Small Islands, Large Settlements: Archaeology at Les Îles de La Petite Terre, Guadeloupe, F.W.I.1
Caribbean Quarterly › Vol. 55 Nbr. 2, June 2009
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Small Islands, Large Settlements: Archaeology at Les Îles de La Petite Terre, Guadeloupe, F.W.I.1
Introduction
Between 1998 and 2000, three archaeological fieldwork campaigns were carried out at the islands of Petite Terre, F.W.I., by teams of archaeologists from Leiden, the Netherlands. The investigations, directed by the author, then working at Leiden University, were part of a study that was designed to investigate social organisation and interaction through the study of site (De Waal, 2006). For this study, a micro-region was selected, consisting of the Pointe des Châteaux peninsula of Guadeloupe and the islands of La Désirade and Petite Terre (Figure 1). This essay focuses on the pre-Columbian occupation of the small islands of Petite Terre.SettingLes Îles de la Petite Terre, as the islands are called officially, belong to the Lesser Antilles. They will be referred to as Petite Terre, as is common practice on Guadeloupe. Petite Terre is part of the French department of Guadeloupe and administratively it belongs to the municipality of La Désirade. Petite Terre is situated at approximately 12 km south of La Désirade and at 7.5 km south-east of Pointe des Châteaux.Petite Terre consists of two small calcareous islands: Terre de Haut and Terre de Bas (Figure 2). Terre de Bas measures 2.5 km by 600 m, while Terre de Haut measures only 1.1 km by 200-300 m. The islands of Petite Terre are flat west-east oriented islands that originally consisted of one elevated coral plateau. They show a general inclination in a west/northwestern direction, which is the result of tectonic processes (DIREN, Guadeloupe, 1994, 6). A 150 m wide channel, which is 7 m deep at most and is enclosed on the eastern si...See the full content of this document
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