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6 Saladoid Lapidary Technology New Methods for Investigating Stone Bead Drilling Techniques Christy de Mille, Tamara Varney, and Michael Turney Introduction Ancient lapidary traditions are frequent objects of interest and curiosity. The high degree of artistry and technical skill demonstrated by these industries worldwide is characteristic of both the Saladoid lapidary industry and the Saladoid occupation of the Caribbean (Watters 1997c). Stone beads, in particular, have played an important role in discussions of Saladoid socioeconomic systems and interaction. For example, the most frequently cited evidence for interisland movement is the common occurrence of exotic stone artifacts in Saladoid sites (Watters 1997c). In addition to the movement of raw materials, it has been demonstrated that both the local manufacture of items and import of finished goods occurs in Saladoid sites, and that both of these are differentially represented between islands (Crock and Bartone 1998; Murphy et al. 2000; Watters and Scaglion 1994). This has led to hypotheses of regional manufacturing centers and trade, with associated suggestions of craft specialization (Watters 1997c; Watters and Scaglion 1994). Such hypotheses have important implications for topics of interisland contact and trade, political and economic organization of production, and the Saladoid cultures. Many different lines of evidence are necessary for such broad-level questions; however, meaningful interpretation can only begin to be accomplished through specific and detailed understandings of the finer scaled participants in this production. One of the long-term goals of our research is to work toward a detailed understanding of bead manufacture on Antigua, which would provide a basis for later comparisons with other islands. While still exploratory, our present study is an initial step toward these larger goals. This chapter continues research into the drilling technology of the Saladoid Investigating Stone Bead Drilling Techniques / 79 lapidary industries on the island of Antigua. The investigation focuses on the examination of manufacturing traces on the bore walls of stone beads in addition to other attributes such as bore hole shape and size. Focus is laid on drilling technology as it is one of the easier production steps to examine archaeologically ; lapidary production typically does not produce large quantities of waste, and on finished beads most of the manufacturing traces have been obliterated by the final stages of bead production such as polishing. The examination of perforation methods could therefore allow one aspect of manufacture to be analyzed and compared between finished and partially manufactured beads. This is potentially important when comparing locally vs. off-island manufactured stone artifacts. Additionally, the drilling of the beads is usually considered the most difficult and technologically demanding of the steps in bead manufacture . The specific methodology we employ in our bead drilling research is based on a series of studies into Near Eastern lapidary technology in which the bore holes of cylinder seals and beads were molded, cast, and then examined with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) (Gorelick and Gwinnett 1978; Gwinnett and Gorelick 1979, 1981). The underlying rationale behind their research was that different drilling techniques (types of drills, abrasive, motion) leave distinctive traces. Through a series of experiments and comparison with archaeological examples, Gwinnett and Gorelick demonstrated that at a broad level this did seem to hold true. The microscopic examination of manufacturing traces is essentially analogous to the better-established use-wear research, with production, rather than use, the object of the analysis. Preliminary results from our trial application of molding bead bores for examination with an SEM were encouraging (De Mille and Varney 2003). Our primary objective was to establish the viability of producing replicas of bead bores, through molding and casting, that could then be analyzed for manufacturing traces. Through comparison with X-ray images taken of the beads, and SEM imaging of broken bead bores and the molds taken from them, we were satisfied enough with our ability to reproduce the bores in fine detail in molds. A second objective was to compare any features that could be seen on the Antiguan specimens with similar studies elsewhere to gain any preliminary insight into bead drilling techniques . One hypothesis gained from this comparison was that the beads examined were drilled with an abrasive (De Mille and Varney 2003). The present study further explores and validates the methodology utilized to investigate drilling techniques.We continue to experiment with molding and casting techniques. In addition, the replicability of both molds and casts for recording manufacturing traces is further explored. Another goal is to enlarge our database of manufacturing traces from Antiguan archaeological examples. This study...

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