Expedient Shell Tools from the Northern West Indies

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 185.2.32.49 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 17:58:29 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsOur work in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Haiti, and Jamaica has revealed significant patterning in apparently unretouched molluscan shell objects. In the present paper we conclude that repetitive patterns in shell breakage, especially of queen conch (Strombus gigas), reflect the specific manufacture offorms for use as expedient tools. Expedient tools exhibit only primary modification in which a portion of the source material is removed and shaped, but there is no specific evidence for the preparation of a work edge. Alternatively, expedient tools may display no modification of the raw material except that produced through use. We hypothesize that through controlled breakage large S. gigas and other mollusk shells were modified to create numerous smaller pieces for everyday domestic activities. The key factor here is human intent. Experiments clearly demonstrate that controlled breakage of adult shells produces predictable fragments. Among these are forms that occurred in prehistoric sites throughout the West Indies; many of these forms also exhibit signs of use wear. This type of regional comparison and analysis is important for all archaeologists who work in coastal settings. It is only through such general studies that the sample size is sufficient to facilitate a more complete reconstruction of the aboriginal tool kit.Nuestro trabajo en las Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Haiti y Jamaica ha revelado un patron importante en objetos de conchas de moluscos aparentemente no alterados. En el presente trabajo concluimos que el patron repetitivo de ruptura en conchas, especialmente en Lambi (Strombus gigas), es un artefacto de la fabricacion espec ffica de formas relacionadas al uso de la herramienta. Las herramientas de poca elaboracion solo exhiben modificaciones primarias donde una porcion del material original ha sido apartado y se la ha dado forma, no existiendo evidencias espec(ficas de la preparacion de un borde o canto de trabajo. Alternativamente, estas herramientas de fabricacion rapida pueden no mostrar modificaciones del material original, excepto las pro-ducidas por el propio uso. Nuestra hipo'tesis sugiere que a trave's de fracturas controladas, grandes S. gigas y otras conchas de moluscos fueron modificados para crear numerosas piezas pequenas para el uso dome'stico cotidiano. Elfactor clave aqui es la intensio'n humana. Nuestra experimentacion con este material demuestra claramente que fracturas controladas en conchas adultas producen fragmentos predecibles. Entre estos fragmentos existen formas que ocurrieron en sitios prehistoricos a trave's de las Antil...

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“…Further, analysing wear traces alone will never be able to indicate which plant species were processed by a shell tool. Expedient shell tools probably used as scrapers have been interpreted from artefacts recovered from coastal sites in The Bahama archipelago (O'Day and Keegan ), but tools used only once do not always preserve detectable use‐wear traces (Lammers‐Keijsers , 138). However, remains of the starchy plants, which expedient tools processed may preserve for archaeologists to discover.…”

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“…Bias of this sort is not improbable, and may occur due to removal of the specified anatomical part through processing, artifact manufacture or predation by other species. In the prehistoric Caribbean, for example, conch shells were often used as expedient tools, with the tip as the working point, resulting in the obliteration of the apex (O'Day and Keegan, 2001).…”