Evaluation of Evidence for Pre-Columbian human Occupation at Great Cave, Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands

摘要

Excavations in Great Cave at Pollard Bay, Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands and cave and coastal surveys of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman Islands investigated the finding of West Indian top-shells (Cittar- ium pica) with shell damage thought to represent pre-Columbian subsistence activity. Analyses of soils, sedi- ments, and faunal remains from the excavations and surveys indicate that the top-shells, carbon-dated to approximately A.D. 1000, were damaged and deposited by non-human means. Similar breakage patterns on significantly smaller species of gastropods, undisturbed sediments, and over-all faunal composition suggest intact deposits undisturbed by pre-Columbian human occupation or by catastrophic natural events.