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Archaic Blade Production on Antigua, West Indies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Dave D. Davis
Dave D. Davis*
Affiliation:
Office of the Provost, University of Southern Maine, 96 Falmouth St., Portland, ME 04103
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Abstract

Antigua has substantially more preceramic sites than any other island in the Lesser Antilles. Archaic peoples made extensive use of the high-quality flint that is common on Antigua to produce industries dominated by unretouched flakes and blades. Analysis of the largest excavated Archaic assemblage from the island reveals that flaked-stone technology centered around the production of direct-percussion blades, and that the majority of other flake classes are by-products of blade production. The assemblage's five major morphological classes of blades appear to represent successive stages of core reduction.

Resumen

Resumen

Antigua tiene muchos más sitios precerámicos que ninguna otra isla en las Antillas Menores. Poblaciones arcaicas utilizaron extensivamente el silex de alta calidad que es común en Antigua para producir industrias dominadas por lascas y láminas sin retoque. Análisis de la colección arcaica más grande que se ha excavado en la isla revela que la tecnología de silex envuelve principalmente la producción de hojas hechas por percusión directa, y que la mayoría de otras closes de hojuelas son productos secundarios de la producción de hojas. Las cinco clases morfológicos de la colección parecen representor etapas sucesivas de la reducción de núcleos

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , October 1993 , pp. 688 - 697
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1993

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References

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