JAMAICA’S most brilliant archaeologist Anthony (Tony) Aarons died recently at the age of 57. His death came one week before that of his mother Joan Aarons, former principal of Alpha Commercial College, who did not know her son had died as she was in a coma in hospital.

Their deaths left my family in deep sorrow as the Aarons and the Chaplins had a close relationship for 50 years, and as I watched Tony’s development and his performance in the field of archaeology over the years, I always referred to him as as “the humble genius”.

Tribute was paid to Tony’s life and work by Dorrick Gray, director of archaeology, Jamaica National Heritage Trust, at a thanksgiving service at the Sts Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, St Andrew, on August 17. Following is an edited version of the tribute:

Born in 1953 in Kingston, Tony received his BA in archaeology from Cambridge University in 1975, and his MA in 1979. In 1982, he received a second Master’s Honours degree in nautical archaeology from Texas A & M University.

He was appointed Government of Jamaica archaeologist in September 1975 and served until 1983 when he became director of the Port Royal Project Centre for Archaeological and Conservation Research. His first major activity was in 1977 when he designed, developed and established the Fort Charles Maritime Museum along with Professor David Buisserret, author of the famous historical publication on Port Royal titled, Port Royal Jamaica. In 1978, Tony developed and established the National Museum of Historical Archaeology — a first for Jamaica. The significance of these activities should be understood, because since 1988’s Hurricane Gilbert we still have not being able to have a national museum.

Tony became the first professionally trained Jamaican archaeologist. While serious archaeological work was being conducted in Jamaica, it was carried out mainly by trained archaeologists from the 1940s who came from abroad or by local amateur archaeologists.

Between 1975 and 1978, with an all-Jamaican staff of about 30, Tony conducted numerous archaeological excavations in the town of Port Royal revealing artefacts and archaeological features from the 17th- 19th centuries. It was also within this period that he began collecting data on Port Royal’s history, ethnography and sociology.

By 1978 almost all the archaeological collections scattered across Jamaica were transported to Port Royal for conservation and storage under his direction.

From 1979-1982 under his leadership, Jamaica saw an increase in archaeological research throughout the island: 1979-1980 New Montpelier, St James; Port Royal on land (1979-1980); Hellshire Hills 1980; Drax Hall, St Ann (1980-1982; Seville Heritage Park 1981-1983. All these excavations were to examine the material culture from the Tainos, Spanish African and English in order to strengthen our understanding of the past and to train and prepare a young crop of Jamaicans in the field of archaeology. During this period he crafted master plans for the heritage development of Port Royal and Seville. His vision was to have a cadre of well-trained Jamaican archaeologists by 1992, the 500th anniversary of the first European arrival in the New World. It was within this context that, just out of youth service, I became a member of the Port Royal staff in 1980, a tour guide at Fort Charles and the National Museum.

We were in a group of three that started with classes every day in material culture, archaeological techniques and methods. In order for us to become archaeologists, he reminded us that we had to sit the Cambridge A-levels in archaeology within a year. This was never before offered in the English-speaking Caribbean and was a two-year programme. But Tony was confident that it could be done. And for the following year, in between the numerous archaeological projects and classes he had with us, we were grilled every day, every week, and every month for that year.

In the field you wouldn’t know who was the director. He was there in the excavations, sifting dirt and moving rocks and so on. Tony was very committed and hard-working.

Once he was focused you couldn’t get him away until the task was completed. Tony made it look so easy. He had a great sense of humour. I can remember in one of the classes, he brought some ceramics for us to identify. One by one we would stand, select one and describe it. My colleague selected a piece that he started to describe — low-fired earthenware, fired below 1000º Celsius, red colour is the iron in the clay — belonging to African-Jamaicans and found on a lot of plantations. Tony sat and listened, and with a couple puffs from his cigarette he said, “Look, this has nothing to do with African-Jamaicans and slavery. What you are describing is a piece of modern-day sewer pipe that I threw in the mix to fool you.” The year 1984 was A-level exams and two of us sat the exams and passed it although the paper was mainly about the archaeology of Europe. Through Tony we were able to create history by being the first persons in the Englishspeaking Caribbean to sit and pass the exam. He was so elated that by the next day he said, “Now is the time to look for scholarships.” In I984 I left for the University of Birmingham and in 1985 I left for the Soviet Union were I spent six years studying. The rest is history.

Today, we have archaeologists graduating from UWI yearly and curently we have seven at the JNHT. At present over 20 are in the island in various areas of heritage management and conservation. For his work Tony was given a number of awards. He was the first recipient of an award promoting cultural tourism for Jamaica in 1979. He received the Institute of Jamaica Centenary Medal for his contribution to archaeology and conservation in 1982. He has published several articles in numerous journals in Spanish, French, English and Portuguese, and he has had a number of unpublished monographs that he was working on.

On behalf of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust I want to recognise the life and significant work that Tony Aarons has contributed to Jamaican history and to Jamaican archaeology.

The Library at the JNHT has been named The George Anthony Aarons Library in memory of his life and work in the service of the people of Jamaica.