Revision of the cultural chronology of precolonial Puerto Rico: A Bayesian approach.

ABSTRACT: Puerto Rico has played a pivotal role in the building of cultural chronology for the insular Caribbean, and yet little systematic work has been conducted in recent decades to assess the validity of the system(s) produced. To resolve this issue, we assembled a radiocarbon inventory comprised of more than a thousand assays, drawn from both published sources and grey literature, which was used to assess and revise (as necessary) the received cultural chronology of Puerto Rico. The application of chronological hygiene protocols and Bayesian modeling of the dates yields an initial arrival of humans to the island more than a millennium earlier than previously established, making Puerto Rico the earliest inhabited island of the Antilles, following Trinidad. The chronology of the different cultura

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez Ramos R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9946257 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature