Pathological evidence in the Pre-Columbian human remains from the Lee Collection (Jamaica)

Abstract

The Archaeology Laboratory in the Department of History and Archaeology at UWI has housed the James W. Lee Collection of Arawak artefacts and human remains since 2000. A complete database is being prepared by two of the authors (PAJ and ER) as part of a project under the auspices of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute. The collection spans a total of 265 sites and was collected over a 27 year period (1959-1986). Eight caves and 16 open-air sites produced human remains, with a minimal number of 46 individuals. Despite adverse taphonomic factors, age and sex estimation, metric analyses, and pathological case descriptions, could be carried out in a number of cases. This paper will focus on the paleopathological evidence. Two skulls (EC12, Bull Savannah #2 cave, St. Elizabeth, and CC15, Taylor's Hut cave, Clarendon) were artificially modified. CC15 was found inside a bowl. At E12 (Black River West) an increase in thickness in two fragments of tibiae and in one fibula is regarded as a pathological condition, possibly related to treponematosis. Signs of degenerative joint diseases, such as eburnation in an atlas and in a humerus, and osteoarthritis in several bones, were detected at J1 (Hartfield) and JC7 (Spot Valley cave). Finally a case of agenesis exists in the right decidual incisor in a mandible of a juvenile with an age-at-death around 4 years (Y4, Rio Nuevo, St. Mary). This study is a contribution to the understanding of extinct pre-Columbian populations in the Caribbean region.

Os artefactos e os restos osteológicos recolhidos, entre 1959 e 1986, por James Lee em 265 locais arqueológicos transitaram em 2000 para o Archaeology Laboratory, Department of History and Archaeology, University of West Indies, Jamaica. Num projecto apoiado pelo Jamaica Bauxite Institute dois dos autores (PAJ e ER) preparam uma base de dados da coleção. Em oito grutas e 16 jazidas a céu aberto existiam restos humanos que correspondem a um número mínimo de 46 indivíduos. Apesar da adversidade da tafonomia puderam ser avaliados parâmetros paleogeográficos e referenciadas algumas patologias: modificações em dois crânios (CC15, Gruta de Taylor's Hut, e EC12, Gruta de Bull Savannah #2) um dos quais foi encontrado dentro de um vaso; evidências prováveis de treponematoses em fragmentos de dois fémures e duma tíbia de E12 (Black River West); sinais de doenças degenerativas das articulações, nomeadamente eburnação num atlas e num úmero, no material proveniente de J1 (Hartfield) e de JC7 (Gruta de Spot Valley); e, agenesia do incisivo direito decidual na mandíbula de uma criança com cerca de 4 anos de idade à morte (Y4, Rio Nuevo). Este estudo é, assim, uma contribuição para o conhecimento das populações pré-Colombianas extintas das Caraíbas.