Saladoid Midden And Burial DistributionsAt The Tutu Site, St. Thomas, USVI:The Missing Link

Elizabeth Righter

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AbstractRadiocarbon dates from middens at the Tutu site indicate an early occupation that began about A.D. 65and may have extended until ca. A.D. 960. The refuse disposal pattern during this period is one ofdiscontinuous middens associated with domestic structures, and also with a central open space. Ritualdisposal in these middens is suggested by the nature of the refuse itself and by the presence of certainartifact types. Burials were found in both domestic areas and in the core burial precinct. Integrating wastedisposal patterns with mortuary distribution, the social and ceremonial implications of these relationshipsare discussed and interpreted.

ContentsPresented here are additional data from the Tutu site to examine the distribution and relationshipbetween Saladoid burials and Saladoid midden at the site. The purpose of this paper is to examineexisting models and offer an alternative explanation for the observed paucity of grave goods, otherthan complete and partial ceramic vessels in Saladoid graves, while midden deposits containedgeneral refuse, food remains and many nicely-crafted small fine objects in shell, stone and bone. Thefine objects were primarily items of personal adornment or artifacts that have been interpreted tobe related to spiritual beliefs (Rouse, 1992:118; Rouse and Alegria, 1900:70; Siegel, 1992:369).

The Tutu site is located in an inland valley in the eastern portion of St. Thomas, USVI (Figure 1).Cultural remains recovered from the site include Saladoid material ranging in 2-sigma date betweenA.D. 65 and A.D. 960 and later Ostionoid remains dated to between ca. A.D. 1150 and A.D. 1500.An apparent 200 year gap in the radiocarbon date record, suggests abandonment of the site, or avery low density occupation between the end of the very late Saladoid expression at the site, andthe beginning of the Chican Ostionoid period. In general, midden areas on the 2.50-hectare site hadbeen surficially scraped by pre-investigation machine scraping and features had been truncated. Anypossible previous mounding on the site could not be observed. Additional information about theTutu site is contained in the 2002 volume, The Tutu Archaeological Village Site: a multi-disciplinarycase study in human adaptation, edited by this author.

The Tutu site offered a rare opportunity to observe site-wide mortuary and midden distributionpatterns. The horse-shoe-shape of the Saladoid settlement (Figure 2) accommodated an open spaceor burial precinct at the core of the site, around which domestic and other structures of the periodwere constructed in a rather discontinuous pattern. Burials were present in two distinct situationson the site: in the core burial precinct and in the residential area.

Of 14 skeletons at Tutu, identified as Saladoid (either by AMS dating or by association with a datedburial), 5 were interred in the central precinct (which was not investigated in its entirety) and 9were in domestic areas in and among myriad post holes. Several of these posts returned Saladoidperiod dates. Until the very late Saladoid period, Tutu burials were accompanied by one or moreceramic vessels or partial vessels; and foetuses were interred in single vessels. Lundberg (2002:196)states that ceramic vessels or vessel segments in the later Saladoid burials were utilitarian-appearing,undecorated and either crudely shaped, crudely finished and/or fire-smudged. She concludes, Vesselswere not offerings in themselves but served a function for some other aspect of burial ritual.

Midden deposits also had a dual distribution at Tutu. In the village lay-out, one set of middens formed

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a discontinuous ring behind the habitations on the periphery of the site. Another extensive Saladoidmidden was present in a distinctly separate repository in the upper reaches of a swale on the westernedge of a core open space or burial precinct (Figure 2). Both sets of midden, contained domesticrefuse along with fine labor-intensively manufactured personal items (or high energy investmentitems-Siegel, 1992: 368) and sacred items related to the spiritual beliefs of the population. Both setsof midden were essentially primary deposits and, in many cases, discrete disposal episodes couldbe discerned. Midden waste included large chunks of crab claws (Figure 3) and other food remains;complete ceramic bowls (Figure 4); large vessel fragments (some decorated) suggesting waste fromfeasts and ceremonies; carefully crafted shell gorgets; a wide variety of shell and stone beads (includingbeads of quartz, calcite, amethystine and green chert); shell discs; a fine conch-shell pendant in astylized turtle form; green stone plaques interpreted as inlays in masks, adornos and other ceremonialparaphernalia composed of clay, stone, cotton, straw, bark and wood (Alegria, 1981:13); and stoneand shell zemis. Perhaps, as suggested by Siegel (1992:368), many of these items were speciallyplaced in the midden. Such behavior would be indicative of offerings made during ceremonial rituals.

