University students find 1,300 artefacts in BVI
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| Published on Friday, November 14, 2008 |
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By Oscar Ramjeet
Caribbean Net News Special Correspondent
Email: oscar@caribbeannetnews.com
ROAD TOWN, BVI: A group of California University students has found 1,300 pieces of artefacts on Little Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands, while they conducted an archaeological expedition in that island.
A GIS release stated that the Department of Culture received the report recently and that the students are part of an historic period archaeological project, which is being led by PHD student, John Chenoweth.
The artefacts were described as mostly broken pottery and glass. The ceramic production date for the collected artefacts is 1762 while the date obtained from measurement of pipe stems is 1735.
In his report, Chenoweth stated, "These dates confirm our suspicion that this site has excellent potential to tell us about a time when few written documents are available for the BVI and to tell us about people like the enslaved Africans who were held there, whose lives were rarely recorded in historical records."
"Our goal is to understand all these people as parts of larger communities, and also as unique individuals who are the product of all these influences and other," he said.
Other interesting finds included a well-used gunflint and a cowrie shell, the latter of which has significant meaning for several African traditional religions and cultures.
The artefacts were all analysed and catalogued by the Berkeley team, and are being stored at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College in Tortola. | | | | Reads : 619 | | | |
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