofreciendo un gran potencial de investigación. Este artículo incluye una descripción de cad uno de estos proyectos y las colecciones asociadas, que se conservan en el Museo Peabody de Yale, con una discusión de algunos restos de fauna recuperador por Hahn. Palabras clave: Cuba, museos, colecciones Pre-cerámicos, restos de fauna

Puerto Rico 2013 | 25 to Congreso Internacional de Arqueología del Caribe indice

R o g e r H . C o lt e n RÉSUMÉ L’Université de Yale et le Peabody Museum of Natural History ont une longue histoire de la recherche archéologique dans la région des Caraïbes, y compris des projets allant du Venezuela à travers le Petites et Grandes Antilles. À la suite de ce programme de recherche, Yale Peabody Museum conserve un des plus grands et les plus complètes collections au monde de matériel archéologique des Caraïbes. Le programme de recherche de Yale comprenait trois projets archéologiques à Cuba: l’ excavation de Cornelius Osgood à Cayo Redondo, l’ enquête de Benjamin Irving Rouse et fouilles dans le Maniabon Hills, et les fouilles de Paul G. Hahn sur plusieurs sites pré- céramique situés le long de la rive sud de l’île. Ces projets varient en discussion et de récupération des méthodes de recherche, mais produites collections qui continuent à avoir un grand potentiel de recherche. Ce document comprend une description de chacun de ces projets et les collections associées qui sont logés au Peabody Museum de Yale avec une discussion de certains des restes fauniques récupérés par Hahn. Mots clés: Cuba, pré-céramique, collections de musées, des restes fauniques

Yale University and the Peabody Museum of Natural History have a long record of archaeological research in the greater Caribbean region. Systematic collection of archaeological material by Yale University in this region began in 1933 with the establishment of the Caribbean Anthropological Program under the direction of Cornelius Osgood. The program was co-sponsored by Yale University’s Department of Anthropology and the Peabody Museum of Natural History (DaRos and Colten 2009). The program was initiated “as an attempt to improve the methodology of archaeology through intensive research in a particular area, as well as to resolve the historical problems of the aboriginal populations of the West Indies and related peoples in North and South America” (Osgood 1942, p. 5). Froelich Rainey and Benjamin Irving Rouse were Osgood’s graduate students and they were involved in the program at its beginning. The Caribbean program was very active from 1933 through the mid-1960s. There were major excavations in Venezuela, Trinidad, Haiti, and Puerto Rico. The final field project was the excavation at the Indian Creek Site in Antigua in 1973 (Rouse and Morse 1999). Cornelius Osgood was Curator of Anthropology at the Peabody Museum from 1934 to 1973 and the field work seems to correspond with his tenure. Although the Yale Caribbean program focused on archaeology, the program also included ethnographic research (Mintz 1960). Yale scholars conducted research in Cuba relatively early in the development of Caribbean archaeology. There were three Yale archaeological projects in Cuba, two that took place in 1941 and another in the late 1950s. The two projects that took place in 1941 were directed by Cornelius Osgood and Benjamin Irving Rouse. Paul G. Hahn’s research took place in 1956 and 1957 during the Cuban

