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"Caribbean-Indian
Spring: Clues to early Tainos?", by Marion Lloyd, Associated Press: "SAN
JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Deep in a cave in the remote rain forest of the
Dominican Republic, an underground spring may hold clues about the first
Indian group to make contact with Spanish explorers. U.S. archaeologists
won permission Wednesday night to explore the spring, which they believe
was the ceremonial heart of the Tainos (tah-EE-nohs) Indians five centuries
ago. The Indiana University team, along with local archaeologists, will
dive more than 200 feet beneath the jungle floor to recover artifacts,
and will excavate a nearby cave. Preliminary dives have recovered more
than 200 artifacts from the spring, including dozens of pottery vessels
and a chieftain's wooden ceremonial chair. 'We believe this area was the
heart of the Taino Caribbean civilization, and our findings should yield
priceless information about the first contact between the Spanish and the
Indians in the New World," said Charles Beeker, director of Indiana's underwater
science program'…"
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Grenada
Archaeological Artifacts: “About The Artifacts:
Excavated at the Pearls Site on the Island of Grenada. This collection
consists of decorative pottery elements. The elements depict a variety
of motifs, sculpted as mythological creatures, birds, bats, frogs, monkey
etc. The pottery elements date from the First through the Fourth Centuries
AD.”
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"Hello
Columbus", by Matt Crenson, AP Science Editor: [the
article itself is located half way down the page] "…A professor of underwater
science at Indiana University, Beeker first saw the well at La Aleta last
year, while searching for shipwrecks from Columbus' second voyage to the
New World. Now, in the dense tropical forests of the easternmost Dominican
Republic, he and his colleagues are uncovering lost remnants of the first
contact between the Old World and the New. 'There's no doubt that this
is a very special place for archaeologists in terms of what we stand to
learn,' says Geoff Conrad, director of Indiana University's Mathers Museum.…The
Indian side of the story has been lost to history. But archaeologists have
found cave paintings near La Aleta that may give a partial account from
the Indian point of view. The walls of Jose Maria Cave, a few miles from
the well, depict Indians growing, harvesting and making bread from a local
plant known as guayiga. The paintings also show the Indians offering the
bread to the Spanish as a tribute. Because the conquistadors were more
interested in gold than farming, they needed the bread to feed the inhabitants
of Santo Domingo and other nearby colonies…"
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Pre-Columbian
People of Anguilla, from the Anguilla Guide: “The
rich and dynamic Amerindian history of the island is beginning to be reconstructed
as a result of recent work by the Anguilla Archaeological and Historical
Society and archaeologists from numerous institutions such as the Carnegie
Museum of Natural History, the University of Maine at Farmington, and the
University of Pittsburgh….” (not the usual rehashing of exotic myths of
cannibalism and, this site provides a useful synopsis of key archaeological
and ethnohistoric data.)
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Pre-Columbian:
"The
rich and dynamic Amerindian history of the island is beginning to be reconstructed
as a result of recent work by the Anguilla Archaeological and Historical
Society and archaeologists from numerous institutions such as the Carnegie
Museum of Natural History, the University of Maine at Farmington, and the
University of Pittsburgh."
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“Rediscovering
the Taino Indians”—extract: “Director of the SPEA
Environmental Systems Application Center, Professor Bill Jones was back
in the Domnican Republic again this past summer. For the past two years,
Jones has been a member of the team of archaeologists searching for evidence
of the Taino Indians in a remote tropical forest in the Domincan Republic….”
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Taino:
Voices from the Past-A brief introduction to Taino culture history: "In
recent years, however, spectacular finds have rekindled interest in the
original inhabitants of the Caribbean. In 1997, for instance, archaeologists
found the remains of a major Taino city on the eastern most part of the
Dominican Republic. The discovery of the city's long-hidden ceremonial
plazas and homes "is going to give us more insight into the Taino than
has ever been known before," says Indiana University archaeologist Charles
Beeker."
Page last updated: Tuesday,
30 December, 2003
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