c. 800 to 200 BCE · Indigenousspan
The earliest dated Saladoid sites cluster in the northern islands
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For a long time the Lesser Antilles were described as stepping stones, a chain the first farmers crossed island by island on a slow walk north. The radiocarbon dates complicate that picture. The earliest well dated Early Ceramic Age sites cluster in the northern part of the archipelago. Vieques, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Antigua and St Martin have all produced dates showing established colonies in the window from about 800 to 200 BCE, while many of the southern islands on the supposed route have produced nothing so early. One reading is that the first Saladoid migrants passed the southern islands by and settled in the north. Another is that archaeologists have simply dug harder in the places where the early dates keep turning up. Keegan and Hofman take the second possibility seriously and still conclude that the expansion through the chain went faster than anyone had previously proposed. Hispaniola sits at the far end of that fast run.
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