Times of the Islands Winter 2020/21

and all through the house (caneye in Taíno) . . .
At the archaeological site identified as La Navidad
(En Bas Saline [EBS]) named for the modern Haitian town,
there is evidence for house walls constructed of wattleand-daub
(a network of interwoven sticks covered with
mud or clay). The Taínos built tall, circular to oval houses
with large wooden support posts and walls made of
smaller sticks. The Caneyes had high-pitched roofs made
of palm thatch, with an opening at the top to allow smoke
to escape. The Spanish chronicler Bartolomé de las Casas
described these houses as large enough to accommodate
40 to 60 people. Guacanagarí, the village chief (cacique)
at la Navidad, gave Columbus two houses for his men,
and promised more if needed.
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The common house mouse (Mus musculus) was introduced
to the Caribbean Islands from Europe, so no mice
were stirring in Taíno caneyes. In fact, mice have never
been identified in any archaeological deposits. It is possible
that they did stowaway on Columbus’ vessels, based
on solid evidence that a larger rodent arrived this day.
The study of animal bones from La Navidad (EBS) identified
the first appearance of Old World black rat (Rattus
rattus). This introduced species was so common that its
bones were present in two-thirds of the archaeological
excavation samples. Our colleague Kathy Deagan (Florida
Museum of Natural History) described these as “the first
rats to abandon a sinking ship in the Americas.”
A common element of Christmas celebrations in
Medieval Europe was sacrificing a wild boar. Pig bones
have been recovered at EBS, although they did not find
a pig skull with an apple in its mouth. The presence of
rat and pig bones at archaeological sites throughout the
Americas mark the beginning of the post-Columbian
era. Rat bones also were found at site MC-32 on Middle
Caicos which shows that Lucayans were living here after
Europeans arrived. Lucayan sites were repeatedly abandoned
and reoccupied so the bones provide important
evidence of the timing of their last occupation.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care ...
Columbus was a man of his times so we need to turn
back to the 16th century. Gift giving was a Christmas tradition
in Medieval Europe. Although instead of presents
for children, royalty expected gifts from their subjects
(read “tribute”). And gifts were not always exchanged on
Christmas Day. Giving gifts was far more common on
New Year’s Day. On December 30, after seating him on
a dais of palmwood, Guacanagarí removed the “crown”
from his head and placed on Columbus’s. The crown was
probably made of brightly colored bird feathers, as is still
the practice among Indigenous societies in Amazonia. In
return, Columbus presented Guacanagarí with a necklace
of fine agates and beautiful stones, a large silver ring, a
cape made of fine red cloth, and colored high-laced shoes
(and stockings?).
in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.
We have reached the limit of the torture we can
impose on Clement Clarke Moore’s poem, “A Visit from St.
Nicholas.” Maybe we could find a way to tie in reindeer if
we worked in circumpolar regions, but this is the tropics.
Yet in the same way we look to the night sky to catch a
glimpse of Santa and his sleigh, on that Christmas Eve the
view from Guacanagarí’s village offered a similar vista.
Dominating the night sky at its zenith on the celestial
equator was the Orion constellation. Among the brightest
stars in the night sky—Rigel, Bellatrix, Betelgeuse and
Saiph—frame Orion’s belt (known today in Puerto Rico as
“Los Tres Reyes Magos,” the three wise men or Magi).
Orion is identified as the one-legged man in
Indigenous South American mythology and as the hunter
in modern astrology. His transit of the night sky marks
the passing of seasons between vernal to autumnal equinoxes.
During archaeological research at the MC-6 site
on the south coast of Middle Caicos, Dr. Shaun Sullivan
demonstrated that stone alignments on the site were
aligned to chart the summer solstice and the rising and
setting of Orion’s brightest stars. Bill Keegan has asserted
that the entire site is an on-the-ground representation of
the constellation. All manner of seasonal events (rainy
and dry weather, hurricanes, even fishing) could be predicted
by reading the night sky.
Christmas in Medieval Europe was celebrated for 12
days, as reflected even today in song. Christmas lasted
from the feast of the Nativity (first noted as December
25 on a Roman calendar from the fourth century) to the
Feast of the Epiphany (the coming of the Magi on January
6). So how did Columbus spend the holiday season?
In the days leading up to Christmas, Columbus
entered the Mar de Santo Thomás on the eponymous
feast day. He was effusive in his praise, claiming first
that the bay could hold “all the ships in Christendom” and
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