“For there is no rock”: Lucayan stone celts from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands

<p>This paper presents the first systematic study of pre-Columbian imported stone celts recovered from the limestone islands of the Lucayan archipelago, comprising The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands of the northern Caribbean/West Atlantic. The majority derive from antiquarian collect...

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मुख्य लेखकों: Ostapkowicz, J, Schulting, R, Davies, G
स्वरूप: Journal article
भाषा:English
प्रकाशित: Elsevier 2023
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author Ostapkowicz, J
Schulting, R
Davies, G
author_facet Ostapkowicz, J
Schulting, R
Davies, G
author_sort Ostapkowicz, J
collection OXFORD
description <p>This paper presents the first systematic study of pre-Columbian imported stone celts recovered from the limestone islands of the Lucayan archipelago, comprising The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands of the northern Caribbean/West Atlantic. The majority derive from antiquarian collections and early archaeological investigations, prior to the destruction of many sites due to guano mining and development; only a handful have been recovered during archaeological investigations since the 1960s. The corpus includes 224 celts, of which 162 are complete and provide the measurements for a comparison with width/length ratios of celts from the proximate source islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. While the Lucayan archipelago shows a slightly higher proportion of wider celts, consistent with more reworking, overall the corpus suggests that exchange networks were sufficient to meet demand. This conclusion is supported by the absence of any clear diminution in size with distance from sources. The majority of stone celts (71.9 %) have been identified as various forms of “jade,” supplemented with a range of other materials. Despite the higher value often attributed to jade cross-culturally, we find no clear evidence for its differential treatment, though the archipelago’s northern islands do have a lower proportion of jade versus non-jade celts.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:59d60bb3-bf5f-4bde-a079-51bd56ef1a512023-07-10T10:40:34Z“For there is no rock”: Lucayan stone celts from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos IslandsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:59d60bb3-bf5f-4bde-a079-51bd56ef1a51EnglishSymplectic ElementsElsevier2023Ostapkowicz, JSchulting, RDavies, G<p>This paper presents the first systematic study of pre-Columbian imported stone celts recovered from the limestone islands of the Lucayan archipelago, comprising The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands of the northern Caribbean/West Atlantic. The majority derive from antiquarian collections and early archaeological investigations, prior to the destruction of many sites due to guano mining and development; only a handful have been recovered during archaeological investigations since the 1960s. The corpus includes 224 celts, of which 162 are complete and provide the measurements for a comparison with width/length ratios of celts from the proximate source islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. While the Lucayan archipelago shows a slightly higher proportion of wider celts, consistent with more reworking, overall the corpus suggests that exchange networks were sufficient to meet demand. This conclusion is supported by the absence of any clear diminution in size with distance from sources. The majority of stone celts (71.9 %) have been identified as various forms of “jade,” supplemented with a range of other materials. Despite the higher value often attributed to jade cross-culturally, we find no clear evidence for its differential treatment, though the archipelago’s northern islands do have a lower proportion of jade versus non-jade celts.</p>
spellingShingle Ostapkowicz, J
Schulting, R
Davies, G
“For there is no rock”: Lucayan stone celts from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands
title “For there is no rock”: Lucayan stone celts from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands
title_full “For there is no rock”: Lucayan stone celts from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands
title_fullStr “For there is no rock”: Lucayan stone celts from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands
title_full_unstemmed “For there is no rock”: Lucayan stone celts from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands
title_short “For there is no rock”: Lucayan stone celts from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands
title_sort for there is no rock lucayan stone celts from the bahamas and turks and caicos islands
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