This grant permits Dr. Deagan and her colleagues to continue archaeological research at the site of En Bas Saline which is located about 10 kilometers east of Cap Haitien, Haiti. It is believed that this marks the location of La Navidad the settlement established by Christopher Columbus from the timbers salvaged from the Santa Maria. Dr. Deagan's past work at the site has focussed on this early European presence. (While the site contains early Spanish remains, it is still not certain whether it is, in fact, La Navidad.) Excavation has clearly demonstrated however the presence of an earlier native American village and it is possible to trace the history of this village through pre and post contact periods. This grant will allow Dr. Deagan to focus on this non.Spanish component of the site. Based on an electromagnetic survey, anomalies which indicate subsurface disturbance have been located. A selected sample of these will be excavated and are expected to yield ceramic and other cultural remains as well as fauna and human skeletons. Analyses of materials will permit estimation of population size and how this changed over time, of settlement organization and of diet. It should be possible to establish a pre Hispanic baseline and then examine the effects of contact with the Spanish. Through analysis of the skeletons, one can determine how diet and disease patterns changed during this period and what the biological response was. This research is important because it will shed light on human response, both cultural and biological, to severe stress. Hispaniola, prior to European contact contained one of the largest population aggregates in the New World. It had achieved a complex chieftan level of organization. Within a century of European contact these people had become extinct through Spanish action and through exposure to disease. Hoepfully we can gain insight into human adaptation from this unfortunate case.
