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On Puerto Rican Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ricardo E. Alegría
Ricardo E. Alegría*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, San Juan, Puerto Rico
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Abstract

Historical sources corroborated by archaeological research demonstrate that the Antillean area was inhabited by people of three cultural traditions. Puerto Rico, because of its intermediate position between the Greater and Lesser Antilles, is of great importance in determining the chronology and the distribution of West Indian aboriginal cultures. Recent radiocarbon dates demonstrate that Puerto Rico was first populated by a preceramic people who arrived before the Christian era. A relationship between these Indians and certain preceramic groups of Venezuela has been postulated, although neither the chronology of the sites nor their distribution correspond. Other radiocarbon dates from Puerto Rico establish a clear relationship between the different pottery styles of the island and those of the Lesser Antilles and Venezuela.

Type
Caribbean Symposium
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 31 , Issue 2Part1 , October 1965 , pp. 246 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1965

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References

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