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R o g e r H . C o lt e n

revolution and Yale field research in Cuba ended after his project. In recent years there has been renewed interest in these collections including analysis of ceramics and vertebrate faunal remains as well as radiocarbon analysis of organic material from several sites (Table 1). Osgood’s Excavation at Cayo Redondo One of Yale University’s first archaeological projects in Cuba was Osgood’s excavation at the Cayo Redondo site in the far western part of the island. Osgood (1942, p. 17) describes the site as “a small island in a mangrove swamp bordering the Bay of Guadiana on the north coast of the Peninsula of Guanahacabibes, which comprises the westernmost extremity of Cuba.” Osgood’s objectives in the excavation were to document a pre-ceramic site and to estimate the time and labor involved in excavating similar sites. Osgood excavated three trenches at this site. Trench I was 2 m by 26 m, trench II was 2 m by 14 m, and Trench III was 2 m by 10 m. He excavated in 25 cm arbitrary levels to a depth of 1 to 1.25 meters depending on the limit of culturally sterile soil or the water table. A total of 108 cubic meters was excavated. The site was a shell midden with much Strombus in the upper 25 cm. Although the soil was not screened, “all bone fragments ... were preserved insofar as it was possible to extract them from the muck” (Osgood 1942, p. 21). The Cayo Redondo collection at the Peabody Museum includes 548 catalog entries in the collection management data base, most of which are bone, shell or stone items. The collection is “batch cataloged,” a method in which one catalog number can represent multiple items, and therefore there are more than 548 individual items. The collection includes about 1281 individual items, over 600 of which are bones (Table 2). The research potential of this collection may be in the faunal material for subsistence studies, biogeographical analysis and radiocarbon dating. The museum’s documentation for this collection includes some of Osgood’s notes and a few color slides of the site and the excavations. Rouse in the Maniabon Hills Rouse’s project in the Maniabon Hills, in the northeastern part of Cuba, included survey and excavations at several sites. Rouse (1942) discussed approximately 190 sites from this region. The largest excavation was at the Potrero del Mango site (also called El Mango) near the city of Banes in the modern Holguín Province of Cuba. Approximately 75 percent of the items in Rouse’s Cuban collections are from Potrero del Mango. About six percent of the catalog entries in Rouse’s Cuban collections are from the Big Wall site near the town of Maisi in the Guantánamo Province of Cuba, close to the easternmost point of Cuba. Rouse spent about three weeks excavating at El Mango in July and August of 1941 working with Miguel Alonso and a group of Boy Scouts from Banes. Rouse

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(1942, p. 66) described the site as “three large, elongate mounds arranged in a semicircle on the northwestern side of a long ridge 30 m high” and said that some sections of the mounds reached 2 m in depth. Rouse and his colleagues excavated blocks of units in all three midden areas as well as three test trenches and a block excavation on the edge of the site (Rouse 1942, p. 134). Rouse (1942, pp. 141142) described the relative age of the various deposits at El Mango based on the presence or absence of domesticated cow bones and European trade goods, as well as variations in native pottery. At a later time a radiocarbon date was obtained from charcoal from a stump recovered from Sec. Y-5, level 0.75 to 1.00 m, at bottom of Excavation 1 in Midden 1 (Stuiver 1969, p. 627). The uncalibrated date is reported as A.D. 1140 (Y-206, 810 +/- 80 B.P.). Rouse generally cataloged individual artifacts, including pot sherds, rather than batch cataloging them. This collection includes almost 12,000 catalog entries representing over 14,000 individual items. Seventy-five percent of these individual items are pot sherds (Table 2). The museum’s anthropology division archives for this project include Rouse’s field and lab notes, original maps and figure illustrations, and some photographic material. In his 1942 publication Rouse indicated that he planned a site report on El Mango, which apparently was never completed. Relatively recently A. Brooke Persons (2013) has analyzed the pottery from El Mango and a very small sample of vertebrate faunal material was identified by a Yale University student as part of a class project.

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Paul G. Hahn’s Pre-ceramic Research Project Although not as well-known as the Osgood and Rouse projects, Paul G. Hahn’s dissertation research on the pre-ceramic cultures of Cuba yielded important information and substantial collections. Hahn visited many sites and museum collections and excavated at several pre-ceramic sites located in southern parts of the island in 1956 and 1957. According to his dissertation (Hahn 1961), Hahn excavated at seven sites (Table 3). The sites that are represented in the Yale Peabody Museum collections are Las Obas, Los Caracoles, El Guayabo, and Vega del Palmar. Collections from some of the other sites excavated by Hahn are curated in Cuba (Lourdes Domínguez, pers. comm. 2013). Until recently the Yale Peabody Museum did not have any of Hahn’s field documents. Our collections included only the archaeological material which had been cataloged by site, unit, and level. In May of 2013 we obtained survey and excavation notes as well as some 35 mm slides and a few black and white photographs from Hahn’s daughter and granddaughter. The written documentation includes site record forms, excavation level forms, and summary lists of archaeological material from each excavation level. There are additional site record cards