A few objects of personal adornment appear to have been obtained in trade or exchange, but the vastmajority were produced from local materials on site. Examples of imported exotic items are a singleamethystine quartz bead similar to examples from Trants (Watters and Scaglione, 1984) and Pearls (Cody,1991). Although a source of amethystine has been identified in western Tortola (personal communication,Alan O’Hara, gemologist), there is no indication that this bead specimen was manufactured locally; andit is likely that it was obtained in trade or exchange. Similarly, although calcite is present among naturallyoccurring lithic material at Tutu, there is no evidence that calcite beads recovered from the site weremanufactured there.

A single green discoidal bead of a local chert, recovered from the scraped surface of Saladoid midden atTutu, is almost identical to a specimen recovered from Hacienda Grande and a turquoise bead recoveredfrom Cane Bay in St. Croix. Although no preforms of this bead were found, it is likely that the bead wasproduced at Tutu. The presence of partially drilled conch shell bead preforms and partially completedquartz beads, provides good evidence for on- site production of these artifacts, which are primarily objectsof bodily adornment, and which may also have had additional cultural meaning.

Green stone plaques and preforms were recovered from four discrete Saladoid midden areas of the Tutusite. The presence of green stone inlay preforms in the Tutu middens indicates that the finished productsalso were made on-site. These plaques, interpreted as inlays for sacred idols (Alegria, 1991:13) weremanufactured of materials, such as chert and a poor quality green quartzite from the Tutu site, and coppercarbonate, which is available on Virgin Gorda in today’ s British Virgin Islands. Finished artifacts are trapezoidalin shape, flat on one side and rounded on the other (Figure 5). Tutu green stone inlays appear to be localvarieties of similar items recovered from sites such as Hacienda Grande in Puerto Rico (Rouse and Alegria,1990: Fig 12 A).

Small three-cornered objects, or zemis, also were recovered from the Tutu Saladoid middens. Some wereno more than conch whorl tips (Figure 6), while one conch whorl tip zemi was elaborately engraved inthe form of a face with teeth exposed in a wide toothy grin.

Thus, except for a few fine items apparently obtained in trade or exchange, the evidence points towardfrequent use of shell and stone, sometimes of poor quality, that was available on site and in the present-day British Virgin Islands, to manufacture objects similar to many of those recovered from Saladoid contextson other islands, especially the larger Greater Antillean islands to the west. This pattern indicates a similarityin choice of bodily adornment, ceremonial objects, and items of spiritual representation; but, at Tutuapparently, the items themselves and/or their color, had special cultural and spiritual meaning that wasmore important than the quality of the materials from which they were manufactured.

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Why are grave offerings so meager and utilitarian; while finely-crafted and probably cherished itemsare associated in midden contexts with household and other waste? Researchers such as Siegel (1989;1992,) and Boomert (1999) have attempted to answer this question. Their hypotheses are examinedin light of the evidence from Tutu; and an hypothesis which fits the Tutu data is presented.

Investigation at most Caribbean island sites with Saladoid components has been partial or limitedby factors outside the investigators`control; and the full distribution of Saladoid burials often couldnot be recorded. At those sites where central burial areas were identified, emphasis often has beenon the presence of a central burial precinct or cemetery at the expense of examining a comprehensivesite-wide mortuary distribution pattern. Among the few well investigated Caribbean island Saladoidsites are Golden Rock in St. Eustatius (Versteeg and Schinkel, 1992) and Punta Candelero and Maisabelin Puerto Rico (Rodriguez, 1991; Siegel, 1992). At Golden Rock, Saladoid burials were recovered fromdomestic areas of the site, but, investigation of the burial distribution for the entire site was prohibitedby disturbance. At Punta Candelero and Maisabel, burials were found in both a central precinct andin other areas of the sites.

