Consolidation of Independent Local Polities
Over time, the stabilized conditions afforded by island adaptation and increased population density resulted in the formation of more localized microregions, acting independently with respect to resource procurement and social matters. Local ceramic styles developed but still evidence the enduring influence of the mainland in the southern Lesser Antilles. Those in the northern Lesser Antilles show affiliations to the Greater Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Lifeways and Settlement
Site structure at Anse it la Gourde, Guadeloupe, shows a doughnut-shaped midden encircling a habitation area and a ‘plaza’ with houses of various shapes between 5 and 12 m in diameter (Figure 8). The deceased were buried within the residential space and under the house floors indicating a shift from
Figure 8 Settlement structure at the site Anse ?i la Gourde, Guadeloupe (AD 1000-1350).
Figure 9 Postholes and human burials under house floor at Anse ?i la Gourde.
Figure 10 Late Ceramic Age pottery in the Leeward Islands.
Earlier practices. Burials reflect varied mortuary practices, internal differentiation, and personalized treatment (Figure 9). In the Leeward Islands red-painted ceramics with incised and modeled appliqutis of the Mamoran Troumassoid subseries replaced the bicolor and polychrome painting of the Cedrosan Saladoid. Ceramics affiliated to the Chican Ostionoid subseries of the Greater Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands also characterized the complexes in the Leewards around AD 1200. Ceramic decoration included incised designs and anthropo-zoomorphic modeling on nonpainted surfaces (Figure 10). In the Windward Islands, the Saladoid ceramics were replaced by the Troumassan and subsequent Suazan Troumassoid subseries. White-on-red painting was replaced by monochrome red-painted ceramics with incised motifs and anthropomorphic and zoomor-phic modeling. Caliviny-painted scrolls accompanied the Troumassoid sequence between Grenada and St. Lucia. The Suazan Troumassoid subseries, distributed from Tobago to Guadeloupe, was long regarded as the crudest pottery in the Antilles, but also comprises a finer ware. In a final stage these islands witnessed the appearance of Cayo and other ceramic styles related to the mainland. Trinidad remained under continual influence of coastal Venezuela with the advent of the Arauquinoid series. Its final ceramic style, Mayoid, may have originated in the Guianas (Figure 11).
Social Organization and Exchange Relationships
Long-distance exchange diminished over time; lapidary items decreased in number and were replaced by objects made of local rock types. The level of sociopolitical integration oscillated between both extremes in the range of tribal organization. A number of sociopolitical polities were established encompassing several settlements or islands. One of these polities was formed around the island of Anguilla. Interisland
Figure 11 Late Ceramic Age pottery in the Windward Islands.
Trade and exchange networks existed in which lithic materials, ceramics, and ceremonial paraphernalia circulated between the islands but also between the Lesser and the Greater Antilles. On the southern Lesser Antilles similar networks existed with South America. At the end of pre-Columbian occupation there was a pan-regional interaction sphere in which exotic items circulated between elites of the Greater Antilles and both South and Central America in which the northern and southern Lesser Antilles operated jointly (Figure 12).
World History
