Pre-contact water access: First discovery of pot-lined wells on Martinique

In the pre-contact Caribbean, several strategies were used to obtain and manage access to freshwater, especially in locations with a dry climate or with no permanent source. One strategy for accessing coastal aquifers was to dig a hole in the sand and stack large bottomless ceramic vessels, which acted as a well casing. In this paper we report on the first discovery of pot-stack wells in Martinique which were found during an archaeological survey conducted at the Pointe Marin site on the south part of the island. The ceramic vessels used for these wells are attributed to the Middle/Late Cedrosan Saladoid series (ca. AD 400–750). Here we describe the structures and discuss these findings in the context of known pot-lined wells found elsewhere in the Caribbean.