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| The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance - John F. Kennedy |
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Developers Fund Archaeological Dig Before Construction |
| Publishing date: 13.04.2007 12:09 |
John Crock, Assistant Professor of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Vermont, who has visited Anguilla many times before, was in Anguilla for the past two weeks with ten other professional archaeologists from the University. The group has been carrying out research at Rendezvous Bay that is being funded by Alan, Una, Clyde and Duane Gumbs, owners of Rendezvous Bay Hotel that they now plan to extend.
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John Crock explaining the archaeological excavations to the Governor and Mrs George , Alan and Una Gumbs and Staff Officer Joe Legg.
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Director of Environment, Karim Hodge, has highly praised the Gumbs family for this initiative saying that it was the first time developers had undertaken such a project prior to building. The Gumbs family had paid the air fare, accommodation and meals for the eleven archaeologists for two weeks in order to make sure that there are no interesting archaeological remains in the area that will be covered up when construction starts.
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John Crock and Karim Hodge at one of the sites
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Crock said that there was a large Amerindian village at Rendezvous Bay between 400 and 1400 AD and many interesting artifacts had been found during the past two weeks. They included decorated beads, decorated pots, ornaments, zemis, parts of a griddle, a quartz crystal that had been drilled through and a large zemi. Other large Amerindian villages existed in Shoal Bay and Sandy Ground and smaller ones at Sandy Hill, Barnes Bay, the Forest, Cove Bay and Island Harbour. In addition to the pottery remains large numbers of conch shells and fish bones were found indicating that these were the foods eaten.
On Saturday April 7 the Governor Andrew George and Mrs George visited the archaeological sites and spoke to some of the archaeologists about their work. In the summer vacation Crock will be returning to the site with students from the University to continue the excavations. He has made many similar visits in the past with the late Jim Petersen and groups of students.
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