[Aztlan] Reply to item 6 'Island-Mainland Mesoamerican Contact', Aztlan Digest, Vol 11, Issue 17

[Ronald.L.Canter at faa.gov]

To Dito Morales,
      Here is what I had laying around on possible island-mainland
Mesoamerican contacts.  Keep in mind that I'm just recording what has
turned up so far, and trying not go beyond obvious inferences.

Ron Canter

YUCATAN CHANNEL and TRADE

      Having tracked finds of artifacts and cultural convergences over the
last 5-6 years that suggest trade between Mesoamerica and other regions, a
modest pattern is emerging.  A small amount of hard evidence has
accumulated for direct trade between the Maya in Yucatan and the Taino in
Cuba.  There is also evidence for either direct or indirect trade of Maya
articles east through the Taino cultural area, as far as Antigua.  Whether
trade was only sporadic or fairly frequent is unclear.
      The Yucatan Channel separates Cabo Catoche and Cabo San Antonio, the
western tip of Cuba.  It is 200 km wide, a daunting crossing made worse by
the Yucatan Current surging between capes.  The Yucatan Current is an
“intense jet reaching 2m/sec” at its maximum.  It oscillates back and forth
in the Yucatan Channel between Cabo Catoche and Cabo San Antonio in Cuba.
Its speed is usually fastest closer to Cabo Catoche, with a second maximum
in the center sometimes.  The Cozumel Current is a feeder.  For coastal
paddlers the Yucatan Current is not a problem unless one wanders too far
offshore, past the edge of the Campeche Bank.  Boats caught in the current
might get a free ride to the Florida Keys, or to the endlessly circling
gyre of the Loop Current in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.  The crossing
from Yucatan to Cuba is the more dangerous since the target is smaller -
the low, narrow point of Cabo San Antonio.  On the return all that would be
needed is to hit any part of the east coast of Yucatan.
      Nonetheless, cultural and trade goods did cross the channel, whether
in Maya or Taino canoes is uncertain.  Honeycomb found in western Cuba most
likely came from Yucatan, the only nearby beekeeping culture.  Spanish
explorers reported that Maya sea traders took three days to cross the
channel to Cuba.  More significant is David Pendergast’s find of a Taino
vomit ladle in a grave at the Classic Period site of Altun Ha, Belize.
Even if it could float, it could not have drifted across the Yucatan
Channel.  Anything caught in the Yucatan Current is bound for Florida or
beyond.  The ladle must have come via canoe.
      Most amazing is the recent tracing by mineralogist George Harlow of
jadeite axes found on the Island of Antigua back to their parent mines - in
Guatemala.  Only by canoe could they have made their way across the entire
Caribbean.  Rocks don’t float.
      Dicey Taylor and Chris Jones have investigated Taino ball courts.
The Mesoamerican ball game seems to have leapt the Yucatan Channel in the
Classic and quickly spread eastward from island to island.  At La Aleta in
the Domincan Republic there is monumental architecture, a ball court, and a
cenote containing sacrifices.  On Puerto Rico, Dr. Jones found
parallel-walled courts near Utuado and at Tibes, 10 courts at each site.
All were more recent than 650 AD, and were called “batay”, “a word that
seems to appear in Classic Maya inscriptions in reference to ball playing”
per Chris Jones.
      A logical location to look for a Maya entrepot would be in the Los
Colorados Archipelago off the north coast of western Cuba.  Any island
mound groups would be modest, something like Wild Cane or Frenchmans Cays
in Belize.  If they existed, they might not have been noted, or just
assumed to be a minor Taino site.  Or, there might be no such site.
      In the 18th century, William Bartram recorded trade voyages by canoe
from Talahasochte on the Suwanee River in northern Florida to Cuba (a 1600
km round trip) and to the Bahamas.  Their cypress canoes could hold 20 to
30 warriors.  The Cuba route mostly hugged the sheltered west coast of
Florida but ended with the most dangerous and difficult part - a 150 km
crossing of the choppy Florida Straits, swept by the fierce current of the
Gulf Stream.  The trip was nearly as challenging as one from Yucatan to
Cuba.
      In April of 2006 a 15 m dugout canoe was found in the Appalachicola
River, northern Florida.  The canoe is not ancient (only about 200 years
old) but the design is (Tallahassee Democrat, 6-12-06, Gerald Ensley).  It
has the characteristic projecting platform ends of a pitpan and, except for
its size, identical to ones used from the Preclassic to the present on
Central American rivers.
      Larry Koenig, a sea kayaker, is planning to complete his
circumnavigation of the Gulf of Mexico by paddling the last leg from
Yucatan to Florida.  He had originally thought to cross the Yucatan Channel
and then coast along the north shore of Cuba.  Instead he plans to ride the
Yucatan Current and Gulf Stream directly from Isla Mujeres to the Dry
Tortugas.  It has nothing to do with politics.   He calculated that it
would take three days either to ferry 200 km across the Yucatan Straits to
Cabo San Antonio in Cuba, or three days to ride with the currents 600 km
all the way to the Dry Tortugas 110 km from Key West.  The second choice is
simply more efficient.  Koenig’s estimates seem informed, considering that
he has already kayaked the rest of the Gulf Coast and has also paddled 900
km straight across the Gulf from Isla Mujeres to New Orleans.
      A dangerous three-day sea crossing requires a stronger driver than
symbolic games and vomit ladles.  What the main object of Maya-Taino trade
might have been is unclear, but the 18th century Florida-Cuba trade might
offer some clues.  Bartram listed the trade goods moving each way:
deerskins, furs, dried fish, beeswax, honey, and bear’s oil from Florida,
and “spirituous liquors, coffee, sugar, and tobacco” from Cuba.  All are
perishables that, except for the liquor bottles, would leave no trace at
either end.
        Most tantalizing are some similarities suggesting the possibility
of diffusion of Maya cultural values into the southeastern USA via Florida.
A flat karstland, with sinkhole springs, southern Florida is geologically
the twin of northern Yucatan.  At the time of European contact, the most
advanced of the Mississippian societies was the Calusa state in southern
Florida.  With planned towns, artificial canals and islands, temple mounds
(of conch shell used like building blocks), sophisticated art, and a
kingdom the size of Ireland, it lacked only a written language to qualify
as a civilization.  Without finds of specific artifacts, any Maya influence
remains only an interesting but unproven possibility.