Archaeologist Ken Wild says he once believed the excavation site on the beach at Cinnamon Bay was the house of a tribal chief. Now, he says, there's evidence that he and his associates have found a Taino temple described in records by 15th century Spanish explorers.
Wild has been digging away at the Cinnamon Bay project for seven years. About two years ago, he and his ever-rotating team of student volunteers began turning up zemis, small stone carvings depicting deities of the indigenous Taino people. Since then, digging deeper, he says, they have found other artifacts that support his theory that the site, near one of St. John's oldest colonial structures, was, in fact, a Taino temple.
"This site, as we now know, is much more important the a regular site," Wild tells a dozen visitors gathered for one of the twice-weekly Cinnamon Bay tours.
After carefully sifting away sediment accumulated over hundreds of years, the archaeological team found stacks of pottery with holes carefully punched through each piece. This, Wild says, was one of the first clues. "Indian tribes to this day still punch holes in pottery as part of a ceremony to release the spirits," he says.
They also found the top of a duho, the high-backed chair of a tribal chief; manatee teeth that were used to decorate the chair; and carved eyes that were set in the heads of deity figures.
The Taino were accomplished weavers, Wild says, and it's known that some temple deities were made of woven cotton, sometimes with a skull positioned as the head. Among the artifacts found at the Cinnamon Bay site, he says, are the "eyes" of such figures, carved from shells, along with the remains of giant shellfish, believed to have been food offerings to the gods.
Next, Wild tells his visitors about 15th Century Spanish records of the first European encounters with the Taino people. These accounts, he says, indicate that "there was a special place where the chief kept his ancestors, and there was a requirement that once a year the people would offer sacrifices to his ancestors."
The pit is a short distance from what is believed to be the Cinnamon Bay Greathouse, a colonial structure begun around 1720. The building now houses Wild's laboratory and a gift shop for Cinnamon Bay campground visitors. In front of the building is a path that winds up toward Route 20, the North Shore Road. Wild says the original North Shore Road began where that foot trail is today and ran north toward Maho Bay.
The existence of that old road essentially kept the Cinnamon Bay Taino site untouched over the years, he says. Builders would be unlikely to excavate under an established roadway, and "when you have an old road like that, no vegetation has grown on top of it, no animal is going to burrow under it, and no agricultural plowing disturbs it."
Wild believes that the valley surrounding the campground is a vast aboriginal village dating back to at least 1,000 A.D. It would be highly unlikely for a religious temple – called a caney – to be located anywhere but within a surrounding society, he says.
Much of the work of uncovering Cinnamon Bay's historic treasures is being done by volunteers under Wild's direction. Currently, his helpers are students from the University of Southern Maine and Syracuse University – and two Virgin Islanders, Kristin Moorehead, who attends Spelman College, and Jamilla Abraham, a student at Brown University.
Also lending a hand are the hundreds of St. Thomas and St. John public and private school students who visit the site on field trips throughout the year.
The free guided Cinnamon Bay tours are being conducted on Wednesdays and Fridays at 1:30 p.m. through Aug. 14. To sign up, call 690-2497.
To read about another element of the Cinnamon Bay archeological puzzle, the animal remains, click on National Park.
For additional pictures of zemis and information about the Cinnamon Bay dig, visit the Scientific American web page at www.scientificamerican.com/exhibit/2000/062600cinnamon.
