This welcome, carefully researched volume summarizes decades of the author's personal archaeological, linguistic, and ethnohistorical investigations of the indigenous peoples of Trinidad and Tobago. Professor Boomert has worked as an archaeologist at the Surinaams Museum, Leiden University, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of the West Indies. He retired as a Senior Researcher from the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University and is currently a Curatorial Affiliate at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University.

This volume constitutes an accessible introduction to Trinidad prehistory, chronicling myriad changes experienced by Amerindian peoples of Trinidad and Tobago from the earliest occupation of Trinidad (ca. 8000 BC) to the present. The author details social, political, economic, and religious interactions of Caribbean indigenous groups with one another (and later with Europeans) and charts aboriginal decline in the post-contact period. Boomert carefully traces the origin of Trinidad and Tobago aboriginals to settlements along the Orinoco River and meticulously outlines the archaeological evidence for successive waves of migration: 1) to and from the South American mainland; and 2) to and from other Caribbean islands.

The volume begins, appropriately enough, with a discussion of the geography and natural environments of Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad had a diverse landscape once dominated by now-extinct large land mammals (e.g., giant sloths and mastodons). By the end of the last Ice Age, Trinidad became much warmer and wetter. The first settlers in Trinidad arrived about 10,000 BP. Evidence suggests that the first settlers on Tobago came from Trinidad (p. 21).

Chapter three, which examines the ceramic tradition known as Saladoid (ca. 300 BC–AD 650/800), provides a detailed discussion of Trinidad and Tobago pottery. Saladoid ceramics are associated with Saladero pottery sites along the Orinoco River. Beginning about AD 350, Saladoid pottery began to be replaced by another ceramic tradition known as Barrancoid. Barrancoid pottery is thicker, stronger, and more ornate than Saladoid pots. Barrancoid pottery also had its origin along the Orinoco River. Boomert convincingly argues that the adoption of Barrancoid stylistic features reflects increased interaction between Trinidad and Tobago and the mainland (p. 29).

The author correctly notes that “linguistic affiliations and ethnicity are concepts that are almost completely beyond archaeological retrieval,” and that “indigenous tribal names cannot be assigned to ceramic traditions” (p. 11). While Boomert stresses commonalities between aboriginal Trinidad and aboriginal Tobago, archaeological evidence suggests that Trinidad and Tobago have been separated geographically, ethnically, and linguistically for the past 1600+ years.

Saladoid/Barrancoid peoples in Trinidad and Tobago had a “broad-spectrum” diet and incorporated horticulture, hunting, fishing, and collecting wild vegetable and invertebrate foodstuffs (p. 32). Population sizes and density have been difficult to measure. With respect to social organization, Boomert concludes that Saladoid/Barrancoid people lived in egalitarian, semi-independent communities (p. 34). Major religious sites have been identified at the Pitch Lake (Trinidad) and a cave at Crown Point (Tobago). Both sites served as “portals” to the spirit world. Three-pointed stones (cemis) have also been found on both islands.

Chapter four addresses late prehistoric sites (AD 650/800 to AD 1498) with attention to the Arauquinoid pottery of Trinidad and the Troumassoid pottery of Tobago. The late prehistoric was characterized by prolonged droughts that—Boomert asserts—disrupted contact between Trinidad and Tobago. In the late prehistoric, Tobago became a part of the Troumassoid ceramic tradition of the Windward Islands, while Trinidad became a part of the Arauquinoid tradition (associated with the Orinoco). By AD 800, Arauquinoid-style pottery had completely displaced Saladoid/Barrancoid pottery in Trinidad. By the middle of the fifteenth century AD, two additional ceramic traditions became prominent: Mayoid in Trinidad and Cayo in Tobago.

Over half the book addresses the contact and precontact periods. Chapter five introduces primary ethnohistorical sources and what they reveal concerning aboriginal populations. Boomert gives ample attention to religion, cosmology, and shamanism. Chapter six covers the period from 1498 to 1592, focusing on European/Amerindian encounters in both Trinidad and Tobago. Of interest is Boomert's coverage of the hitherto underexplored involvement of the Dutch in the struggles of Caribbean aboriginal peoples and the valiant efforts of the Nepuyo chief Hierreyma in establishing alliances with the Dutch to resist Spanish colonization.

Boomert does an excellent job of portraying the persistence of aboriginal people in Trinidad. He contends that ongoing pilgrimages of mainland Warao to San Fernando (Trinidad) and the Santa Rosa Festival in Arima (Trinidad) have kept the cultures of indigenous peoples alive. He concludes by discussing evidence for aboriginal persistence in the large number of Amerindian toponyms (place names) preserved on Trinidad. Boomert suggests that aboriginal toponyms are rare in the Lesser Antilles (p. 161). He fails to mention that aboriginal toponyms are more common in the Greater Antilles.

This volume fills a longstanding gap in the prehistory and history of Trinidad and Tobago. No other volume covers the entire archaeological and ethnohistorical record to the present. This book has been endorsed by Ricardo Bharath Hernandez, Chief of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community in Arima, Trinidad as “a welcome addition to the literature we are now seeking to inform our work here at the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community, as it brings to light important aspects of our buried history.” I concur.