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Evidence And Interpretation In The Archaeology Of Jamaica, E. Kofi Agorsah

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

One of the most challenging statements in the Archaeology of the New World is the one made by James Deetz, an eminent Archaeologist, that: "The personalities of prehistory will remain forever nameless and without faces", (Deetz 1977). Any one with background training in prehistoric Archaeology of the Old ~rid would at first glance at the statement view it with scorn. I was no exception to this reaction. But when I started updating myself on archaeological studies in the Caribbean I started giving the statement a serious thought especially having come across Clinton Black's description of the first Jamaicans as "a …