En Bas Saline: households and colonial encounters
Limonade, northern Haiti (source place-name, not an ancient self-designation)
A long Indigenous town history surrounds a brief European episode. Houses, food, craft, and unequal access to resources remain central. Archaeology and colonial narratives must be compared without allowing Columbus's presence to erase local people.
Communities, landscapes, and the evidence
Island landscapes and connections
Northern Hispaniola connected coastal and inland resources. Limonade is a regional orientation, not a location of private houses or the proposed fort. This is an archaeological landscape, not a mapped homeland or jurisdiction.
Political organization and community scale
Evidence is interpreted as a chiefly center with differentiated households, not a centralized nation or representative model for every island.
Colonial transformation, living heritage, and modern reception
Haitian residents participated in research and farm the surrounding landscape. The museum describes a curation agreement with Haitian authorities; that is not permission to reproduce collections. Living heritage relationships require community authority; this profile cannot decide identity, recognition, descent, or membership.
The project places settlement broadly between 1200 and the early sixteenth century.
Faunal research compares activity areas and resource access rather than assuming a uniform diet.
The material register describes curation on behalf of the Haitian government and local research participation.
A concise, sourced timeline
These milestones are orientation points, not a complete history.
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Town sequence
The project identifies a substantial Indigenous settlement before European arrival.
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Brief colonial episode
The project proposes a La Navidad association; colonial accounts and a burned structure are not equivalent kinds of evidence.
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Continuing local history
Settlement continued after the brief European episode; reported endpoints vary approximately within the early 1500s.
Food, craft, language, work, and belief
Languages named in this profile
- Taíno language context in attributed historical accounts; not every resident identified
Language family: Arawakan context where historically supported, not a biological category
Food and craft reveal people beyond the named chief.
A site's abandonment is not the extinction of a people.
Independent DNAGENICS AI-assisted educational summaries, not reproductions of the cited works or professional scholarly review. Cited communities, museums, researchers, universities, National Trusts, heritage authorities, UNESCO, and the National Park Service did not author or endorse this atlas. Names identify sources only; no logos, source imagery, human remains, restricted cultural expressions, or sensitive coordinates are reproduced. Public publication does not establish cultural consent. Use the site's contact channel for corrections or concerns.
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The guide can explain and connect facts already present on this page. It cannot search the open web, establish identity or citizenship, or evaluate ancestry and genetic information.
AI-generated interpretation of genetic similarity, not proof of ancestry. Informational only, not professional advice.
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Before you continue: the analysis you are about to generate is produced by an AI model. AI output can be incomplete, inaccurate, or simply wrong. It describes statistical genetic similarity to reference populations and is not proof of ancestry, ethnicity, identity, or descent. It is provided for informational and educational purposes only, and is not medical, diagnostic, genealogical, legal, or other professional advice. Do not rely on it to make health, financial, legal, or family decisions. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, DNA Genics, S.L. accepts no liability for any loss or decision arising from your use of this AI output.
Sources used for this page
Prefer Caribbean heritage authorities, Indigenous and community perspectives, accountable excavation projects, original archaeological studies, and institutional collections documentation. Attribute written and oral accounts by date, genre, language, audience, and viewpoint. Historical inventories, tentative nominations, catalog records, and full excavation reports are not interchangeable.
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C1
Caribbean Archaeology and World Heritage Convention (World Heritage Papers 14)
UNESCO World Heritage Centre · Regional archaeological and heritage proceedings; historical inventory, not current inscription status · 2005
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C2
Teaching Indigenous History and Heritage: A Guide for Teachers in the Caribbean
Eldris Con Aguilar and Corinne L. Hofman; NEXUS1492, Leiden University · Educational research guide; cited for evidence methodology, not reproduced or adapted · 2017
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C3
Bringing Taíno Peoples Back Into History
Leiden University, NEXUS1492 · Institutional account of living heritage and Smithsonian exhibition · 2018-08-27
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C4
Caribbean Ties: Connected People, Then and Now
NEXUS1492, Leiden University and Caribbean partners · Collaborative archaeological outreach publication · 2019
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C5
Caribbean encounters: rescue excavations at the early colonial Island Carib site of Argyle, St. Vincent
Corinne L. Hofman and Menno L. P. Hoogland; Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia, Leiden University · Original archaeological research contribution · 2012
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C6
Late Precolonial Culinary Practices: Starch Analysis on Griddles from the Northern Caribbean
Andy J. Ciofalo and colleagues; Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · Original peer-reviewed microbotanical study · 2019
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C7
Lucayan charred wood selection patterns: a comparative study of variability in fragile island ecosystems of the central and northern Bahamas
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany; Springer Nature · Original peer-reviewed wood-use and chronological study · 2024
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C8
Archaeological History, Memory, and Heritage at the White Marl Site, Central Village, St Catherine Parish, Jamaica
Caribbean Quarterly; Taylor & Francis · Original community and heritage research · 2023
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S1
En Bas Saline
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida · Archaeological project account · Updated 2022-01-20
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S2
Life Before Columbus at En Bas Saline, Haiti
Florida Museum of Natural History, Environmental Archaeology · Original foodways research account · Undated project page; reviewed 2026-10-20
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S3
En Bas Saline: Material Remains
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida · Archaeological project evidence and curation account · Undated project page; reviewed 2026-10-20
Editorial review: October 20, 2026