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

48 / Knippenberg and Zijlstra
Figure 4.3. Geological map of St. Kitts, showing the location of flint scatters (geological
map based on Baker 1968:Figure 1).
curs as flint in primary context and forms nodular layers in limestone. In addition,
surface scatters of flint in secondary context as eroded from the limestone by the
sea are common and in particular at Long Island, where the nodular flint layer occurs
at sea level and where abundant scatters constitute a beach that protects this
small island against wave erosion. The color of the flint is pale brown, brown, yellow
brown, dark brown, dark gray, and with white patina. The flint is characterized
by a rather “dirty” quartz matrix with fine, but varying, crystal size, in which
fossils, calcite crystals, carbonate mud, opaque (organic) matter, and iron oxides
are present.
The two other sources related to the Antigua Formation, Blackman’s Point and
Coconut Hall, exhibit flint that occurs only in a secondary context, with large
boulders scattered over the surface. Besides the well- known Long Island site, these
latter two localities, Blackman’s Point and Coconut Hall, also show evidence of
prehistoric exploitation in the form of scatters of flaked material.
The last three localities of chert on Antigua are associated with volcanic tuff
deposits of the Central Plain Group and the Basal Volcanic Suite. At Corbison
Point and Dry Hill, in close proximity to each other along the northwestern shore-
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