John Albert Bullbrook (1882–1967; born in the

Medway Medway is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Kent in South East England. It was formed in 1998 by merging the boroughs of City of Roche ...

area in what was then

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

South-East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England that are in the top level category for statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, ...

) was an author,

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and archaeological historian, who went to

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

in 1913 as a petroleum geologist. He began his archaeological career in 1919, pioneering the search on the

indigenous population There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

of Trinidad. By the early 1930s, he already provides evidence of the prominence of reflections on the indigenous history of Trinidad, and on the figure of the Carib, in some of the élites' writings of local history. Famously in a public lecture in 1938, John Bullbrook, by then a local specialist in the

Amerindian In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

history of Trinidad, made the comment: "To this day we speak of the Queen if the Caribs at Arima, yet I doubt if there is much--if any--Carib blood in her race.". In 1940, for a public lecture and book published under the Royal Victoria Museum and the Historical Society of Trinidad and Tobago, entitled ''The Ierian Race'', Bullbrook wrote: "Probably, if I were to ask any of my audience this evening what was the predominant or even the only race in Trinidad at the time of the discovery by Cristobal Colon, the reply would be unhesitatingly: 'Why, Carib, of course'". Throughout the 1940s, he conducted extensive excavations in the Amerindian middens in Cedros, Erin and Palo Seco. The Cedros site in Trinidad, which he excavated with Irving Rouse in 1946, is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the Caribbean, consisting of a partly destroyed shell midden located on the southwest tip of Trinidad. The corrected radiocarbon datings for the finds at this site were given as 190 B.C. and A.D. 100. Bullbrook, as a partisan in the local debate over whether the true natives of Trinidad were Carib or

Arawak The Arawak are a group of Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South America to the Taíno (Island Arawaks), w ...

, lamented later, in 1960, that the "tradition" of believing that Caribs were the indigenous people of Trinidad was "deep rooted and hard to destroy". In July 1960, Bullbrook, at the first conference in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

pre-Columbian archaeology In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

held in

Fort-de-France Fort-de-France (, , ; ) is a Communes of France, commune and the capital city of Martinique, an overseas department and region of France located in the Caribbean. History Before it was ceded to France by Spain in 1635, the area of Fort-de-Fra ...

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

, discussed his research into the "Arawaks and Caribs of Trinidad" along with the likes of Rev. Father Pinchon and A. H. Anderson. Articles of Bullbrook's have been published in magazines with a varying range of readers such as ''The Caribbean'', ''Caribbean Quarterly'', and ''Shell Magazine''. He later became

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of the Royal Victoria Institute (now the

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

), and died at the age of 85 (in 1967). John Bullbrook (who was the first to use modern stratigraphic techniques in Trinidad), having been educated in Great Britain, had previous field experience in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. His techniques represent a significant advance over the ' museological' approach that characterized the work of Fewkes (1850–1930) and de Booy (1882–1919). His collection of correspondence with

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

(1941–1963), with a variety of people on the subject of archaeology in the West Indies (1917–1960), with the Historical Society of Trinidad and Tobago (1939–1949); and correspondence with the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists Club, have all been donated to the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

by Carlisle Chang (in October 2000). Bullbrook was

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...

, but was

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

to the lesbian painter

Amy Leong Pang Amy Leong Pang (1908–1989) was a painter from Trinidad and Tobago. Of Chinese descent, Leong Pang was born in Princes Town and sent to school in China; she is known to have painted while there. After her return to Trinidad and Tobago she moved t ...

Selected bibliography

*''Notes Concerning Excavation Of Shell Mounds Or Kitchen Middens''. Occasional Papers No. 3. Port of Spain, Trinidad: Royal Victoria Institute Museum, 1963 *"''The Aborigines of Trinidad''". Port of Spain, Trinidad: Royal Victoria Institute Museum, 1960. *"''The Carib-Arawakcontroversy''". Trinidad and Tobago, 1957. *"''Excavations at Wari, Ayacucho, Peru and on the Excavations of a Shell Mound at Palo Seco, Trinidad, B. W. I.''". New Haven, Yale University Press, 1953. *The Ierian Race' (a lecture delivered at the meeting of the Historical Society of Trinidad and Tobago held in the hall of the Victoria Institute on Friday Evening 8:30 o'clock 3 March 1939)''. Port of Spain, Trinidad: Historical Society of Trinidad and Tobago, 1940. *"The aborigines of Trinidad". In Richards, Alfred, comp. Discovery Day celebration, 1927 *"''The aboriginal remains of Trinidad and the West Indies: A commentary on the pre-European cultures of Trinidad and the neighboring West Indies in connection''". Port of Spain, Trinidad: Caribbean Quarterly, 1914.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulbrook, John Albert 1882 births 1967 deaths Caribbean studies English archaeologists People from Medway English gay writers Trinidad and Tobago gay men 20th-century British archaeologists 20th-century English LGBTQ people 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago LGBTQ people 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago writers