{"id":14935,"date":"2018-04-25T11:20:18","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T15:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=14935"},"modified":"2018-04-25T11:30:57","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T15:30:57","slug":"researchers-in-antigua-hope-to-correct-speculative-and-erroneous-colonial-accounts-that-depict-the-carib-people-as-ferocious-man-eaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/researchers-in-antigua-hope-to-correct-speculative-and-erroneous-colonial-accounts-that-depict-the-carib-people-as-ferocious-man-eaters\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers in Antigua hope to correct colonial accounts that depict the Carib people as ferocious man-eaters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>
\"\"<\/a><\/div>

For centuries, historians held that the Caribbean\u2019s earliest inhabitants were peaceful farmers who were wiped out by the ferocious man-eating Carib people. But archaeologists in Antigua say new evidence from one of the most important sites in the region is helping to correct \u201cspeculative and erroneous\u201d accounts passed down from early colonists.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The excavation at a 12-acre site in Indian Creek has prompted a reassessment of older narratives, said Dr Reg Murphy, who is leading a team from Syracuse University, Farmingdale State College and Brooklyn College.<\/p>\n

Colonial-era historians said that the Arawak people were exterminated in about 1300 AD by the Caribs, who were demonised as man-eaters \u2013 and then themselves displaced \u2013 by the first European settlers .<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\"A<\/picture><\/div>\n
<\/div>
\u00a0<\/span>A 19th century wood engraving. Photograph: Granger\/Rex\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe hope to reevaluate those long-held assumptions,\u201d said Murphy. \u201cFrom analysing their diet we have found no evidence that Caribs ever ate humans.\u201d<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The site is one of few known to have supported every age of mankind from the Arawaks to the present day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think Amerindians migrated up the smaller islands like Antigua, then separated out when they reached bigger islands like Puerto Rico,\u201d he said. \u201cBut was there one culture or a multitude of cultures? That\u2019s one of the questions we hope to answer.\u201d<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The area closest to the rugged road linking Indian Creek to the tourist hub of English Harbour reveals scattered fragments of Wedgwood and Delftware china from 18th-century colonists. Further into the thorny thickets, these are replaced by much older remains of clay serving bowls and flint tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can often tell the function by looking at the form,\u201d Murphy said, picking up a blue-coloured scrap. \u201cThis has a folded rim, indicating the period from around 200BC to 600AD, and this might have been a griddle for making cassava bread.\u201d<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n