Archaeological Investigations on Guadeloupe, French West Indies

The Troumassoid Turning Point

Martijn M. van den Bel, Martijn van den Bel, Martijn M. van den Bel, Martijn van den Bel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781032020549
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000452440
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Comprising 20 scientific contributions to the archaeology of Guadeloupe, French West Indies, this volume places the latter Caribbean Island in the spotlight by presenting the results of four contemporaneous archaeological sites.

By means of these four sites, this book explores a variety of issues contemplating the transition from the Early to the Late Ceramic Age in the Lesser Antilles. Studies of pre-Columbian material culture (ceramics, lithics, faunal, shell and human bone remains) are combined with additional microanalyses (starch and phytolith analyses, micromorphology and thin sections) to sort out the processes that triggered the cultural transition just before the end of the first millennium CE.

The multidisciplinary approach to address these sites Saladoid shows the current state of affairs on project-led archaeology in the French West Indies and should be of great value to both researchers and students of Caribbean archaeology, material cultures, zooarchaeology, environmental studies, historical ecology, and other related fields.

1
General presentation

Martijn M. van den Bel

DOI: 10.4324/9781003181651-1

Guadeloupe (Gwadloup in Creole) is an insular region of France that is part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles (Figures 1.1 and 1.2). This tropical archipelago consists of a series of islands: Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, Les Saintes, and the Îles de la Petite Terre. The largest islands of Guadeloupe are Basse-Terre to the west and Grande-Terre to the east, which are separated by a narrow saltwater stream (Figure 1.3). Administratively, it is an Overseas Region (Région d’outre-mer) and represents one département covering approximately 1600 km² and counting about 400,000 inhabitants. Guadeloupe is an integral portion of France and, consequently, part of the European Union and the Eurozone.

Figure 1.1 Map of the Antilles.

Source: www.naturalearthdata.com

Figure 1.2 Map of the Lesser Antilles.

Source: www.naturalearthdata.com.

Figure 1.3 Map of the Guadeloupe archipelago with presented and other discussed Late Ceramic Age sites.

Source: www.naturalearthdata.com.

Columbus visited Guadeloupe during his second voyage to the Americas, but the Spanish did not pay much attention to the Lesser Antilles. In 1635 the French took the island from the so-called Kalinago (Island Carib), the Amerindians who populated Guadeloupe and surrounding islands during the 17th century. In the second half of that century, peace was made with the Amerindians and the French started to grow sugarcane on the island. As a result, Guadeloupe became one of the most important sugar islands of the Lesser Antilles. It was occupied by the English during the Seven Years’ War, which ended with the retrocession of Guadeloupe but the loss of Canada for the French in 1763. During the French Revolution, the population declared its independence, but after a quarrelsome time, Napoleon restored slavery and governance on the island in 1802 by subjecting the rebels. The English got hold of Guadeloupe once again in 1810 for five years, and eventually slavery was abolished by the French in 1848. One century later, Guadeloupe became a department of France (971).

1.1 Short history and “state of affairs” of archaeological research on Guadeloupe

It is only recently that tangible traces of probably the first inhabitants of Guadeloupe have been found, somewhat surprisingly at the slopes of Capesterre-Belle-Eau (Stouvenot and Casagrande 2015) and on Marie-Galante (Fouéré et al. 2015; Siegel et al. 2015).¹ The Capesterre site comprises a pre-Ceramic Archaic campsite with blade débitage. However, this site remains unique and the Archaic population of the Lesser Antilles is better known from sites beyond the Guadeloupean archipelago, notably those excavated by Inrap on the island of St. Martin (see Bonnissent 2008) and by the rich archive on the island of Antigua (see DeMille 2005).