Fluctuations in use of a central precinct have been interpreted in light of social change (Curet andOliver, 1998; Kingsley, 1985); but the presence of burials in both a central precinct and in domesticareas has received less attention. According to the hypothesis presented here, recognition of thismortuary pattern and its relationship to midden distribution is the key to understanding the presenceof fine objects of personal adornment and spir itual meaning in household midden.

The Maisabel site, in Puerto Rico, although signficantly larger than the settlement at Tutu, bears manysimilarities to the Tutu site. For example, at Maisabel, Siegel (1992:368) found fine high-energy-investment items among the debris of midden mounds that ringed a central cemetery or plaza. Asat Tutu, the burial precinct was more densely used during the Saladoid period than during laterperiods (Siegel, 1992:178). Siegel has offered an interpretation that explains the relationship betweenthe presence of fine high-energy items in Mounded Middens and burials found in a a central cemeteryor plaza. He argues (Siegel, 1992: 400) that the Mounded Middens at Maisabel together with thecemetery, formed a ceremonial complex that provided a focal point for the inhabitants of thecommunity. Interpreting the village lay-out of Maisabel in terms of South American lowland cosmology,Siegel, sees the central sacred space as a focal point or integrative mechanism around which dailyand ritual life revolved, and states that the cemetery, undoubtedly also a plaza, probably functionedas the locus for ceremonial dances, including those related to mor tuar y r ituals.

Siegel (1992:480) argues for a link between the central cemetery and the middens, suggesting thatfine artifacts in the middens resulted from ritual deposition related to feasting and other ceremoniesthat took place on the central plaza and most likely were associated with ancestor worship. Thisargument does provide a link between the Mounded Middens and the central plaza or cemetery;however, Siegel (1992:479) describes the Mounded Middens as surrounding the cemetery and housearea; and, according to Figure 6.2 of Siegel`s 1992 doctoral dissertation (p. 373), a structure, identifiedas Ostionoid in date, is clearly situated between the central cemetery and the mounded midddens(Figure 7). This structure is in a habitation area where evidence of Saladoid structures and two Saladoidburials also were found. It is likely that other Saladoid burials and structures also were present inun-investigated portions of the habitation area. It is apparent that, at Maisabel, as at Tutu, habitationsintervened between the Mounded Middens and the central cemetery linking middens with burialsnot only in the central cemetery but also in habitation areas. Certainly ritual disposal in the middensis indicated and its connection with burial rituals related to ancestor worship is a likely hypothesis.

Boomert (1999) uses a well-documented and carefully constructed argument to explain the virtual

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absence of fine personal adornments and other valuable grave goods in Saladoid burials and theirpresence in middens or trash, whether or not a central burial precinct is present. Boomert suggeststhat Carribbean Saladoid societies may have been Big Man collectivities in which the man with themost visible wealth had the most power and attracted the greatest following. Objects of labor-intensive manufacture or of exotic or semi-precious materials might be objects of exchange orreciprocal payment and form key elements in personal adornment and status rivalry. These itemswould have made their ways into middens as a result of potlatch-like activities. Before disposal,culturally important symbolic items would have been deprived of their symbolic load by ritual killing.Boomert describes Saladoid society as egalitarian (without social differentiation or a strong centralauthority), with a pattern of refuse disposal and grave good deposition that conformed to villageleadership by the most charismatic, wealthy and powerful, who could attract large followings.Leadership was impermanent and the political landscape highly dynamic.

While this hypothesis appears to fit many of the data, evidence from Cedrosan Saladoid componentsat the Tutu site suggests a slightly different slant. At Tutu, horizontal or group mortuary symboling(i.e. placement of a probable uni-lineal descent group in a special location on the site) is indicated,(Kingsley, 1985); however, no signs of vertical or achieved status are present in Tutu graves. Suchmight be expected if a leader had achieved power and special status through displays of wealth(Kingsley, 1985). The only burials which might be considered to have received special treatment arethose of infants or stillborns who were buried in complete ceramic bowls. At Golden Rock, a child`sgrave contained fine quartz beads (Versteeg and Schinkel, 1991), indicating perhaps, either specialconcern for this tiny person or an ascribed status. Such as infant would have been too young to haveacheived status through accumulation of power and wealth.

