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

114 / van Gijn, Lammers- Keijsers, and Briels
By examining the production and use of different implements in relation to one
another, it is thus possible to obtain insight into the choices people made with respect
to the raw material selected for tool manufacture, the production technique,
the way of use, and ultimately the loss, rejection, or deposition of the different objects.
In this manner we can at least partially reconstruct the technological system.
Research elsewhere indicates that the choice of raw material, production technique
and use, as well as the composition of toolkits, may vary both diachronically
and between different areas (Van Gijn 2005, in press). Such choices not only reflect
the relationships established with other groups by means of the raw material
exchange (see also Knippenberg this volume), but also the cultural preferences of
the groups themselves. Obviously, in most archaeological cases the greater part of
the material world will have disappeared. However, use- wear and residue analysis
may shed light on aspects of the technological systems that are no longer directly
visible in the shape of tangible objects.
Eventually it will be possible to do comparative studies of tool use between islands
and through time, adding a further dimension to questions about cultural
identity. Not many Caribbean find assemblages have yet been studied for the presence
of use- wear and residue. The find assemblages are, however, so rich and varied
that they certainly merit a detailed functional analysis, not only by means of
the stereomicroscope but also by more detailed High Power and residue examination.
With respect to the Caribbean situation there is the added advantage of an
ethnographic and ethnohistoric knowledge base (Boomert 2000), providing ample
information about tools and processes that can be replicated experimentally. It
would be a shame not to tap this rich contextual information and maybe extend
the inferential possibilities of microwear analysis. In the meantime the integral approach
toward tool use applied to three Caribbean sites has shown that the Amerindians
had a very flexible technology in which tools made of different raw materials
were to some extent interchangeable. The producers and users of the tools
were, however, always aware of the physical properties of the various materials they
made their implements of and how these properties would affect the task at hand.
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