From Sci News:
Prior to European colonization, the Caribbean was a mosaic of distinct communities that were connected by networks of interaction since the first human occupations in Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico around 6,000 years ago.
The pre-contact Caribbean is divided into three archaeological ages, which denote shifts in material cultural complexes.
The Lithic and Archaic Ages are defined by distinct stone tool technologies, and the Ceramic Age — which began about 2,500-2,300 years ago — featured an agricultural economy and intensive pottery production.
Technological and stylistic changes in material culture across these periods reflect local developments by connected Caribbean people as well as migration from the American continents, although the geographical origins, trajectories and numbers of migratory waves remain under debate.
“The islands’ first inhabitants, a group of stone tool-users, boated to Cuba about 6,000 years ago, gradually expanding eastward to other islands during the region’s Archaic Age,” said Dr. William Keegan, an archaeologist in the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.
“Where they came from remains unclear — while they are more closely related to Central and South Americans than to North Americans, their genetics do not match any particular Indigenous group.”
“However, similar artifacts found in Belize and Cuba may suggest a Central American origin.”
“About 2,500-3,000 years ago, farmers and potters related to the Arawak-speakers of northeast South America established a second pathway into the Caribbean.”
“Using the fingers of the Orinoco River Basin like highways, they traveled from the interior to coastal Venezuela and pushed north into the Caribbean Sea, settling Puerto Rico and eventually moving westward.”
“Their arrival ushered in the region’s Ceramic Age, marked by agriculture and the widespread production and use of pottery.” (Read more.)
No comments:
Post a Comment