Form and function of bipolar lithic artifacts from the Three Dog site, SanSalvador, Bahamas

The significance of a microlithic assemblage composed of imported, nonlocal materials is discussed for the Three Dog site, an early Lucayan site locat ed on San Salvador, Bahamas. The Bahama archipelago is an interesting area in which to examine the organization of technology because the islands lack ed cherts and other suitable materials for chipped stone manufacture, sugge sting that economizing strategies may have been practiced. The artifacts we re manufactured by bipolar production and a few show evidence of recycling and reuse. Microwear analysis, undertaken to determine function, was inconc lusive due to heavy weathering from the depositional environment. Traces of an organic adhesive suggest that some of the objects were used as hafted o r composite tools. The presence of starch grains, most likely Xanthosoma sp ., and other plant residues on some artifacts suggests they were used in pl ant processing. The morphological similarities of the flakes produced throu gh 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 assemb lages from nearby islands.