Crossing the Borders: New Methods and Techniques in the Study of Archaeological Materials from the Caribbean

Lithic Technology / 97
north. Red jasper can be found on the leeward coast of Basse- Terre island and on
Les Saintes islands. The pieces of the collection show a low degree of corti cality. 4
With the exception of the igneous stones introduced in the site untreated, all the
other types of raw materials have been brought to the site at least partially prepared
(there are no fully cortical flakes associated with those raw materials).
The goals of the reduction sequence are difficult to identify. Only two pieces
have clear evidence of secondary work. But six other pieces show macrowear
traces. All those pieces can be regarded as flakes; their average length is 28 mm.
They have no specific morphology but they are in general thinner than the rest of
the collection. Thus we can suppose that one of the objectives of the reduction sequence
is the production of thin, amorphous flakes that were not morphologically
predetermined. However, the presence of small scar negatives on the cores seems to
indicate a second objective of the reduction sequence: that of small flakes. Some of
those last removals are in average only 13 mm long. Thus, there are two goals of the
reduction sequence: the production of “large” thin flakes and the production of
small flakes. However, small flakes were not produced on the igneous stones.
Two types of percussion techniques have been identified in the collection, direct
freehand percussion with a stone hammer and bipolar techniques. 5 The percussion
techniques have been used for different purposes or at different stages of
the chaîne opératoire.
The “large” thin flakes have been obtained by two methods. First, some cores
have been knapped with direct freehand percussion following a simple discoid
method. This method, first identified for the middle Paleolithic cultures, is defined
by bifacial conception of the core volume associated with a centripetal recurrent
production of flakes. This is one of the simplest recurrent knapping methods. The
identification of that method is easy by the observation of the cores (Figure 7.2d)
and can be supported by the presence of éclats débordants. The second method uses
the bipolar technique (Figure 7.2c). Those débitage are conducted according to a
main axis and the cores have at the reduction sequence end a pièce esquillée morphology.
This type of production is realized on small blocks or on thick flakes produced
during the manufacture of the “large” thin flakes by the discoid method.
The small flakes have been produced on thick flakes or on exhausted discoid
cores. Those flakes and cores were first split by means of bipolar percussion. Subsequently,
the production of the small flakes is realized by means of the bipolar
technique to use the thickness of the half thick flakes (or the half discoid cores) as
flaking surface.
Comparison
Now it is possible to realize point by point a comparison between the early Cedrosan
Saladoid and the Huecan Saladoid débitage technologies (Figures 7.3, 7.4).
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