related to Hahn’s survey as well as descriptions of museum collections that he examined during his trips to Cuba. It is possible that additional documentation exists but it has not yet been located. Maps that show precise locations of these sites and site excavation plans would be particularly helpful in placing this research in context. Hahn batch cataloged his archaeological material and the collections include very large quantities of unmodified animal bones and abundant stone tools. Because the collection is batch cataloged it is difficult to accurately estimate the total number of individual items in these collections. Based on the 934 catalog entries records we could very conservatively estimate that there are a minimum of 2,263 items, however, bones are vastly underrepresented in these estimates. For example, detailed zooarchaeological analysis shows that individual catalog entries that say “bone” can represent several thousand bones, bone fragments, and teeth (Colten et al. 2009, Colten and Worthington 2013, Colten and Worthington 2014). The roughly two dozen catalog entries for bone that we have analyzed represent over 21,000 bones. Perhaps the most interesting part of the Hahn collection is this enormous quantity of vertebrate faunal material. Based on the analysis of samples of bones from the Las Obas and Vega del Palmar sites it is clear that the pre-ceramic occupants of Cuba exploited a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic resources. Although these two sites vary in location, they both yielded large quantities of fish and terrestrial mammal bones. Based on the analysis of over 21,000 bones from these two sites we can identify some differences in the faunal assemblages (Colten and Worthington 2013, Colten and Worthington 2014). The Vega del Palmar site is located in southern coastal Cuba southeast of the Bahía de Cienfuegos, in the Cienfuegos province of Cuba (Figure 1). The site is a refuse midden located on a hilltop near where the Rio Arimao divides into two arms, one leading to the Caribbean on the south coast and the other leading to the

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Laguna Guanaroca which is connected to the Bahía de Cienfuegos (Hahn 1961, p. 97). Vega del Palmar has two components, one pre-ceramic and the other early ceramic or “Archaic with ceramic.” The ceramics from Vega del Palmar are of the Pre-Arawak Pottery Horizon type (Rodriguez Ramos et al. 2008). Las Obas is located north of Manzanillo in southeastern Cuba. Although the location of this site is only vaguely identified in Hahn’s dissertation, it was situated near Laguna Las Obas and also relatively near marine environments. This site did not yield any of the Pre-Arawak Pottery Horizon sherds and the radiocarbon dates from Las Obas are intermediate between the earlier and later dates from Vega del Palmar (Colten and Worthington 2013; Table 1). Although faunal samples from both sites are dominated by fish and mammals, mammals and birds are relatively more abundant at Las Obas than at Vega del Palmar, whereas fish are relatively more abundant at Vega del Palmar (Tables 4 and 5). Hutia are the most abundant animal at both sites with some taxonomic variability between the two sites. The samples contain more small hutia from Las Obas, probably the Cuban Coney (Geocapromys columbianus), while there are more large hutia, probably Cuban hutia (Capromys pilorides), at Vega del Palmar. Remains of rats and Cuban solenodon have also been identified in these assemblages. There is a slight shift through time in fish habitats from inshore or estuarine fish to reef or rocky bank fish at Vega del Palmar. There are sea turtles bones in the Vega del Palmar sample while there are many freshwater turtles (Cuban sliders) bones at Las Obas. The differences between the two sites could be partly chronological or due to local habitat variability in the regions where the sites are located. Within the Vega del Palmar faunal collection there are no extreme differences between the occupation that has ceramics and the earlier deposit that did not contain ceramics.

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Summary In summary, there are three substantial archaeological collections at the Yale Peabody Museum collected in various parts of Cuba. Although these collections were retrieved before fully modern recovery techniques were adopted they contain material that is relevant to current archaeological research. Osgood and Rouse did not screen excavated soil although Rouse may have carefully searched the soil for artifacts and other items. Hahn screened the soil at some of the sites he excavated (but not at Vega del Palmar). Rouse and Osgood excavated before radiocarbon dating was discovered and Hahn’s project occurred before that method was widely used. The focus of these projects was mainly to establish regional chronological sequences based on artifacts but the collections include bone, shell, and charcoal that can be radiocarbon dated. Given the limited number of radiocarbon dates for Cuba (Cooper and



