Cookware and Crockery: A Form and Functional View from the Southern Bahamas

Summary

Recent archaeobotanical research on the Palmetto Junction archaeological site located in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, provides new insights into the livelihoods and subsistence practices of the peoples who inhabited this coastal region from c. AD 1200-1500 Significantly, the plant microbotanical remains, identified as primarily seeds and tubers provide evidence for a continuation in the consumption and manipulation of plant resources. During the late precolonial period people used domesticated plants such as maize, as well as plant processing techniques that permitted the consumption of otherwise inedible geophytes. Some of the earthenware may have been used as serving vessels, others such as Palmetto-style griddles for cooking. Interpretations of foodway dynamics in this region will serve to build a unique Caribbean perspective of food patterns. In this regard, this research contributes to modern day global appreciations of ancient food ways, which offer significance and meanings to both socially learned practices and other life-ways. An in-depth analysis covering the style and form of the Palmetto Junction ceramics in conjunction with information from ancient starch grains creates a fuller interpretation of how the interrelationships amongst past human societies, plants, and material culture were entangled.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21965