Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1992 - 153

tant areas in Jamaica. It offers examples of colonial English civic
architecture and is the site of a small
museum housing archaeological remains recovered during excavations
of the townsite.
In 1655, Oliver Cromwell, lord
protector of the English realm, sent
an expedition under Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables to capture Hispaniola. The
effort failed and, rather than return
home defeated, the two decided to
attack Jamaica. Sparsely populated
and poorly defended, the island was
taken with relative ease. Most
Spaniards abruptly departed, but
loyalists under Cristobál Arnaldo de
Ysassi, aided by bands of Maroons,
waged guerrilla resistance against
the English for another five years.
During the Spanish occupation,
Port Royal was named Cayo de
Carena, the Careening Key, because
it was suitable for beaching ships
and cleaning their hulls. When the
English captured Jamaica, they
quickly recognized the strategic
value of the cay and established a
fort, first named after Cromwell but
later renamed Fort Charles when
the monarchy was restored. Over
time, three additional forts and two
fortified lines of guns were constructed and defended by a garrison
of 2,500 men. From 1660 to 1692,
Port Royal emerged as the most
prosperous English commercial
center in the New World, with more
than 2,000 buildings and offering
virtually every product and craft
then available in London. The city
also became a haven for buccaneers,
whose daring and bawdy behavior
set a tone for the entire town, which
became known as the "wickedest city
on earth." Port Royal met its demise
in 1692, when a massive earthquake
caused part of the town to slide into
the sea and resulted in the deaths of
several thousand residents.
Although it never regained its
commercial strength, due primarily
to the growth of Kingston across the
bay, Port Royal served as Britain's
naval base in the Caribbean in the
76 Archaeology

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The earthquake destroyed ail
fortifications except Fort Charles,
which remained in use until the
early 1900s. Today, it is a charming
architectural monument to an important bygone era. Nearby, the Old
Navail Hospital, a cast iron and brick
structure built in 1818, is one of the
first and finest examples of prefabricated architecture in the hemisphere.
In 1968, the building became headquarters for the Port Royal Centre
for Archaeological and Conservation
Research, and in 1978, the National
Museum of Historical Archaeology
was opened on its upper floor.
From 1980 to 1990, the Old Naval
Hospital served as the research
center for archaeological excavations of the sunken city, directed by
Donny Hamilton of Texas A&M
University. This work provided a
fuller picture of English coloniali lifeways and served to dispel the myth
of Port Royal as solely a wicked, unruly place. Rather, the seventeenthcentury outpost was shown to be a
crossroads of Spanish, English,
Dutch, American, and African exchange that played a significant role
in the global economy of its day.
Spanish Town. The capitali of
Jamaica from 1534 to 1872, Spanish
Town is another historic area on the
south coast that recalls the colonial
era through its architecture and ambience. Today, the centrad square
still has many elegant historic buildings, although none of Spanish origin. The Old King's House on the
west end of the plaza, built in 1761
atop the foundations of the Spanish
Hall of Audience, served as the English governor's residence. Before its
destruction by fire in 1925, it was the
site of many significant events in
Jamaican history, including the
reading of the Proclamation of the
Abolition of Slavery in 1838. Plans
to restore the Old King's House
prompted archaeological investigations at the site in the early 1970s,
conducted by Duncan Mathewson.
has
Although no reconstruction
been done as yet, the building re-

mains are open to the public and
have some interpretation.
Outthe
fire
have
buildings spared by
been converted into a folk museum
administered by the Institute of
Jamaica, with exhibits and artifacts
life
depicting nineteenth-century
and technology.
Opposite the Old King's House,
the Old House of Assembly, built
around 1762, was the scene of many
fiery exchanges between parliamentarians and also was used by the
Supreme Court. Today, it provides
offices for the St. Catherine Parish
Council. At the southern end of the
plaza stands the edifice of the Spanish Town Courthouse, a Georgiain
structure used by the courts until it
was gutted by fire in the late 1980s.
The Rodney Memorial on the north
side was erected by the Jamaicain
House of Assembly to honor British
naval hero George Rodney, who
saved the island from capture by the
French in 1782.
Falmouth. Once the busiest port
on the north coast, Falmouth was established in 1790 at the height of the
sugar plantation era. Enthusiasm
for buildings in the Georgian style
was very much alive during the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries, and Falmouth remains
perhaps the only town where the
spirit of eighteenth-century Jamaica
can still be felt, and to some lingering extent seen in brick, stone, and
timber. Falmouth still has a number
of distinguished town houses built
with characteristic timber posts,
beams, panels, sash or louvered
windows, and a pitched shingled
roof. In other sections of the town,
the march of time has seen the
graceful buildings of the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries give way to
concrete and steel structures, a sad
but inevitable development that,
unless arrested, soon will lead to the
extinction of Falmouth as an architectural showplace.
I wouldliketo thankDouglasV Armstrong
of SyracuseUniversityfor his help in preparing this textfor publication.

Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1992

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