Barbuda: History
=== Archaic period ===
The first settlements on Barbuda date to 2,900–3,000 BC with the arrival of Archaic Age people. Some scholars have referred to these first settlers as Ciboney or Siboney. Other scholars say these people were not the Ciboney, who inhabited Cuba, Jamaica, and Haiti, and thus refer to them as Archaic Age people, "Archaic People", or first settlers. These first settlers arrived in Barbuda by canoe and were hunter-gatherers. Sources disagree on whether they came from South America or the Greater Antilles, or from the Yucatán region of Mexico.
Artifacts from the Archaic period include cutting blades made from gastropods, along with hoes, picks, and water containers constructed from conch, trumpet, and whelk shells. Archeological sites have been discovered on the southwest coast of Barbuda, from Coco Point up to River, and the southeast corner of the Lagoon. Additional habitat locations have been found in Codrington, River, Sucking Hole, Factory, and Goat Pen along the coast. At Boiling Rocks, close to Spanish Point, more recent human remains that were carbon-dated as being 3,100 years old were discovered.
The successors of the Archaic People were the Arawaks, who were present on Barbuda and Antigua from at least 1,000 BC. Their population on Barbuda peaked between 1,500 and 800 years ago. They likely arrived from present-day Venezuela and Guyana, and used Barbuda for brief stays or seasonal supplies. They lived mostly in the Barbuda Highlands and Spanish Point in the easternmost parts of the island, but six or more village additional sites are known including Sufferers, Indian Town Trail, Highland Road, Guava, and Welches. The Arawaks grew sweet potatoes, corn, peanuts, cotton, tobacco, as well as a variety of other fruits, vegetables, and medicinal plants. They also made intricate pottery known as Saladoid. This unique pottery, characterize its white-on-red designs, were decorated with zoned-incised crosshatching. The pottery has been found at Indian Town Trail, close to Two Foot Bay, as well as Sufferers in the Spanish Point region.
The Kalinago people spent time in Barbuda as well. By the time the Europeans arrived, they had probably displaced the Arawaks. The Kalinago preferred the mountainous and well-watered islands of Saint Kitts and Dominica, and visited Barbuda only sometimes to harvest seafood and whatever crops and land animals they could find. In the early 1700s, the British Royal Navy was forced to defend the people of Codrington against Kalinago raids because the Kalinago served as a deterrent to European colonization. The Kalinago called Barbuda "Wa'omoni", which is thought to mean "Island of Herons"; however, it may have also referred to frigate or weather birds, also common on Barbuda. …