Plants, people, and culture in the prehistoric central Bahamas: A view from the Three Dog site, and early Lucayan settlement on San Salvador island, Bahamas

Paleoethnobotanical remains from the Three Dog site (SS-21), an early Lucay an site located on San Salvador, Bahamas, are presented and compared to dat a from other prehistoric Caribbean sites. Flotation, in situ, and screen re covery (1/16", 1.58 mm) revealed six taxa of fuelwood and charred Sapotacea e seed fragments. Preliminary SEM analysis of six chert microliths revealed possible evidence of the Caribbean aroid, Xanthosoma sp. (cocoyam, malanga , yautia) or Zamia sp. The presence of Sapotaceae and possibly Xanthosoma s p. or Zamia sp. in the archaeobotanical record can be attributed to a numbe r of alternative explanations. The site's inhabitants may have transported these plants from their homelands and transplanted them to home gardens. An alternative view is that they exploited or managed wild representatives or created disturbed habitats that encouraged the spread of wild or cultivate d forms. The pollen data from two Bahama cores, one from Andros, the other from San Salvador, reflect anthropogenic disturbance during the prehistoric occupational sequence. The increasing frequency of Sapotaceae pollen in th e San Salvador sequence is consistent with the occurrence of Sapotaceae at the Three Dog site. Finally, preservation- and recovery-related issues are discussed. The study suggests that multiple means of data recovery must be employed to gain a more representative picture of prehistoric Caribbean pla nt use and floristic environment.