Additionally, most of the fine shell and lapidary artifacts found in the Tutu middens were crafted on-site from a variety of good and poor quality, generally locally available, raw material, and most likelywould not have been intended for displays of wealth. Their value appears, rather, to have been inthe labor required for their manufacture and their cultural, symbolic and ritual meaning.

Finally, Big Man feasts similar to potlatches of the North West Coast generally were secular in nature. In Tutu Saladoid middens, the presence of zemis and objects interpreted as inlays in idols suggestsritual disposal of sacred items. Instances of careful placement of offeratory items tend to contradictthe concept of ritual killing of sacred objects before disposal. The concept of ritual display fits theevidence at Tutu, however, it would appear that this ritual display, was not secular, but was relatedto feasts and ceremonies associated with mortuary practices and ancestor worship. Perhaps thosewith the most impressive ancestors received more elaborate ritual offerings and ceremonies.

To conclude, the purpose here has been to note a similarity in the distribution of Saladoid burialsand Saladoid middens at Tutu and to suggest a link between the two. Saladoid middens were foundin two distinct locations in the Tutu settlement 1) on the peripheries of the site, on the outer edgesof the habitation zone and 2) on the western edge of a core open space or burial precinct(Figure 2). Burials were found 1) in a habitation area associated with house posts and 2) in a coreopen space or burial precinct. Midden deposits, then, were closely associated with burial areas, bothof which had dual distributions on the site.

In Tutu Saladoid middens, discrete disposal episodes were characterized by large vessel pieces andlarge crab claws suggesting waste from feasts and ceremonies. These Saladoid middens also containedlabor-intensively manufactured personal items and sacred objects related to the spiritual beliefs ofthe population. The presence in the middens of zemis and inlays among waste indicative of feastingsuggests a connection between the ceremonial feasts and the spirit world related to zemis

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and ancestor worship. This evidence, in turn, indicates a link between feasting, ritual behavior andburials on the site. Rather than being included in graves, fine objects would have been disposed ofin feasting and ritual displays that were a part of the burial ceremony.

Mortuary rituals involving feasting and ritual disposal were not confined to a core burial precinct/openspace, but also must have taken place in or near places of residence of the deceased: most likely inopen spaces near places of interment. Although sufficient evidence of Saladoid structures is notavailable for Tutu, open or formal spaces devoid of features could be identified in exterior locationsadjacent to later Ostionoid structures. These open spaces also were near later Ostionoid burialgroupings (Righter, 2002: 328). Such exterior open spaces adjacent to structures may have been thestaging areas for ceremonies related to burials in habitation areas of the site.

At Tutu, burial of some individuals in a precinct may indicate social differentiation and the beginningsof social complexity in the village (Curet and Oliver, 1998; Kinglsey, 1985, Siegel, 1989). It is likelythat those buried in the central precinct were the dominant group, perhaps members of a uni-linealdescent group with special status that may have derived from ability to claim the most powerfulancestors. As in domestic areas, ceremonies, feasting and dancing related to death of one of the uni-lineal descent group members would have taken place in the open space of the burial precinct; andfine items found in the midden on the western edge of the central open space most likely wereofferings to the dead and/or their ancestors.

The goal here has been to demonstrate the value of a comprehensive view of midden and burialdistributions at the Tutu site and to suggest closer examination of midden and burial distributions atother Caribbean island Saladoid sites. It`s also to point out the dual nature of mortuary and middensdistributions and the linkage between them; providing an explanation for the presence of fine itemsin midden contexts in the central precinct and in domestic areas, and their relative paucity in Saladoidgraves.

