These little-known first inhabitants of Hispaniola are known as the "Archaic" peoples, characterised by their usage of stone tools (and the "Ceramic Age" Taíno by their creation of ceramics). While it is often assumed that the Taíno were the "original" inhabitants of the Caribbean, particularly the Greater Antilles, other peoples had already been living there for several thousand years. When Columbus arrived on Hispaniola in the 15th Century, he encountered the Taíno, an Arawakan-speaking people who came from the Orinoco Delta of present-day Venezuela, emigrating as early as 400 BCE. Yet hidden beneath the beach cabanas are likely clues to a pre-Columbian mystery that's been perplexing anthropologists for centuries: who actually discovered the Caribbean? You wouldn't think of the overtrodden Dominican Republic as a cutting-edge archaeology destination.
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