Leiden University Student Repository

Bastiaanse, Danielle (2010)

Different of Alike? An inter-island comparison of burials from three Pre-Columbian sites

Master thesis | Archaeology (MA/MSc)

After finishing my BA-Thesis on the burials of Anse à la Gourde in 2008 and excavating burials in 2009 on St. Lucia I knew I wanted to do more with burials, mortuary practices and taphonomy. Instead of doing another casestudy of just one assemblage, the idea came to compare samples from three assemblages in the Caribbean. These three sites are Kelbey’s Ridge 2 on Saba, Anse à la Gourde on Guadeloupe and Anse Lavoutte (Cas-en-Bas) on St. Lucia. The goal was to see if the burial customs from these three islands were the same. From each assemblage, a sample from seven burials were taken, mostly random. To make the comparison as valid as possible, all burials were described according to a uniform approach. The cultural context and ancestry was also extensively examined in order to make sure that a comparison could be made and that the ancestry was the resembling or at least had the same common history in terms of origin. When the origin turned out to be alike, the 21 burials were...Show moreAfter finishing my BA-Thesis on the burials of Anse à la Gourde in 2008 and excavating burials in 2009 on St. Lucia I knew I wanted to do more with burials, mortuary practices and taphonomy. Instead of doing another casestudy of just one assemblage, the idea came to compare samples from three assemblages in the Caribbean. These three sites are Kelbey’s Ridge 2 on Saba, Anse à la Gourde on Guadeloupe and Anse Lavoutte (Cas-en-Bas) on St. Lucia. The goal was to see if the burial customs from these three islands were the same. From each assemblage, a sample from seven burials were taken, mostly random. To make the comparison as valid as possible, all burials were described according to a uniform approach. The cultural context and ancestry was also extensively examined in order to make sure that a comparison could be made and that the ancestry was the resembling or at least had the same common history in terms of origin. When the origin turned out to be alike, the 21 burials were analysed upon their single or multiple deposit, their primary or secondary state and if they were filled or empty during the time of decomposition. In the end it turns out that the all three samples showed correspondence on multiple levels and it is concluded that they share the same burial customs.Show less

Author

Bastiaanse, Danielle

Faculty

Faculty of Archaeology

Supervisors

Hoogland, M.L.P.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en