The Early Ceramic Age

The first pottery-making populations of Guadeloupe arrived around the beginning of the first millennium CE and came from the mainland of South America, but probably after they had touched upon Puerto Rico where older radiocarbon dates have been attested for them (see S. Fitzpatrick 2013) (Table 1.1). Highly recognizable ceramic fine wares have been found along the coast at the beach of Morel, on Grande-Terre along the shore, in the center of Basse-Terre and at Folle Anse, on Marie-Galante. The ongoing scientific debate allows for a unique Huecoid migration towards Puerto Rico, from where it would have spread eastward across the Lesser Antilles, colliding with a Cedrosan Saladoid migration from the mainland at the Lesser Antilles. Interestingly, the Guadeloupean sites feature a mixture of both ceramic wares, suggesting a more intimate relationship (see Hofman et al. 1999; Romon et al. 2013).

Table 1.1 Chronocultural chart of the Lesser Antilles (after Petersen et al. 2004).

These very early Ceramic Age sites are rare on Guadeloupe and the Lesser Antilles as a whole, but certainly need more attention, as witnessed by the results of the Inrap excavation in the capital of Basse-Terre (Bonnissent and Romon 2004; Romon et al. 2006; Bonnissent 2006). Large-scale excavations conducted at the Déviation of Capesterre-Belle-Eau in the early 2000s yielded a bit more Cedrosan Saladoid ceramics. This material hinted at the presence of a Cedrosan site in the vicinity of the excavations, which revealed later (Modified and Late) Saladoid wares and Troumassoid materials (Etrich et al. 2003, 2013; Mestre et al. 2001; Toledo y Mur et al. 2004). Considering the whole of Basse-Terre, we may also invoke the excavations conducted at Yuiketi and Bisdary (Gourbeyre) as well as La Ramée (Sainte-Rose) sharing Early and Late Ceramic Age assemblages (see Bonnissent 2011; Casagrande et al. 2016; Romon et al. 2006). The sites of Goyave and Roseau, both hamlets to the north of Capesterre-Belle-Eau, which are presented here, can be aligned with the excavations of the Déviation of Capesterre-Belle-Eau. Without doubt, the La Pointe de Grande Anse site can also be added to this ensemble, knowing that both occupations have been clearly identified. The CHU Belle-Plaine site is truly Troumassoid, lacking Saladoid elements (see Table 1.3). The Cedrosan Saladoid ceramics in the Windward Islands and Guadeloupe reveal Barrancoid influence after about cal 300 CE, also known as the Modified Saladoid period, which changes again in Late or Terminal Saladoid after cal 500 CE (Petersen et al. 2004). The aftermath of the Saladoid series in the latter half of the first millennium CE is marked on the one hand by climate change, regionalization, and the persistence of the Late Saladoid series into the Mamoran Troumassoid subseries in the Leeward Islands until cal 1000 ce. On the other hand, the Late Saladoid in the Windward Islands had diverged into the Troumassan Troumassoid subseries a few centuries earlier (Bonnissent 2008; Hofman 2013; Hofman et al. 2007; Versteeg and Schinkel 1992).

The Late Ceramic Age

The post-Saladoid chronology of the Leeward Islands as well as that of Guadeloupe is dominated by the excavations of Irving Rouse at Indian Creek (Antigua) conducted in the early 1970s. Concerning the Late Ceramic Age (LCA) in the Leeward Islands, the excavations at Savanne Suazey (Grenada) and Troumassée (St. Lucia) in the Windward Islands and the origins of the Troumassan and Suazan Troumassoid subseries are of lesser importance, despite the important work on Martinique by Louis Allaire (1977, 1990b).

Prior to Rouse’s excavations on Antigua and his reconstruction of Caribbean chronology, archaeological research on Guadeloupe was largely embodied by Edgar Clerc and Father Maurice Barbotin. The former proposed a chronology based on his excavations on the beach of Morel, situated on the Atlantic coast to the south of Le Mou...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of plates
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 General presentation
• 2 Context
• 3 Site level
• 4 Material culture
• 5 Microanalysis
• 6 Synthesis: the Troumassoid Turning Point: local development or introduction of new houses, subsistence patterns, and ceramics?
• 7 Epilogue: from Saladoid to Troumassoid: a ceramic analysis
• Résumé
• Bibliography
• Appendices
• Index