On March 31, 2005 Dr. Basil Reid and his team of UWI archaeology students discovered an Amerindian pendant at the archaeological site of Blanchisseuse. The pendant, which belongs to the Saladoid period, was found at a depth of approximately 20cm from the surface in one of the six units excavated at the site. The Saladoids migrated from northeast South America in the Orinoco delta region and settled Trinidad and Tobago from 250 BC to AD 600. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the Saladoid site at Blanchisseuse was settled from 1,800 to 1,600 years ago.

The pendant was made from schist, a medium grade metamorphic rock, which is commonly found in the Northern Range. This oval-shaped find is 40.9mm long, 3.2mm to 3.6mm thick and 27.8 to 11.5mm wide. The pendant’s well-defined hole, through which a string might have been strung in order for the adornment to hang around the wearer’s neck, has a diameter of 4mm. There is no evidence that the stone artifact was imported, as the material used to make it is part of the local geology. Nevertheless, this pendant is archaeologically significant, as it provides useful insights into the personal adornment habits of the early Saladoid settlers of Blanchisseuse.

(I wish to acknowledge the contributions of the following UWI archaeology students to this project: Kimika Lai Tan, Rhou Francis Lou, Adrian Jawahir, Sherman Gokool, Rishma Samaroo, Jerome Spencer, Jaqueline Bruce and Natasha Hislop. I also wish to thank Professor Joseph Hamilton (Coordinator of the Petroleum Geoscience Programme in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UWI, St. Augustine) for his assistance in identifying the geological composition of the pendant)