We analyze archaeological data that reveals where people, their objects, and their ideas originated. We analyze this data using network science and statistical models that help us to better understand how people and objects in the Caribbean were connected. We refine these models by recreating movement throughout the archipelago. For example, we determine how difficult it is to travel between islands by modeling changing wind patterns, tides, and currents throughout the year. We combine all of this information to improve our understanding of how people, the objects they created, and the foods they grew tied the Caribbean together in a complex web of interactions through time.
Beads and amulets from semi-precious stones found at many archaeological sites on Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles (400/200 BC- AD 600). Semiprecious stones such as carnelian,
turquoise, amethyst, serpentine, nephrite, and jadeitite occur naturally on certain islands of the Antilles and in parts of the mainland and were exchanged either as a raw material or as finished objects (photo: NEXUS1492).
Map of the Caribbean showing human mobility and the exchange of goods and ideas from 8000 years before present to 1492 (map: Menno Hoogland).