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

Significance of Wear and Residue Studies / 129
Results
Wear
Specific wear traces like striations or polish were detected on seven tools: the two
pounding stones, the large flake, one of the complete querns (PP18), two of the
grinding stones (PP1 and PP3), and the hammer stone. If interpretable, the polish
was either caused by contact with plant (PP18, PP3), wood (the large flake), or hard
and medium- hard material (pounding stones). Striations and direction of the polish
on the querns and grinding stones were mostly linear, indicating a longitudinal
motion (Figure 10.2a). One of the artifacts with pounding traces from use on hard
or medium- hard material may have been hafted; it has spots of a reddish resin or
mastic and fragments of fibers. On the other pounding stone possible residue of
ochre was found next to the wear traces (Figure 10.2b).
Residues
Analysis of residues revealed that starch grains, phytoliths, raphides (needlelike
calcium oxalate crystals), hafting material, and possibly ochre were preserved on
some of the tools.
The most remarkable phytoliths found on the stones were round and elongated
spherical phytoliths, which will be further referred to as spheres. These spheres
have rounded nodular projections evenly distributed over the entire surface. Some
have more pointed projections. They appear in all sizes, between 1 and 10 µm.
These spheres are from palm, possibly Mountain Cabbage, Prestoea montana. Experimentally
ground fruit from this palm yielded the same type of phytoliths
(Figure 10.3a, b). They were found on all implements except one of the pounding
stones (PP10) and the large flake with wood polish.
Processing of palm is also evidenced by the presence of starch grains found on
two artifacts (PP3 and the hammer stone) and raphides on a large quern (PP18),
which match the microremains obtained from processing fresh fruit of Prestoea
montana (Figure 10.4a, b). The starch grains from palm are very round with an average
diameter of 4 µm (at 50x) and have centric hila. As some kind of processing
is needed to release starch from plants, the presence of starch grains from palm on
two artifacts supports the supposition that palm was indeed processed.
Starch grains found on three other tools seem to be different: not round but
elongated with eccentric hila. This second type of starch grains may be from a
rhizome like arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea) or yam (Dioscorea spp.) but could
also be from grass seeds (Fullagar et al. in press; Figure 10.5).
The soil sample analyzed for reference contained the same type of spherical
phytoliths as the ones found on the artifacts. It also contained a modest number of
grass phytoliths. Neither starch grains nor raphides were found in these samples.
It is possible that the presence of spheres on most of the artifacts is simply a re-
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