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INTRODUCTION The focus of much of the archaeological research on the Bahamas archipelago centers on the timing of the ¤rst human colonization of these islands, the source or sources of colonists, and the ¤rst sighting of these islands by Europeans . The Bahamas archipelago is composed of two modern nations, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands (Figure 8.1). The Bahamian landscape and natural resources contrast markedly with those of the neighboring islands of the Greater Antilles. In most respects, the potential productivity of the land is poorer and the terrestrial resources more meager . This raises the question of why these islands were colonized and how the colonists sustained themselves. Although archaeological exploration of the Bahamas archipelago began as early as the 1880s and continued through the twentieth century, very few faunal studies accompany the archaeological investigations and even less paleoethnobotanical information is available. Even today at the beginning of the twenty-¤rst century, when these studies are considered an integral part of archaeological research and the methods for optimal recovery of plant and animal remains are well known, our information about Native Americans’ use of natural resources is meager. Despite the paucity of material, however, the diversity of taxa identi¤ed from Bahamian sites is relatively high and reveals unique patterns of resource use. What we present here is a preliminary review of the plants and animals used by the colonists of these islands, hindered by small samples. The initial impetus for colonizing the Bahamas may have been the exploitation of special resources such as salt and shell¤sh, particularly conch (Strombus gigas) (Sears and Sullivan 1978:23). We concur with Keegan and others that it is highly likely that the Ostionoid people living on the islands of Hispaniola and Cuba 8 Bahamas Archipelago Figure 8.1. Bahamas, Turks and Caicos. (By Florence E. Sergile) knew about the adjacent islands of the Bahamas archipelago and their resource potentials well before they actually settled in the Bahamas. Exploratory trips are hard to document in the archaeological record. However, colonists apparently bypassed islands closest to the Greater Antilles to occupy islands farther away. This may demonstrate informed choice. If the lure of the Bahamas was access to special resources, exploratory trips to the islands probably preceded colonization. Sedentary settlement was relatively later in the overall history of the West Indies, beginning around a.d. 700–750, if not somewhat earlier (W. F. Keegan, personal communication April 2001). ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS The Bahamas archipelago is composed of 35 low limestone islands and more than 600 cays that extend over 1,000 km and are oriented along a northwestto -southeast axis (Correll and Correll 1982; Morgan 1989; Olson and Pregill 1982) (Figure 8.1). The islands emerge from banks on a large limestone platform . During the Pleistocene, sea-level ®uctuations exposed the banks around present-day islands, thereby forming ¤ve large islands and a few smaller ones. Sea level may have been as much as 120 m lower during the peak of the Wisconsin glaciations, 17,000–18,000 years ago, than it is today. At this lower sea level stand, the dozen or so present-day islands and their surrounding banks were exposed forming the ¤ve large islands. With the rise in sea level after the Pleistocene, only the highest parts of these islands remain as dry land and the banks are under 3 to 30 m of water. These characteristics—the geologic history , small size, low elevation, low and very seasonal rainfall, and subtropical location—account for the relatively depauperate recent land fauna (Morgan 1989). The islands of the archipelago can be grouped according to several different biogeographic criteria. The archipelago is divided into two zoogeographic regions separated by the Crooked Island Passage, between Long Island and Crooked Island. The islands to the north of this passage are larger and were very large during the periods of lowest sea levels in the Pleistocene. Those to the south of the passage are smaller today as they were during the Pleistocene. Another way of subdividing the archipelago is by bioclimatic conditions, taking into account the geographic position of each island, mean annual biotemperatures , annual rainfall, and effective evapotranspiration, and thus the major life zones with their characteristic forms of vegetation (Holdridge 1947, 1967). These climatic parameters vary along the south-north gradient in the Bahamas. The archipelago trends 1,000 km longitudinally across about 6 degrees latitude. The northern islands (Grand Bahama, Great and Little Abaco, Bimini, Andros, the Berry...

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