Archaeologists last month discovered the submerged remnants of a large house built by the Taino, an agricultural people who lived in the Caribbean between the 6th and 17th centuries. The find is "an absolute surprise," says team leader David Pendergast of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto: No other Taino dwelling has ever been found.
Archaeologists know very little about the Taino aside from accounts by their 16th century Spanish conquerors. Although the Taino left artifacts, such as a spoonlike spatula used for ritual vomiting, they left few material clues about how their society was organized.
Buried treasure. Sandbags border dig offshore of Cuba. Left--wooden bowl.
ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM
Last year, Pendergast's team of Canadian and Cuban archaeologists began exploring in shallow waters just off the north coast of Cuba where occasional artifacts had washed ashore. Then last month they came upon the well-preserved remains of a large wooden house that had apparently collapsed in place. The round building, almost 20 meters across, has a pair of center posts nearly 7 meters long. The team also found palm leaves that were used as thatch. The scientists, who also recovered Taino bowls, needles, and other artifacts, say the material-- much of it made from a very hard wood known as lignum vitae--is exceptionally well preserved. Pendergast wants to test the clayey soil to see if it has preservative qualities.
Pendergast says the site, which extends at least 1.5 kilometers along the waterfront, shows that the Taino culture in Cuba was much more highly developed than had been thought. West Indies specialist William Keegan, assistant director of the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, says the find should "supply a wealth of information on the way [the Taino] organized their living space," as well as clues about their larger social organization.
