Morel and Guadeloupean craft and material histories - History, Government, Language, and Sources

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Caribbean Island Worlds: Communities, Voyaging, and Living Heritage
Central Lesser Antilles · Source-reviewed profile

Morel and Guadeloupean craft and material histories

Le Moule, Guadeloupe (source place-name, not an ancient self-designation)

Craft research asks how shell, stone, and reused pottery actually worked. Material choices and skilled practice complicate a style-only history. These studies do not license reconstruction of restricted cultural knowledge or an unsupported ethnic migration story.

Craft and archaeological classification context Multiple precolonial Ceramic Age components; precise component dates require the excavation record Shell and stone functional analysis, potsherd use-wear experiments, regional heritage record Le Moule, Guadeloupe; approximate regional town orientation only, never a territorial, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, maritime, treaty, sovereignty, or modern national boundary. Not a burial, sacred-place, private-property, or excavation-access location.
Overview

Communities, landscapes, and the evidence

Island landscapes and connections

Grande-Terre's coastal communities connected local resource use and island exchange. Le Moule is a public town orientation, not the deposits. This is an archaeological landscape, not a mapped homeland or jurisdiction.

Political organization and community scale

Tool-use evidence concerns work and choices, not a demonstrated centralized political institution.

Colonial transformation, living heritage, and modern reception

Research and heritage documentation highlight both the value and vulnerability of archaeological context. Old collections and modern experiments have different limits. Living heritage relationships require community authority; this profile cannot decide identity, recognition, descent, or membership.

Material practices Several tool materials

Functional research compares shell, stone, and flint in Morel and Anse à la Gourde.

Source review: 2026-10-20 [S1]
Reuse Modified potsherds

Experiments and wear traces suggest some sherds served pottery-making tasks.

Source review: 2026-10-20 [S2]
Heritage context Regional documentation

The proceedings situate threatened archaeological resources within a Caribbean preservation agenda.

Source review: 2026-10-20 [S3]
Historical sequence

A concise, sourced timeline

These milestones are orientation points, not a complete history.

  1. Tools in local work

    Material and wear studies address practical activities rather than styles alone.

  2. Pottery reuse

    Selected abraded sherds preserve evidence interpreted as working leather-hard clay.

  3. Regional heritage discussion

    The proceedings document a conservation agenda, not UNESCO inscription of every discussed site.

  4. Functional research publications

    A thesis and experimental study add different evidence about technology and reuse.

Culture and language

Food, craft, language, work, and belief

Languages named in this profile

  • Spoken languages are not established by this site's material record

Language family: Unresolved for the archaeological context

Broken pottery could acquire a second working life.

Use-wear interpretation requires experiment and contextual comparison.

Independent DNAGENICS AI-assisted educational summaries, not reproductions of the cited works or professional scholarly review. Cited communities, museums, researchers, universities, National Trusts, heritage authorities, UNESCO, and the National Park Service did not author or endorse this atlas. Names identify sources only; no logos, source imagery, human remains, restricted cultural expressions, or sensitive coordinates are reproduced. Public publication does not establish cultural consent. Use the site's contact channel for corrections or concerns.

AI research guide

Ask about this reviewed profile

The guide can explain and connect facts already present on this page. It cannot search the open web, establish identity or citizenship, or evaluate ancestry and genetic information.

Grounded in approved profile content Citations use the source IDs below No account or DNA context

Do not enter names, contact details, family-tree information, account or kit identifiers, or genetic data.

Evidence register

Sources used for this page

Prefer Caribbean heritage authorities, Indigenous and community perspectives, accountable excavation projects, original archaeological studies, and institutional collections documentation. Attribute written and oral accounts by date, genre, language, audience, and viewpoint. Historical inventories, tentative nominations, catalog records, and full excavation reports are not interchangeable.

  1. C1

    Caribbean Archaeology and World Heritage Convention (World Heritage Papers 14)

    UNESCO World Heritage Centre · Regional archaeological and heritage proceedings; historical inventory, not current inscription status · 2005

  2. C2

    Teaching Indigenous History and Heritage: A Guide for Teachers in the Caribbean

    Eldris Con Aguilar and Corinne L. Hofman; NEXUS1492, Leiden University · Educational research guide; cited for evidence methodology, not reproduced or adapted · 2017

  3. C3

    Bringing Taíno Peoples Back Into History

    Leiden University, NEXUS1492 · Institutional account of living heritage and Smithsonian exhibition · 2018-08-27

  4. C4

    Caribbean Ties: Connected People, Then and Now

    NEXUS1492, Leiden University and Caribbean partners · Collaborative archaeological outreach publication · 2019

  5. C5

    Caribbean encounters: rescue excavations at the early colonial Island Carib site of Argyle, St. Vincent

    Corinne L. Hofman and Menno L. P. Hoogland; Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia, Leiden University · Original archaeological research contribution · 2012

  6. C6

    Late Precolonial Culinary Practices: Starch Analysis on Griddles from the Northern Caribbean

    Andy J. Ciofalo and colleagues; Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · Original peer-reviewed microbotanical study · 2019

  7. C7

    Lucayan charred wood selection patterns: a comparative study of variability in fragile island ecosystems of the central and northern Bahamas

    Vegetation History and Archaeobotany; Springer Nature · Original peer-reviewed wood-use and chronological study · 2024

  8. C8

    Archaeological History, Memory, and Heritage at the White Marl Site, Central Village, St Catherine Parish, Jamaica

    Caribbean Quarterly; Taylor & Francis · Original community and heritage research · 2023

  9. S1

    Tracing Traces from Present to Past: A Functional Analysis of Pre-Columbian Shell and Stone Artefacts from Anse à la Gourde and Morel, Guadeloupe, FWI

    Yvonne Lammers-Keijsers; Leiden University Press · Original doctoral research, publisher synopsis · 2007

  10. S2

    Were they used as tools? An exploratory functional study of abraded potsherds from two pre-colonial sites on the island of Guadeloupe, northern Lesser Antilles

    Annelou van Gijn and Corinne L. Hofman; Caribbean Journal of Science · Original experimental and use-wear research · 2008

  11. S3

    Caribbean Archaeology and World Heritage Convention (World Heritage Papers 14)

    UNESCO World Heritage Centre · Regional archaeological and heritage proceedings; historical inventory, not current inscription status · 2005

Sources and names remain the property of their respective publishers and communities. Their inclusion is for citation and education; it does not imply endorsement of DNAGENICS. Summaries are original editorial paraphrases and should be checked against the linked source for important use.

Editorial review: October 20, 2026

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