Searching Pre-Columbian settlements in the highlands of Capesterre-Belle-Eau (Guadeloupe): preliminary results ; Investigación de las ocupaciones Pre-Columbianas en las alturas de Capesterre-Belle-Eau (Guadalupe): resultados preliminares ; Recherche des occupations précolombiennes dans les hauteurs de Capesterre-Belle-Eau (Guadeloupe) : résultats préliminaires ; Searching Pre-Columbian settlements in the highlands of Capesterre-Belle-Eau (Guadeloupe): preliminary results: (paper missing in the published proceedings of the 26th Congress of the International Association for Caribbean Archaeology (IACA). Saint-Martin - Sint-Maarten 2015)

International audience ; Checking out the archaeological map of Guadeloupe is enough to assess the unequal geographical distribution of identified Pre-Columbian sites : their density decrease rapidly from the coast towards inland and disappear almost completely from 2 kilometers away the shoreline and 150 meters above sea level. It is legitimate to ask whether this distribution reflects the reality of Pre-Columbian settlements. It could be more likely the result of a survey bias in the knowledge of the inland sites whose the apparent lack could be explained by the difficulties of the archaeological surveying in this heavily wooded region and by the scarcity of civil works in these currently unoccupied areas. We have begun to explore an area of a few square kilometers between 250 and 450 meters above sea level in the highlands of the municipality of Capesterre-Belle-Eau. This area was chosen because of extensive banana fields frequently plowed involving a good visibility of the soil, but also by pieces of evidence of Pre-Columbian presence reported by archaeologists in year 1998. Initial results of our work indicate that these highlands are rather densely occupied. We have found several Neo-Indian settlements and one Meso-Indian campsite dated around 1350 BC. In addition we observe a widespread and scattered but dense presence of lithic artifacts (flakes of volcanic rocks, tools and axes blades) who remains still unexplained and could indicate places of food gardens or lithic working made from volcanic raw material which can be collected in one of the nearby valleys. ; El registro de salida el mapa arqueológico de Guadalupe es suficiente para evaluar la distribución geográfica desigual de los sitios precolombinos identificados: la disminución de la densidad rápidamente de la costa hacia el interior y desaparecer casi por completo de 2 kilometros de distancia de la costa y 150 metros sobre el nivel del mar. Es legítimo preguntarse si esta distribución refleja la realidad de los asentamientos precolombinos. Podría ...