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

Caribbean Paleoethnobotany / 189
complete preservation of organics entombed in anaerobic deposits (see Van de
Noort and O’Sullivan 2006). Wet sites are well documented around the region,
particularly in coastal Belize and in Florida, 4 and wetlands and submerged deposits
abound in the Caribbean (sloughs, ponds, cenotes, marshes, mangrove swamps,
and estuaries). At least one Caribbean wet site is under investigation, Los Buchiollones,
Cuba (Pendergast et al. 2002), and waterlogged strata below the water table
were encountered at En Bas Saline, Haiti, and the Bastion de San Justo del Muelle
(San Juan Federal Building, Puerto Rico) (Newsom 1993, 1996). All have yielded
well- preserved uncarbonized wood and seeds, and many other unique items.
Similar sites surely exist around the region. Although not a simple undertaking,
when and where possible, we should seek to avail ourselves of the opportunities inherent
in wet sites. This is not for the sake of simply locating unusual objects, but
to recover a more complete and potentially more revealing record of the past, and
in the context of our planned research agendas and theoretical concerns (e.g., sealevel
change, human migrations, coastal settlement, trade and maritime resources,
among others).
III. Gleaning More of the Archaeobotanical Record (Clarifying Details . . . but Be
Careful What You Look For!). Sassaman (2003) recently highlighted the opportunities
available to directly date ceramics and other cooking vessels using carbon
or soot encased in smudged surfaces. But the same call to arms can apply to analysis
of any surface- adhering and internally bound organic residues (e.g., lipids) that
may be extracted and used not only for dating, but also to identify original foodstuffs,
parallel to blood residue analysis. In the Caribbean we should be alert to
analyze and identify any of several types of chemical residues that may be retained
on tool and ceramic surfaces or bound in ceramic fabric to clarify function,
if not specifically plant presence and use. Griddle sherds occasionally harbor
burned or baked- on food (?) residues that can be analyzed using gas chromatography
mass spectrometry ( GC/ MS) or other chemical means. Likewise, compounds
bound in the vessel walls of clay pots may help identify the contents of soupy,
so- called pepper pots, and various ritual paraphernalia, such as pipes or snuff
inhalers (Kaye 2001), may preserve traces and residues from their use, helping to
confirm what was actually smoked or inhaled, and whether used singly or combined,
for example, mixing cajoba and tobacco as a highly potent snuff (Stevens-
Arroyo 2006). This type of analysis is now underway with my laboratory group on
a bone inhaler from Tibes.
An important first step in this type of analysis is the development of chemical
standards, such as analyzing modern tobacco leaves and Anandenanthera sp. seeds
for their precise organic chemical signatures to then compare with archaeological
residues (along with careful consideration of diagenetic factors). The analytical
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