References Cited

Alegría, Ricardo, 1981. El uso de la incrustacion el la escultura de los Indios Antillanos.San Juan, Puerto Rico. Centro deEstudios Avanzados de Puer to Rico y el Car ibe and Fundacion Garcia Arévalo, Santo Domingo.

Boomert, Arie 1999. Saladoid sociopolitical organization. In L’Association Internationale d’Archéologie de la Caraibe (eds.),Proceedings of the XVIIth International Congress for Car ibbean Archaeology (pp. 55-78). Grenada.

Cody, Anne K. 1991. From the site of Pearls, Grenada: Exotic lithics and radiocarbon dates. In J. B Haviser and E.N. Ayubi(eds.), Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology (pp 589-604). Willemsted, Curaçao:Archaeological-Anthropological Institute of the Netherlands Antilles.

Curet, Antonio L. and Jose R. Oliver 1998. Mortuary practices, social development, and ideology in pre-ColumbianPuerto rico. Latin American Antiquity 9 (3): 217-239.

Kingsley, Robert G. 1985. Kin groups and mor tuary practices: ethnographic implications for archaeology.Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Ann Arbor, Michigan State University.

Lundberg, Emily R. 2002. Tutu pottery and ceramic chronology. In Elizabeth Righter (ed.), The Tutu Archaeological VillageSite; A Mult i-discipl inar y Case Study in Human Adaptation. London and New York, Routledge .

Rodriguez, Miguel 1991. Algunas practicas funerarias en Punta Candelero, Puerto Rico. In J.B.Haviser and E.N. Ayubi (eds.),Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology (pp 605-627). Willemsted, Curaçao:Archaeological-Anthropological Institute of the Netherlands Antilles.

Rouse, Irving 1992. The Tainos: r ise and decline of the people who greeted Columbus. New Haven,Yale University Press.

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Rouse, Irving and Ricardo Alegria 1990. Excavations at Maria de La Cruz Cave and Hacienda Grande Village, Loiza,Puer to Rico. Yale Univer sity Publications in Anthropology 80, New Haven. Yale Univer sity Press.

Siegel, Peter E. 1989. Site structure, demography and social complexity in the Early Ceramic Age of the Caribbean.In Peter Siegel (ed), Early Ceramic Population Lifeways and Adaptive Strategies in the Caribbean (pp 193-245).Oxford, England, BAR International Series 506.

Siegel, Peter E. 1992. Ideology, power and social complexity in prehistoric Puerto Rico. 2 volumes. Doctoral Dissertation,State University of New York at Binghampton. Published by UMI Disser tation Ser vices, Ann Arbor.

Versteeg, Aad H. and Kees Schinkel (eds.). 1992. The archaeology of St. Eustatius: the Golden Rock Site. Publication ofthe St. Eustatius Historical Foundation, no 2 and the Foundation for Scientific Research in the Caribbean Region, no 131.

Watters, David R. and Richard Scaglione 1994. Beads and pendants from Trants, Monserrat: implications for the prehistoriclapidar y industr y of the Car ibbean. Pittsburgh, Annals of the Carnegie Museum 63: 215-237.

�Figure 1. Location of the Tutu site in the eastern portion of St. Thomas, USVI.

Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the Tutu settlement lay-out throughoutthe Saladiod period (ca. A.D.65-A.D.960), St. Thomas, USVI.

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Figure 3. Thick Saladoid Tutu middendeposits which contained large piecesof crab claw, large vessel fragments, aconch shell pendant and other fine itemsof personal adornment and spiritualmeaning.

Figure 4. Tutu Saladoid midden containingcomplete vessels, household waste, shellgorgets and other fine shell and lapidaryobjects of personal adornment and spiritualcontent.

Figure 5. Green stone plaques, interpreted as idol inlays,manufactured of chert and copper carbonate. These wererecovered from four Saladoid midden areas at Tutu.

Figure 6. Conch whorl tip zemis showing grinding andsmoothing on their proximal edges; recovered fromTutu Saladoid midden.

Figure 7. Reprint of Figure 6.2 p 373 from Siegel=s1992 Doctoral Dissertation; showing therelationship between the habitation area andMounded Middens at Maisabel, Puerto Rico.