TY - JOUR
T1 - Earliest evidence of sedentism in the Antilles
T2 - Multiple isotope data from Canímar Abajo, Cuba
AU - Chinique de Armas, Yadira
AU - Hernández Godoy, Silvia Teresita
AU - Viera Sanfiel, Luis M.
AU - Buhay, William M.
AU - Laffoon, Jason E.
PY - 2025/1/7
Y1 - 2025/1/7
N2 - The early populations that inhabited the Antilles were traditionally understood as highly mobile groups of hunters/fishers and gatherers. Although more recent data have demonstrated that some populations engaged in the production of domestic plants and cultivars, questions remain about other aspects of their lifeways, including whether the adoption of domesticates was accompanied by a decrease in residential mobility. The level of sedentism in a population is an instrumental variable to understand community social relations and complexity, adaptations, and lifeways. Here, we combined enamel strontium (87Sr/86Sr), oxygen (δ18Oen), and carbon (δ13Cen) isotopes of 44 human teeth from the site of Canímar Abajo-where the oldest human remains from the insular Caribbean have been reported-to examine the mobility patterns of early Antillean groups. In contrast with traditional narratives, the homogeneous strontium isotope values observed in most individuals from the older funerary area of the site (cal. BC 2237-790) were consistent with the pattern expected for a sedentary population subsisting primarily on local resources obtained close to the coast. The isotopic evidence reveals that between cal. AD 403-1282, the mound was reused for funerary practices by both local communities and nonlocal individuals. The evidence suggests that this period saw higher population mobility, with influxes of individuals from more distant locations and diverse dietary and burial traditions. The isotope results from Canímar Abajo provide the earliest isotopic evidence of populations with low-level residential mobility in the Antilles.
AB - The early populations that inhabited the Antilles were traditionally understood as highly mobile groups of hunters/fishers and gatherers. Although more recent data have demonstrated that some populations engaged in the production of domestic plants and cultivars, questions remain about other aspects of their lifeways, including whether the adoption of domesticates was accompanied by a decrease in residential mobility. The level of sedentism in a population is an instrumental variable to understand community social relations and complexity, adaptations, and lifeways. Here, we combined enamel strontium (87Sr/86Sr), oxygen (δ18Oen), and carbon (δ13Cen) isotopes of 44 human teeth from the site of Canímar Abajo-where the oldest human remains from the insular Caribbean have been reported-to examine the mobility patterns of early Antillean groups. In contrast with traditional narratives, the homogeneous strontium isotope values observed in most individuals from the older funerary area of the site (cal. BC 2237-790) were consistent with the pattern expected for a sedentary population subsisting primarily on local resources obtained close to the coast. The isotopic evidence reveals that between cal. AD 403-1282, the mound was reused for funerary practices by both local communities and nonlocal individuals. The evidence suggests that this period saw higher population mobility, with influxes of individuals from more distant locations and diverse dietary and burial traditions. The isotope results from Canímar Abajo provide the earliest isotopic evidence of populations with low-level residential mobility in the Antilles.
KW - archaic age lifeways
KW - Caribbean archaeology
KW - isotope analysis
KW - mobility
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2413963121
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2413963121
M3 - Article
C2 - 39715435
AN - SCOPUS:85213926824
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 122
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 1
M1 - e2413963121
ER -