Northern West Indies (2637 – 910 BCE): Island Arcs of the Atlantic Gateway

Geographic and Environmental Context

The Northern West Indies—including Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the northern portion of Hispaniola (including Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic and Cap-Haïtien in Haiti)—lay along the boundary between the open Atlantic and the sheltered Caribbean. This arc of islands combined low-lying coral platforms (Bermuda, Turks and Caicos) with the mountainous, fertile uplands of northern Hispaniola. Warm waters of the Gulf Stream influenced the northern islands, while Caribbean currents bathed the southern edge of the subregion.

Subsistence and Settlement

By the mid–third millennium BCE, permanent human settlement in the Northern West Indies was unlikely, especially on Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos, but these islands may have been within the range of exploratory or seasonal voyaging by early maritime cultures from the Greater Antilles or the Florida–Bahamas–Cuba corridor.
Hispaniola’s northern coast, however, offered fertile valleys, river floodplains, and abundant marine resources. Here, early Indigenous communities likely practiced mixed economies: fishing, shellfish gathering, hunting small game, and cultivating or managing root crops and fruits in tropical forest clearings.

Technological and Cultural Developments

Maritime technology included dugout canoes carved from large hardwood logs, enabling short- and medium-range coastal travel and inter-island movement in the calmer seasons. Fishing gear included bone and shell hooks, woven traps, and spears. Stone adzes, grinding stones, and hammerstones were used for woodworking, food preparation, and shell ornament production.
In northern Hispaniola, early ceramic traditions may have been emerging toward the end of this epoch, influenced by contacts with other Antillean and circum-Caribbean cultures.

Maritime and Trade Networks

Although Bermuda’s distance from continental shores would have made it a challenging target for early voyagers, the Turks and Caicos lay within plausible canoe range of the Bahamas and Hispaniola. Inter-island exchange in this era would likely have been limited to high-value portable goods—shell beads, stone tools, and possibly dried fish. Hispaniola’s coastal settlements were well-positioned to engage in maritime foraging and short-distance trade with neighboring islands.

Cultural and Symbolic Expressions

In northern Hispaniola, coastal and riverine sites may have included shell midden deposits serving both as refuse and as territorial markers. Ornamentation with shell, coral, and stone beads reflected personal and group identity. Ritual practices—later preserved in descendant traditions—likely tied seasonal fishing abundance and land fertility to spiritual forces associated with the sea and sky.

Environmental Adaptation and Resilience

Island communities relied on diversified subsistence strategies, combining marine and terrestrial foods to buffer against seasonal shortages or storm impacts. Knowledge of seasonal wind and current patterns was essential for safe canoe travel. On smaller coral islands, freshwater scarcity would have required careful rainwater collection and reliance on imported goods from larger landmasses.

Transition to the Early First Millennium BCE

By 910 BCE, the Northern West Indies likely remained lightly used and sparsely inhabited, but its fertile coasts, rich fishing grounds, and strategic position made it an important ecological and navigational zone. In the centuries ahead, it would become more deeply integrated into the wider web of Caribbean maritime networks.