Aboriginal Stage

Thousands of years ago, Cuba presented a different panorama from the current one.
The areas that are used today in agriculture, industry or as residential settlements and that cover large areas of land, were in the past immense forests whose size and density must have influenced various aspects of the climate and served as a habitat for animal species , which could be used as food by the aboriginal communities settled here. The vegetation was of such magnitude, that the chroniclers refer that it was possible to walk under the trees for many kilometers without leaving its shadow. The rains were more frequent than today. The humid mountains were a favorable place for the proliferation of a large number of insects and other types of animals.

When studying the aboriginal trajectory it is necessary to go back to a near moment from the geological point of view (we are in the Holocene, the last geological period, which is in the process of development, this can be considered about twelve thousand to ten thousand years old ).

Since the settlement of Cuba began more than six thousand years ago, until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, a series of changes took place in relation to the present.

The aboriginal community that lived in the territory of this municipality is located within the Mesolithic, in a stage of appropriation economy and Protoagrícola cultural phase. This arises at a time of extensive development of pre-agro-pottery communities. Two elements distinguish it from it: the micro flint and the presence of small amounts of ceramic.

In its beginnings the Protoagrícola phase was defined by the non-existence of agriculture or pottery (later the presence of a simple pottery was verified in the sites of Protoagrícolas settlements, which shows that they knew and used it). This denomination is used to designate only one element: agriculture and calling it proto-agricultural indicates that it was the time before it.

In the beginning, there was no discussion of any technique, nor of any particular industry, as had been done in the previous cases (if it is taken into account that the group of artifacts of the same material or of the same manufacturing technology present is called industry in an archaeological site, it can be said then that in "Cayo Jorajuría" where a Protoagrícola community lived, there was an industry of shell and carved stone, as the pieces collected there demonstrate this).

It was not until the seventies that excavations with precise techniques were carried out in Cuba at various archaeological sites (Protoagrícolas), where it was found among the natural layers of the same ceramic fragments attached to a shell and carved stone industry, in which the microlithic pieces were determining elements.

These discoveries created the conditions for the need to definitively outline the need to establish as an archaeological culture all the manifestations of life in our aboriginal communities. As a consequence of the foregoing, the concept of the Proto-agricultural stage emerged, which is transitional between the previous pre-agri-pottery and the subsequent agri-pottery.

The duration of the Protoagrícola phase has been highly controversial. Archeology scholars have proposed various stages or periods of time, the most correct is the one that suggests that this stage in Cuba lasted only a millennium from two thousand to one thousand A.P. (Here the duration is accepted for the aborigines who inhabited "Cayo Jorajuría", since the radiocarbon dates have given the 0.40-0.50 m stratigraphic layer an age of 3870 -40 corresponding to the year 1920 BC If we take into account what was collected in the surface or very close to it is very close to the hypothesis).

Geographical Framework in which the Aboriginal Population was developed

The proto-agricultural settlement sites are generally located on abundant mangrove swampy areas (in the case of "Cayo Jorajuría" it is a swampy area where it abounds).

but they are very close to or adjacent to these areas. The evidence offered by the food remains found in the excavations indicate that these groups systematically exploited the food resources offered by the mangrove swamp. They also moved in nearby wooded areas, where they carried out hunting and possibly engaged in the collection of some wild plant species.

In Cuba twelve important Protoagrícolas sites have been reported, they are:

Hoyo del Muerto (Guanahacabibes peninsula to the south).

La Tomasa (north of Havana).

Ark to the east of the city of Havana (north coast).

San Martín (north coast of Havana).

Ark of the Canímar River (north coast Matanzas).

Cayo Jorajuría (north of Martí, Matanzas).

La Macana (north of the bay of Cienfuegos).

La Gloria (south of Camagüey).

Cueva del Muerto (east of Santiago de Cuba).

Shelter of the rocks and Cave of the town (southeast of Guantánamo).

Green waters (further east, in Baracoa).

The aboriginal housing sites belonging to the Protoagrícola phase were, as already mentioned, in clear areas and very close to the coasts, since these provided the fish and crustaceans to which they were so fond.

The "Cayo Jorajuría" residence, due to its proximity to the coast, is called coastal, it is a low place surrounded by marshes and mangroves, but with good access to a shallow sea (Santa Clara Bay) and dotted with numerous cays and islands. This territory provided life facilities to the aborigines who lived in it, since fishing in the seas, jutías and iguanas in the forests and fruits in the plains near the site abounded.

This place was explored in 1951 by doctors René Herrera Fritot and Ernesto Tabío Palma. The cay is triangular in shape, on the west side, the terrain climbs a gentle hill, proving that it was a regular artificial oval mound, on the surface of which numerous pieces of archaeological value appeared. It is formed of brown earth and is erected in the northeast corner of a firm key, in the indigenous era that was isolated in the middle of an extensive marsh or shallow salt lake 1.5 kilometers inland from the coast itself. The barrier between the free sea and the marshes forms a wide beach cove called Menéndez.

Originally the height of the mound must have been about 2 meters, but the erosion was lowering it so that a multitude of gravels and Indo-archaeological fragments heavier than earth emerged.

Physical appearance

Currently, there are countless difficulties in reaching conclusions about the constitution and physical appearance of the men who lived in "Cayo Jorajuría", since no burials have yet been found at this site. It is proposed that in America they had mongoloid characteristics, therefore it is considered that the individuals of this stage must have been, in general features, similar to those from there. Due to the aforementioned, the anthropological classification of the primitive inhabitants of the northeast of Martí is pending.
Relations with the rest of the Caribbean

It is estimated that the primitive settlers of "Cayo Jorajuría" had achieved considerable development, so they were in a position to maintain some kind of link with the inhabitants of the great islands of The Bahamas.

As it is known, the sea that bathes the coasts of this municipality is shallow and is dotted with a large number of cays and islets that form the Sabana-Camaguey archipelago, our Aboriginal fondness for navigation is also known, so that it follows that sailing from cayo to cayo they could reach unsuspected places.

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