Lapidary craftsmanship in the Antilles during the Ceramic Period, a renewed and updated analysis.

Abstract

Very diverse lapidary artwork, both in style and raw materials, is one of the recognized specialty of Amerindian crafting during the Saladoid period in the Antilles area, and is supposed to be less numerous and diverse in the following periods. These gemstones are very often referred to as exotic since they are not coming from the island where they have been discovered by archaeological excavations. Our recent work updates the previous data by studying newly excavated sites as well as refining outdated mineral characterizations. Exhaustive results for the French islands, combined to a literature-based database, allowed for the creation of an improved and renewed vision of the distribution of these numerous artifacts. Such an important database finally allow us to study the patterns in the lapidary production of the Ceramic Age in the Caribbean, both in terms of chronology and typology. This study lays the foundation for further work in the region, and present online tools developed with the aim of creating new collaborations on this subject.