Jamaica wants its 8,000 artefacts back

THE British Museum has approximately 8,000 artefacts of Jamaican origin that have been identified in its vast collection of objects, and Culture Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange says the Government is working at having them returned to the island. Of that number, 7,000 pieces are held in the Americas Section, including the carpenter’s Mountain collection, Grange told the Jamaica Observer on Saturday after updating Parliament last Tuesday on her trip to London earlier this month to file a petition to King Charles III on the legality of chattel enslavement of Jamaica’s African ancestors. “The holdings encompass archaeological materials, including Taíno artefacts, animal bones and shells, as well as ethnographic and historical objects,” Grange explained.

She said the objects associated with Taíno culture include sculptures (cemis), stone and shell tools (axes, celts), shell work (jewellery), animal bones, beads, pots and cooking tools, other ceramics, two small pieces of gold, basketry, as well as prints and coins. Asked if there was an indication when the pieces were taken from Jamaica, Grange said, “The materials were acquired largely during the colonial period, with most collected before Jamaica’s Independence in 1962.” She pointed to a Cedar Valley carving that was donated to the British Museum in 1757 by James Theobald; the Carpenter’s Mountain collection of Taíno wooden sculptures, which is believed to have been taken in 1792, exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries of London on April 11, 1799 and acquired by the British Museum between 1799 and 1803; as well as a collection acquired by the British Museum in 1969 following archaeological investigations at Jamaican caves, middens, and rock art sites, including White Marl, Breadnut Gully, Jacks Hill, and Rio Nuevo. That collection includes ceramics, animal bones, stone tools, and other archaeological materials.

“These collections reflect different periods and circumstances of collecting and acquisition,” Grange told the Sunday Observer. She added that the Jamaican artefacts — notably botanical specimens and natural history items — are also part of the Sir Hans Sloane collection, which are the founding core of the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the British Library. “Sloane arrived in Port Royal, Jamaica, on December 19, 1687.

Over 50 years his collection grew enormously and first spawned what …