Saladoid culture
The Saladoid culture was a pre-Columbian indigenous culture in the area of what is now Venezuela and the Caribbean islands , which existed between 500 BC. BC and 545 AD existed. The center was the plain on the Orinoco , from where the people of the 4th century BC. Chr. To the Lesser Antilles and further to Puerto Rico and Hispaniola emigrated.
Surname
The culture was named after the place where it was found at Saladero , where the unique style of pottery was discovered. The ending “-oid” is added to denote this early ceramic period: the Saladoide epoch or Saladoid for short . The people of this culture are called saladoids .
chronology
There are four ceramic styles within the Saladoid culture:
- Hacienda Grande (250 BC - 300 AD) in Puerto Rico
- Cuevas (AD 400–600) in Puerto Rico
- Prosperity (1–350 AD) in the Virgin Islands
- Coral Bay-Longford (350-550 AD) in the Virgin Islands
Also coming from the Orinoco, the Ostionoid culture spread from the 7th to 9th centuries in the Antilles, which featured a different ceramic style. Her ceramics are less painted and more decorated with incisions.
Hike
The lower Orinoco, near the present-day Venezuelan towns of Saladero and Barrancas , is considered to be the place of origin of the culture . Seafarers founded as early as 500 BC. Settlements on the southernmost of the Lesser Antilles. Around 345 BC They reached the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, later Hispaniola. The Saladoids displaced another Stone Age culture to the west of Cuba , where the pre-ceramic Ciboney culture existed until the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century.
In Puerto Rico their legacies were found mainly in the west of the island, on Hispaniola in the east of the Dominican Republic . Initially, flat coastal plains were settled in order to be able to use the sea as a source of food. In the later phase of the Saladoid culture, the mountainous interior of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were opened up.
Culture
The saladoids farmed, produced ceramics and lived in permanent settlements. Based on their unique and richly decorated ceramics, archaeologists were able to determine their settlement area and their origin. These include vessels in the shape of animals, incense vessels, bowls, bowls, jugs, bowls with handles and bell-shaped containers. The red ceramic was painted white, white with orange stripes, or black. Some containers were decorated with cracks.
Stone pendants depicting birds of prey from South America are characteristic of the Saladoids. They consist of different materials such as carnelian , turquoise , lapis lazuli , amethyst , rock crystal , jasper - chalcedony and petrified wood . Their spread suggests a trading network for raw materials and finished products across the Antilles and northern South America that existed until AD 600. Then these artifacts disappeared.
When they immigrated to the islands, the saladoids brought with them pottery, cassava , palm lilies and maize as cultivated plants. Because they were horticulturalists , they moved to more humid and fertile regions that were more suitable for agriculture.
The typical structure of the villages of the Saladoid culture in Puerto Rico and the neighboring islands included piles of rubbish, which were arranged in a semicircle around the village square and often also served as a village cemetery. Judging by the grave goods found, the deceased were treated equally, which suggests an egalitarian society .