July 5, 1998

Ecavations led by David M Pendergast, Canadian archeologists, at underwater site in Punta Alegre, Cuba, shed new light on Taino people, who inhabited Caribbean islands before arrival of Columbus and who disappeared shortly thereafter; he and Cuban specialists have uncovered a nearly complete community building; site may also hold preserved remains of as many as 25 Taino houses; artifacts support speculation that isolation of Punta Alegre allowed its community to survive Spanish colonization longer than most; photos; map (M)

Community groups, residents and politicians express hope that banks, as result of current mega-merger boom, will keep promises of multimillion dollar investments in low-income communities nationwide; photos; chart; graphs (L)

Russia has passionately embraced filmmaker Quentin Tarantino; nightclubs such as Dusk Till Dawn and Four Rooms in Moscow are named after his films and try to recreate their cachet; theaters across the country show his more obscure films, Pulp Fiction soundtrack is piped into trains and planes, and young people mimic the dress and style of his characters; photo (M)

Development team of Garden State Development and Seltzer Group has acquired two sites on Jersey City's Hudson River waterfront on which it plans to build pair of 26-story luxury rental towers (S)

The Archdiocese of New York is building its first archive center, on the grounds of the 100-year-old St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers. The one-story, 18,000-square-foot center, designed with special climate and humidity controls, will house most of the archdiocese's important papers and records, as well as sacred vessels, vestments and other items now scattered in church vaults and safes and in Roman Catholic schools throughout the metropolitan area. ''Similar-sized archdioceses, such as those in Chicago and Los Angeles, already have their own archive centers,'' said Joseph Zwilling, director of communication for the Archdiocese of New York, which was founded in 1850. ''We really needed a place where we could consolidate and display all the materials we have accumulated over the years.''