Tibes

by Curet, L. Antonio; Stringer, Lisa M.

• ISBN13: 9780817355791
• ISBN10: 0817355790
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-27
• Publisher: Univ of Alabama Pr

Summary

The first comprehensive analysis of a strategically located ceremonial center on the island of Puerto Rico. The prehistoric civic-ceremonial center of Tibes is located on the southern coast of Puerto Rico, just north of the modern coastal city of Ponce. Protected on two sides by a river, and on the other two sides by hills, this approximately 10.5-acre site remains as fertile and productive today as when first occupied over 2,000 years ago. Such a rich region would have been a choice location for native peoples because of the diversity in all resources, from land, air, and sea--and also symbolically crucial as a liminal space within the landscape. It may have been regarded as a space charged with numen or cosmic energy where different parts of the cosmos (natural vs. supernatural, or world of the living vs. world of the dead) overlap. Archaeological evidence reveals a long occupation, about 1,000 years, possibly followed by an extensive period of sporadic ceremonial use after the site itself was practically abandoned. In this volume, nineteen Caribbeanists, across a wide academic spectrum, examine the geophysical, paleoethnobotanical, faunal, lithics, base rock, osteology, bone chemistry and nutrition, social landscape, and ceremonial constructs employed at Tibes. These scholars provide a concise, well-presented, comprehensive analysis of the evidence for local level changes in household economy, internal organization, accessibility to economic, religious, and symbolic resources related to the development and internal operation of socially stratified societies in the Caribbean.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Tibes: History and First Archaeological Work	p. 19
The Archaeological Project of the Ceremonial Center of Tibes	p. 38
Geophysical Prospection at the Ceremonial Site of Tibes, 1998-2001	p. 60
Paleoethnobotanical Research at Tibes	p. 80
Animal Use at the Tibes Ceremonial Center	p. 115
Lithics from the Tibes Ceremonial Site: Analysis of the Stone Artifacts from the 1996-1999 Field Seasons	p. 152
Boulder Lithology Survey at the Tibes Ceremonial Site	p. 177
Ancient Bones Tell Stories: Osteobiography of Human Remains from Tibes	p. 191
Bone Chemistry and Paleodiet at the Ceremonial Center of Tibes	p. 209
Tibes and the Social Landscape: Integration, Interaction, and the Community	p. 231
Plazas, Bateys, and Ceremonial Centers: The Social and Cultural Context of Tibes in the Ancient History of Puerto Rico	p. 261
References Cited	p. 287
Contributors	p. 323
Index	p. 325
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