NEW Views of Lucayan Prehistory

Through the encouragement and generosity of Donald T. and Kathy Gerace, we and our research partners and students have made numerous significant finds helping to broaden and revise an understanding of Lucayan history and lifeways. Our use of starch grain analysis on a chert microlith assemblage from the Three Dog site has yielded the earliest evidence of Capsicum sp. (chili peppers) in the Caribbean islands and the recovery of Zea mays (corn) starch grains pushes back the arrival of this crop into the Bahamas. Our study of ceramics from sites on San Salvador, Long Island and Grand Bahama has allowed us to develop a chronology for Palmetto Ware, the locally made pottery unique to the Lucayans. Through the study of basketry-impressed pottery, we have compiled an index of weaves, complex designs, and materials that the Lucayans used to craft their basketry. The analysis of shell beads is allowing us to create a bead chronology and understand production technology and the scale of production. The chemical characterization of ceramics and lithics has expanded our understanding of trade and exchange and created new questions related to interaction.