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

Significance of Wear and Residue Studies / 131
Figure 10.3. a: sphere found on quern fragment; b, c: spheres obtained from crushing
fruit from Prestoea montana.
flection of the naturally present microremains and does not imply at all that parts
of this palm were processed at the site. However, if palm were processed, it is to be
expected that palm phytoliths are also present in the soil directly surrounding the
site, and even at a farther distance. After all, the palm used was growing in the area,
which may have been one of the reasons why the site was chosen for specific activities.
Grass processing was hypothesized as one of the possible activities executed
with the hard stones (Hofman and Hoogland 2003). Therefore, it was expected
that grass phytoliths would be amply present on the tools. This was not the case.
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