Adventures in the Caribbean

Thank you to everyone who is following my blog. I've had loads of great messages, comments, and feedback from you. So, maybe I should mention why I'm here in sunny Grenada. I'm working as part of an excavation team with Leiden University (click here to find out more about the different Caribbean based research projects). We are currently excavating a site called La Poterie, and we are looking for evidence of indigenous populations. We know that the site was used in the Colonial and Post-Colonial periods (post 1492), but we want to investigate the continuation of the indigenous population across the Pre-Colonial to Colonial divide. We're looking for evidence of cultural interactions and exchange, so we want to know the extent to which Amerindians interacted with Europeans and how much indigenous interactions occurred between the islands of the Lesser Antilles.

This is the second season that Leiden have been excavating here. Last year, a series of benchmarks were set up which meant that the different parts of the excavation could all be tied into the same co-ordinate system. It was important to (re)locate these same points, so that any work we do this year will be accurately located in relation to last year. Likewise, it means that we can make sure all the maps and plans we make of the site are accurate.

I am also hoping to get the pXRF sent out so I can continue analysing ceramic material. It would be great to see whether the ceramic fragments that we excavate were made from local clay, or whether they were transported here from another island. I will also be sampling clay from across the island, this is so that, back in the lab, we can determine what the chemical signatures of the different sources are across the island. We need to destructively analyse some of the clay, because the pXRF does not have the resolution to differentiate the clays on the island in the same way that other analytical techniques can. So, pXRF can tell me whether a ceramic was made with clay from Grenada or not, but it won't tell me where on the island the ceramic was made. However, more about all that when we get to it...