Places of Interests

Pre-Columbian site of Gandhi Village

Palmiste National Park

Quinam Recreational Park

The Banwari Man

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Pre-Columbian site of Gandhi Village

U.W.I. Research Team Unearths Ancient

Amerindian Pottery

Archaeological surveys and excavation at the pre-Columbian site of Gandhi Village , Debe (south Trinidad ) which started on March   17, 2003 , will continue until the end of April 2003. The archaeological team, headed by Dr. Basil Reid, Lecturer in Archaeology in the Department of History, is comprised of the following second year undergraduate history students: Corrine Allahar, Fayola Clarke, Joel Gobin, Ayanna Holder, Duane Khan, Feroze Khan, Kathleen Layne, Charles Pocock, Diann Rangoonan, Adrian Ramsingh, Narissa Seegulam and Jasodra Singh.  

Archaeological activity involves site surveying and mapping with the aid of a Total Station and a Global Positioning Systems (GPS) receiver, field walking and the excavation of a 5-m x 3-m sampling unit. To date, several pieces of Saladoid pottery (dated from 500 BC – AD 600) as well as flint tools and shell fragments have been found. The Saladoid peoples were the earliest pottery making peoples to have settled in Trinidad and Tobago. Migrating from northeast South America, archaeologists have named the Saladoid peoples after the site of Saladero in Venezuela where the Saladoid pottery styles were first identified and classified. Situated on a low-lying hill with a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside, Gandhi Village appears to be a Saladoid settlement site. The artifacts discovered at the site are currently in the Archaeology Centre where they will be subjected to detailed analysis with a report written thereafter.

Palmiste National Park
Recently launched and still in the early stages of development, the park covers 40 acres of land on the edge of San Fernando. The rationale for Palmiste Recreational Park is derived from regional and national policies  related to the establishment and protection of areas use the country’s most important natural heritage resources.

The area is ideally located for  use by southerners eg. Palmiste   residents, urban or city dwellers (San Fernando and environs).  Also it is the only park area in the country, second in physical characteristics to the Botanical Garden, which is situated in North Trinidad.

Currently the park comprises of a heart shaped Pond, Concession facilities, internal jogging path, and parking facilities.

During the year work is expected to proceed on picnic areas / barbecue facilities and erection of small carat huts with tables etc, eco trails, botanic garden, conservatory facilities, construction of permanent band-stand for staging other social events and  small play fields for recreation.

30 Quinam Recreational Park
Quinam Recreational Park is a new eco park, in a forested area near the Quinam beach in south Trinidad. Includes rustic picnic shelters, an information centre and nature trails. Newly developed by the Forestry deparment (622–3217).

THE BANWARI MAN

TRINIDAD’S OLDEST RESIDENT

In November 1969, the Trinidad & Tobago Historical Society began a sample excavation into a pre-ceramic site at Banwari Trace, San Francique. In July 1971, they presented a report showing 2000 years of occupation carbodated BC 5200 – 3200, the then earliest date for man in the West Indies.

The settlement appears to have been small, covering approximately 500 square meters. Its economy was based on shellfish hunting and fishing and some utilization of plant food implied by the presence of hand-stones and grinding slabs. The remaining tool list included arrows, awls, needles, a probable weaving tool, and an axe. The culture involved the use of pestles shaped from imported stone for some specific pounding process; and use of the hilltop as a cemetery towards end of occupation.

Two unexpected pieces of data were: a date of BC 4400 for the Gulf of Paria completing its post glacial rise in the sea level; and early evidence of travel relationships with Guyana, Venezuela and the Lesser Antilles shown by the artifacts of overseas stone.

Archaeologists from the University of Santo Domingo were quite excited by this data. Their second earliest culture carbodated from BC 1500, shares with Banwari the characteristics of: coastal mangrove location; pestles – some of which are identical to Banwari; and axes – which appear to have developed from Banwari - type ancestor.

In December 1971, they sent down a team led by Professor Marcio Veloz Maggiolo to investigate the skeletal remains with the society.

An adjoining excavation was opened and at 15cm, six groups of bones were revealed. The largest group consisted of several long bones, whose disposition suggested the bundle of secondary burial (re-burial of selected bones after decomposition has taken place). Another group consisted of a pair of femurs. Underneath the latter, To everyone’s surprise, lay the battered remains of a skeleton, which is presently located at the museum of the University of the West Indies. It lies on its left-hand side, in a typical crouching position, along a north west axis. Its feet were higher than the rest of the body, and unfortunately were excavated and bagged separately. Only two items were associated, a round pebble by the head and a needle point by the hip. Its situation in a shallow pocket of humus, apparently excavated into the shell midden, and subsequently covered by normal shell refuse, places burial shortly before end of occupation, say approximately 3400 BC. The skeleton was painted with cellulose – in – acetone preservative, boxed in and ¼ inch steel plate jacked side ways underneath to recover it in its matrix for further research.

Banwari man or woman is still the oldest skeleton in the West Indies, and its survival for 5000 years at 20cm below the surface is nothing short of miraculous. The Society is prepared to wait, preferably a somewhat shorter period for research on this unique survivor and the other bone material to be done locally. We hope that its display here and its subsequent presence in the Zoology Teaching Museum will simulate the interest of a student with sufficient competence in Physical Anthropology to do this research.

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The mud volcano is located at E 0673357, N 1126421 (UTM Naparima datum)

The cone is 63' above sea level and is 20' high with mud and gas being ejected very infrequently (22/2/2003) It appears also that the amount of mud being ejected is directly related to the amount of rainfall, since in the dry season little or activity is present. Meteoric water is thus important here.