Crop Dispersal and Lucayan Tool Use: Investigating the Creation of Transported Landscapes in the Central Bahamas through Starch Grain, Phytolith, Macrobotanical, and Artifact Studies

ABSTRACT

Starch grain, phytolith, and macrobotanical evidence is expanding our understanding of the Lucayan transported landscape, plant food preparation, and cooking practices. Starch grain analyses reveal that the early colonists (a.d. 700/800–1100) of the central Bahamas brought a package of domesticated plants comprised of Calathea latifolia, Capsicum sp., Cucurbitaceae, Manihot esculenta, and Zea mays from their ancestral homelands, which they processed with artifacts made from local and imported materials. Late Lucayan period (a.d. 1100 to ca. 1530) macrobotanical remains yield evidence for Zea mays. Fruit-bearing trees such as the Sapotaceae and Arecaceae are found throughout the occupational sequence. Similarities in plant taxa and resemblances to tool form and use from other places in the Bahama archipelago and Antilles indicate shared plant-related food preparation and culinary practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Caribbean archaeology
• microliths
• shell tools
• Calathea latifolia
• Cucurbitaceae
• Manihot esculenta
• plant translocations

Acknowledgments

This work was made possible with the support of the late Donald T. Gerace of The Gerace Research Centre, San Salvador, Bahamas, and Dr. Michael Pateman, Director, Turks and Caicos National Museum. Funds for the North Storr’s Lake and several Pigeon Creek dune 2 site radiocarbon dates were provided by NSF Grant EAR 0851847, Lisa Park Boush, PI. We thank Abigail Middleton, who attended MU from 2009–2014, for processing and identifying the starch samples and for helping to compile the results. Eric Johnson, Miami University Libraries, and Perry L. Gnivecki created the maps and figures. Two anonymous reviewers provided sound recommendations. We extend a profound thank you to the people of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas who have served as generous hosts to Mary Jane Berman and Perry L. Gnivecki since 1984.

Notes on Contributors

Mary Jane Berman (Ph.D. 1989, SUNY-Binghamton) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology, Miami University (Ohio). Her research interests include Lucayan ceramics, plant use, perishable technologies, and interaction and exchange.

Deborah M. Pearsall (Ph.D. 1979, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana), is Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia. Her principal research interests include paleoethnobotany, phytolith analysis, starch grain analysis, the origins of agriculture in tropical America, and South American archaeology.