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CHRONOLOGY OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF PLAYA DEL MANGO, RIO CAUTO, GRANMA, CUBA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2020

Yadira Chinique de Armas*
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada
Ulises M González Herrera
Affiliation:
Instituto Cubano de Antropología, La Habana, Cuba
William M Buhay
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada
José M Yero Masdeu
Affiliation:
Casa de la Nacionalidad Cubana, Bayamo, Granma, Cuba
Luis M Viera Sanfiel
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada
Meghan Burchell
Affiliation:
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Canada
Carley Crann
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Esteban R Grau González-Quevedo
Affiliation:
Fundación Antonio Núñez Jiménez de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, Matanzas, Cuba
Mirjana Roksandic
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

Fewer than 200 radiocarbon (14C) dates with secure contextual information are available for Cuba, making it challenging to reconstruct Caribbean indigenous population dynamics, their identities and interactions. In this paper, we discussed 21 accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dates from two mounds (M1 and M2) at the Playa del Mango site (Granma province, Cuba), traditionally associated with the Banwaroid stone tool tradition. The ΔR calculated for the site was –132.0 ± 176 and –164.0 ± 68. The chronology of burials from the peripheral area of M2 suggested that the cemetery was continuously used from at least cal BC 116–AD 241 (2 σ). The domestic area of M2 was used at minimum between cal BC 55–AD 435 (2 σ), which encompasses the use of the funerary areas. An isolated human tooth from M1 [cal AD 125–435 (2 σ)] suggested that this funerary area is later than the one at the periphery of M2, and possibly contemporaneous with the later formation of the M2 shell midden. The archaeological assemblage of the “Banwaroid tradition” is widely distributed in Cuba, and mixed with other archaeological traditions, supporting that a complex web of human interactions took place in the Caribbean in precolonial times.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2020 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

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