As a lover of food history my seemingly endless curiosity for what other people have eaten or are eating tends to consume my every thought when learning about different cultures and different time periods. The archaeological excavation at Palmetto junction was no different. One of the reasons why I was interested in coming on this dig was to study the ancient diet of the tiina lucayan people who inhabited the Bahama archipelago. I was not disappointed by what we found. Located on the tip of Providenciales, the inhabitants of Palmetto junction had access to a variety of different marine ecosystems.

The surface of the site was littered with conch shells that had been pierced on one side with a round object to tease out the soft animal within and eaten. A delicacy on the islands even into the modern era, the vast quantity of conch throughout the site showed how it was an easy source of protein for people inhabiting Palmetto Junction 700 years ago.  While it is easy to collect conch, seeing as it doesn’t really run away, the cotton plants that were located around the site were interpreted by Dr. Sinelli to be utilized for everything from clothing to creating fishing nets. We also excavated several net weights that would have been attached to the cotton fishing nets to help them hold them underwater once cast.

In Units 2-7 we excavated a wide variety of different animal bones along with the sherds of cooking vessels. A variety of different fish bones of different sizes were identified and while we could not identify the exact species of the fish, we did see what appeared to be incredibly large vertebrae and the teeth or the beaks of parrotfish. Some of the fish bones still had teeth in the jaw fragments.

Mel, the site supervisor and PhD student, was interested in the mammalian bones we discovered. These small mammals were hutia, medium sized rodents that are essentially large rats the size of guinea pigs. For their dissertation, Mel is looking at the population control and the possibility of pastoral agricultural practices being used before the processing and consumption of the hutia. Now that we have collected the hutia bones, Mel will be conducting a variety of experiments on the bones and doing an isotopic analysis to see what the hutia ate and see what other information can be gathered. After we returned from the dig, Dr. Sinelli informed us all via text that we managed to excavate the largest concentration of hutia bones at any archaeological site found anywhere in the Bahama archipelago. So the bones were a pretty big deal and will hopefully teach us more about the Taino who lived in Palmetto Junction. Dr. Sinelli believes that the large concentration of hutia bones, shows that Palmetto Junction was truly a place where high ranking members of the Taino could come together and celebrate. With the large earth oven that could cook meals for 200-300 people, this seems likely. Of course getting the chance to actually cook on an earth oven of my own helped my own understanding of what exactly that cooking process would entail.