Form and Function of Bipolar Lithic Artifacts from the Three Dog Site, San Salvador, Bahamas

Abstract

The significance of a microlithic assemblage composed of imported, nonlocal materials is discussed for the Three Dog site, an early Lucayan site located on San Salvador, Bahamas. The Bahama archipelago is an interesting area in which to examine the organization of technology because the islands lack cherts and other suitable materials for chipped stone manufacture, suggesting that economizing strategies may have been practiced. The artifacts were manufactured by bipolar production and a few show evidence of recycling and reuse. Microwear analysis, undertaken to determine function, was inconclusive due to heavy weathering from the depositional environment. Traces of an organic adhesive suggest that some of the objects were used as hafted or composite tools. The presence of starch grains, most likely Xanthosoma sp., and other plant residues on some artifacts suggests they were used in plant processing. The morphological similarities of the flakes produced through bipolar reduction with those from ethnographic sources suggest that most of them probably were used as grater chips to process root or tuber foods. The assemblage was compared to other bipolarly-produced microlithic assemblages from nearby islands.