Thomas 2012) these materials provide an opportunity to add to chronological framework of the island. All of these collections are cataloged with excavation location information. The Yale Peabody Museum has documentation on file in varying amounts for all of these projects, including maps, field notes, and photographic material. Despite the limitations of the recovery methods these collections have great research potential. The artifacts are suitable for modern analysis, particularly stylistic and elemental analysis of ceramics. For example, Persons (Persons 2013, Persons and LeCount 2007) has studied the ceramics from the El Mango site. The faunal remains have relevance to studies of ancient biogeography because animals that are now extinct are represented in the collections, and they are also important for the study of prehistoric human ecology. The material from Hahn’s excavations is particularly important because very limited pre-ceramic era faunal information has been published from Cuba. Museum collections often have untapped research potential and these archaeological assemblages demonstrate the value of such material. The three Cuban archaeological collections recovered during Yale University and Peabody Museum research in the 1940s and 1950s contributed to the development of the chronological sequence for Cuba and the broader Caribbean region and they continue to yield important archaeological information.

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Acknowledgments I thank Elizabeth Terese Newman and Brian Worthington for their collaboration on the analysis of faunal material from Las Obas and Vega del Palmar. Samuel Turvey identified some of the rodent bones from the Las Obas and Vega del Palmar sites and generously shared his knowledge of Caribbean rodents. Storrs Olson helped identify bird bones from Las Obas. Sally Pallatto created the map. Oswaldo Chinchilla translated the abstract into Spanish and Sarah Berry helped with the French abstract. The Peabody Museum curators and administrators have supported research with these collections including the funding of radiocarbon analysis and travel to the IACA congress. The family of Paul G. Hahn, including Julie Willsea (daughter) and Kathleen Willsea (granddaughter), helped preserve Hahn’s field documentation and ensured that is was transferred to the Peabody Museum in 2013.



References Colten, Roger H., Elizabeth T. Newman and Brian Worthington 2009 Pre-Ceramic Faunal Exploitation at the Las Obas Site, Cuba. The Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50(1):75-84. Colten, Roger H., and Brian Worthington 2012 Pre-ceramic Era Faunal Exploitation at Vega del Palmar, Cuba. Society for American Archaeology annual meeting, April 21, 2012, Memphis, TN. 2013 Archaic Era Subsistence at the Las Obas and Vega del Palmar sites, Cuba. Society for American Archaeology annual meeting, April 5, 2013, Honolulu, HI. 2014 Faunal Remains From the Archaic and Archaic Ceramic Site of Vega Del Palmar Cuba. Journal of Caribbean Archaeology 14:1-? Cooper, Jago, and K. D. Thomas 2012 Constructing Caribbean Chronologies: Comparative Radiocarbon Dating of Shell and Wood Artefacts from Pre-Columbian Sites in Cuba. Archaeometry 54(2):401-425.

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DaRos, Maureen, and Roger H. Colten 2009 A History of Caribbean Archaeology at Yale University and the Peabody Museum of Natural History. The Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 50(1):49-62. Deevey, Edward, L. J. Gralenski, and Vaino Hoffren 1959 Yale Natural Radiocarbon Measurements IV. American Journal of Science Radiocarbon Supplement, Vol. 1, 1959, P. 144-172. Hahn, Paul G. 1961 A Relative Chronology of the Cuban Nonceramic Tradition. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven. Mintz, Sidney 1960 Papers in Caribbean Anthropology. Yale University Publications in Anthropology Nos. 57-64. Osgood, Cornelius 1942 The Ciboney Culture of Cayo Redondo, Cuba. Yale University Publications in Anthropology No. 25. New Haven.



Persons, A. Brooke 2013 Pottery, People, and Place: Examining the Emergence of Political Authority in Late Ceramic Age Cuba. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, the University of Alabama. Persons, A. Brooke and Lisa LeCount 2007 A Preliminary Analysis of Ceramics from El Mango, Cuba. Paper presented at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting, Austin, Texas, April 26, 2007. Rodríguez Ramos, Reniel, Elvis Babilonia, L. Antonio Curet and Jorge Ulloa 2008 The Pre-Arawak Pottery Horizon in the Antilles: A New Approximation. Latin American Antiquity 19(1):47-63. Rouse, Irving 1942 Archaeology of the Maniabon Hills, Cuba. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, No. 26. New Haven. Rouse, Irving, and Birgit Faber Morse 1999 Excavations at the Indian Creek Site, Antigua, West Indies. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, No. 82. New Haven.

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Stuiver, Minze 1969 Yale Natural Radiocarbon Measurements IX. Radiocarbon 11(2):545658.


