Terramar Museum

Today, we went to the Terramar Museum to learn more about the history of Bonaire along with all the Caribbean islands. The museum just opened here recently. In the museum, about 7,000 years are covered throughout the exhibits starting in 5,000 BC. Some of the interesting facts I learned today are:

• Agriculture and ceramic pots are closely linked. As the people started farm, there was excess food that needed to be stored, thus, they started making ceramic pots.
• When cooking food they had a dish called the griddle, which they cooked on. The bottom of the griddle was irregular to increase surface area to increase the heat. However, the top was smooth because the heat needed to be distributed evenly for cooking.
• There were a few individuals in the community called ‘shamans’ who talked with the spirits (this is related to religion and believing in multiple gods). Everything was believed to have a spirit. The shamans inhabited two worlds, the caves and the land. The caves were where they talked to the spirits and the land is where they interacted with the community. Three of the animals that were used a lot as symbols were turtles, bats, and frogs because they all live in two different worlds (in a sense, turtles & frogs – land and water, bats – land and caves).
• There has been evidence of large exchange networks throughout the Caribbean islands, which can be seen through the different artifacts found on the islands. If the origin of the artifact is known, people can make inferences at how the object made its way to a different island. With evidence showing that there were large exchange networks, the ocean connects all the islands rather than separate and isolate the islands from each other.