Saladoid culture: pottery and horticulture in the Antilles
Cultura saladoide: cerámica y horticultura en las Antillas
- Date
- c. 400 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Hacienda Grande, Loíza, Puerto Rico
- Credited to
- Saladoid peoples (Arawakan-speaking) from the Orinoco; identified by Irving Rouse
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
The Saladoid peoples carried painted pottery, manioc and garden cultivation from the Orinoco basin to the Lesser and Greater Antilles, hopping from island to island by canoe. They were the first sedentary farmers of the island Caribbean and ancestors of the Taíno.
Dates vary by island (Trinidad and the Venezuelan coast older, c. 2000-1000 BC; Puerto Rico around 400-200 BC) and it is debated whether it was a single migration or several waves.
What it led to
- an economy of manioc and sweet-potato gardens and permanent villages on the islands
- decorated pottery whose local traditions evolved into the Ostionoid and Taíno styles
- sea-borne exchange networks between islands