R o g e r H . C o lt e n Table 1: Radiocarbon Dates from Three Yale Cuban Archaeological Projects Site

Provenience

Date

material δ13

Lab number

Reference

Las Obas

Trench A, Section 1, 2020 +/- 50 BP 15-30 cm

shell

-1.0 0/00 Beta 214957

Colten, Newman, and Worthington 2009

Las Obas

Trench A, Section 1, 1910 +/- 50 BP 45-60 cm

shell

-4.7 0/00 Beta 214958

Colten, Newman, and Worthington 2009

La Vega del Palmar

Unit 1, 105-120 cm

960 +/- 60 BP

charcoal

La Vega del Palmar

Unit 1, 15-30 cm

1750 +/- 30 BP

shell

2.6 0/00

La Vega del Palmar

Unit 1, 120-135 cm 2570 +/- 30 BP

shell

Potrero El Mango

Midden 1, Excava810 +/- 80 B.P. tion 1, Sec. Y-5, level 0.75 to 1.00 m,

charcoal

Y-465

Deevey et al. (1959:168)

Beta-318170

Colten and Worthington 2014

-3.0 0/00 Beta 318171

Colten and Worthington 2014

Y-206

Stuiver (1969:627)

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Table 2: Raw Materials by Project or Collection* Maniabon Hills Material

Cayo Redondo

Hahn’s Collections

Count

Percent

Count

Percent

Count

Percent

656

4.66

619

48.32

262

11.58

5

0.04

0

0.00

12

0.53

10,557

75.03

33

2.58

391

17.28

coral

170

1.21

28

2.19

4

0.18

glass

2

0.01

12

0.94

50

2.21

lacquer/pitch/resin

0

0.00

0

0.00

1

0.04

10

0.07

3

0.23

14

0.62

mineral

0

0.00

0

0.00

102

4.51

miscellaneous

1

0.01

0

0.00

0

0.00

paint/dye

0

0.00

0

0.00

13

0.57

paper

0

0.00

2

0.16

0

0.00

1,460

10.38

292

22.79

236

10.43

0

0.00

0

0.00

2

0.09

stone

1,206

8.57

287

22.40

1,175

51.92

wood

1

0.01

0

0.00

1

0.04

unknown

2

0.01

5

0.39

0

0.00

14,070

100.00

1,281

100.00

2,263

100.00

bone carbon ceramic

metal

shell soil

Grand Total

*Some collections are batch cataloged so these numbers are minimums.


R o g e r H . C o lt e n Table 3: Hahn’s Excavations and Collections at Yale Region

Site

Collections at Yale

Manzanillo Area Las Obas

X

Los Caracoles

X

El Guayabo

X

Southwestern Camaguey La Barrigona 1 Caney El Gato Bay of Cienfuegos La Vega del Palmar

X

Cayo Caracol

Table 4: Relative Abundance of Fauna from Las Obas and Vega del Palmar (% NISP) Las Obas Bird Fish Mammal Reptile Unidentified

3 5 66 6 20

Vega del Palmar

55

0.62 19.89 53.97 5.9 20.23

Table 5: Relative Abundance of Fish and Mammals from Las Obas and Vega del Palmar (% MNI) Fish

Mammal

Las Obas

14.29

85.70

Vega del Palmar

34.28

65.72


Puerto Rico 2013 Actas del 25to Congreso Internacional de Arqueología del Caribe Proceeding of the 25th International Congress for Caribbean Archeology Comptes rendus des communications du 25 Congres Internationale d’e Archéologie de la Caraïbe

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Mesa Directiva AIAC IACA Board Reg Murphy Yvonne Narganes Benoit Berard Gerard Richard Quetta Kaye David Hayes Lennox Honychurch

Presidente Vice-Presidente Vice-Presidente Tesorero Secretaria Vocal Vocal

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Comité Organizador del Congreso 2013 Congress Organizing Committee 2013 Miguel Rodríguez Presidente Yvonne Narganez Mónica González Laura Del Olmo Isabel Pérez Sebastián Robiou Editora / Editor Laura Del Olmo Diseño y diagramación / Design and layout Marcos Pastrana Una publicación del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, el Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe y la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras. © San Juan, Puerto Rico 2015
