Page 9 - AHATA

Monday 19 June 2023 LOCAL
A10

Part 4 of “Aruba`s Paleo lithic hunters and gatherers”

The people

chin are all important in de- ter in a limestone opening. site. This limestone is part of
termining race. No stones are described to the Lower Terrace Forma-
have been found on top of tion. It was formed during a
The study of bones or Oste- the dead bodies, but skel- period of a rising sea level.
ology is the scientific study eton one was associated The limestone emerged by
of our skeleton, practiced with a large limestone rock the subsequent lowering
by astrologists and a sub near the cluster of 4 burials, of the sea level and tec-
discipline of anatomy, an- near one particular grave. tonic uprising. Most of the
thropology, and archae- The deceased were buried area of the Malmok site is
ology. Osteology is a de- in a crouched position. It flat terrain near the saliña.
tailed study of the structure is interesting to note how However, some low dunes
of bones, skeletal elements, they were buried at an an- exist in the western part of
teeth, microbone morphol- gle of 90 degrees. the site.
So that the Paleo Amerin- in the way they buried their ogy, function, disease, pa-
dian societies were highly dead, having distinctive thology, the process of ossi- At Malmok cemetery, A few graves were found in
mobile, moving on the shovel incisor teeth, the fication (from cartilaginous combinations of 2 graves the dunes, at a level slightly
earth as well as on the sea shape of their bones- their molds), the resistance and at cross angles have been above that of the plain.
(along the coasts). Their skulls and their jaws and hardness of bones (bio- attested several times: they This means that the dunes
material legacy, which in- their tool-making abilities. physics), etc. often used by always contained a male were already present in the
cludes stone, bone, ivory Because there are a vari- scientists with identification and a female skeleton. period of the burial activi-
and wooden works, is in- ety of structural and dimen- of vertebrate remains with Unfortunately, only the sex ties at Malmok. The burials
dicative of groups with a sional differences between regard to age, death, sex, of one grave at Canashi- in the flat section of the site
family, clan or tribal orga- skulls of different races, growth, and development to is known to be a male and in the small low dunes
nization, living by hunting, careful inspection and and can be used in a bio- and one of the skeletons and their relationship to the
fishing and gathering, but measurements have been cultural context. seemed to be a short per- present surface suggest
devoting themselves also performed on numerous son. that the surface at Malmok
to artistic and ritualistic ac- parts of the skull to aid in an Various archaic sites are Three of the bodies at Ca- was essentially the same in
tivities. accurate characterization. present on our island. Some nashito had their heads prehistory as it is today.
The length and width of are stone quarries, shell resting in their hands in a
The cultural diversity and the skull, shape of the eye maidens and gathering lo- similar fashion as most of Source; Island Insight col-
similarities of these groups orbits, the size and shape cations, while others where the dead at the cemetery umn by Etnia Nativa
can determine a lot re- of the nasal openings, the single graves, family or at Malmok and the grave
garding their origin and shape and slope of the na- clan cemeteries and natu- at Piedra di Warawara. The
path used to reach our is- sal bone above the open- ral shelters. From the burial burial cluster in Canashito is
land. These characteristics ing, and general slope of sites we can obtain a great especially interesting when
were reflected, especially the skull from forehead to deal of information regard- compared to the cluster of
ing these early peoples Malmok.
especially through their
bones. One of these single The Malmok site is situated
graves site was discovered at a distance of 200m South
at Piedra di Warawara, in and 300 m North from the
1976. Sabania Abao, San- sea, parallel to a former
ta Cruz Single male shovel saliña or salt -lake. The site
incisors, approx. 37 at age shares its sandy subsoil with
of death, laying North be- the salt-lake. Limestone is
neath a diorite bolder in a found below the sand in the
crouch position on his right
side, cranium resting in right
hand, a microscopic red
ocher pigment present on
skull.

In Canashito, five (5) Paleo
Aruban burials were exca-
vated at Seroe Canashito
in Aruba by A.D.Rigma in
1950. The bone material,
the notes and drawings of
this relatively well docu-
mented investigation were
published by Wagenaar
Hummlinck (1959) and Ta-
coma (1959). It is most in-
teresting to compare the
drawings made by Rigma
with the data of the Mal-
mok burials.
Rigma excavated one
cluster of 4 burials, at a dis-
tance of 5m from the clus-