The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

AN excavation project for the discovery of additional ancient Lucayan remains in Long Island is set to begin today, with local and international archaeological experts yesterday touting the excavation project as a big step towards the redefinition and subsequent better understanding of recorded Bahamian history.

Dr Keith Tinker, director of the Antiquities, Monuments and Museum Corporation (AMMC), along with Dr William Keagan, lead archaeologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said the two-week long joint excavation exercise effectively represents a “paradigm shift” in the way Bahamians view their own history, adding that it could very well result in the rewriting of the “pre-Columbus history of these islands.”

The excavation effort, which will commence near Clarence Town, Long Island, will be executed by a 12-member team, comprised of AMMC officials, officials from the Florida Museum, as well as specialists from New York and Ohio, according to officials. A student of the University of The Bahamas (UB) will also participate in the excavation, The Tribune understands.

The excavation project will continue until December 13, according to Dr Keagan, which is when the international component of the excavation team departs for the holidays.

The announcement of the excavation project, made during a press conference at the Harry C Moore Library on the UB campus, comes after last week’s reported discovery of Lucayan skeletal remains near Clarence Town.

“When many of us here were young, we were taught that there were Arawaks and Caribs that roamed these islands, and that the Caribs would prey on the Arawaks and eat them,” Dr Tinker said yesterday. “What we are hearing now today is there is a paradigm shift in the interpretation of the history. And literally we’re speaking the language of Lucayans now we’re not speaking about Caribs, or anybody. We’re speaking about our early history.

“And what it’s going to do, I personally feel it’s going to redefine how we interpret that history, so that no longer in my case and others, we hear misinformation. Now we hear new information and we can be properly guided.”

Last week, this newspaper reported how the remains of two Lucayans, the people who inhabited The Bahamas from the year 600 to the 1500s, had been discovered in graves on Long Island.

At the time, AMMC officials announced the historically significant discovery of ancient Lucayan skeletons--the first to be found in sand dunes--located in two distinct graves in what American archaeologists described at the time as potentially “the first prehistoric cemetery in all of The Bahamas.”

Long Island resident Nick Constantakis found the first set of bones of what appeared to be an elderly Lucayan male, buried face down in the sand dunes near Clarence Town. Another discovery by Mr Constantakis and Anthony Mailis, of Clarence Town, revealed a second burial approximately 25 feet away from where the original bones were located.

The second burial held the remains of a Lucayan female, buried face down. The excavation team indicated at the time that the remains appeared to be that of an elderly female. Directly under the second burial, the team also discovered a third set of remains in a bundle with limbs removed - what could possibly be the bones of a younger female relative of the older female found in the burial site.

Last month, a team from AMMC and the Florida Museum of Natural History travelled to Long Island to conduct preliminary exercises. Under the existing memorandum of understanding between the two, the Florida-based museum is committed to fully support the AMMC with research of historical discoveries.

Dr Keagan, who said he first did an archaeological survey of Long Island in 1983, said the excavation project will play a vital role in not only determining if there are any additional burial sites in the area, but also in understanding what life was like for Lucayans at the time they inhabited the Bahamian archipelago.

“It seems to be an area that was very heavily occupied in the past by the native inhabitants, probably sometime in between 1,000 and 1400 AD,” he said. “And what we’re trying to do with this project is get a better definition of what life was like in that area at that time. It’s something we need to continue to do throughout the islands, but this is a special location because it’s the first possible Lucayan cemetery that’s ever been found in the Bahamas.”

Dr Keagan added: “…I would like to see the Bahamas have more of a Bahamian history. Because so much is in the textbooks is what a bunch of guys from Europe did, and you start teaching people names and dates about places that they may not know where they are or care about. No one’s going to develop an interest in history. But you have a marvelous history.

“My goal as an historian, the historian hat that I wear, is to help people develop their own understanding of their past for their own purposes. And it’s not me coming in posing my ideas about what your past was. And that’s why these partnerships and involvement of students is absolutely critical and crucial.”

Archaeologists have discovered more duhos - ancient wooden ceremonial stools - in The Bahamas than in any other Caribbean country, with the majority in Long Island.