Starchy Shells: Residue analysis of precolonial northern Caribbean culinary practices

Determining culinary practices is critical for understanding phytocultural complexes, transported landscapes and human niche constructions. Starch analysis is an exemplary method for reconstructing human–plant dependencies. However, certain types of artefacts from the Greater Caribbean region, such as flaked lithics, lithic griddles, coral artefacts and shells, have not been extensively analysed for starch remains. Moreover, there has been no comparison of culinary practices between The Bahama archipelago and the Greater Antilles (the presumed origin of foodways transported to The Bahama archipelago). The paper investigates 60 bivalve shell artefacts for starch remains, which were recovered from three archaeological sites: El Flaco and La Luperona (Dominican Republic), and Palmetto Junction (Turks & Caicos Islands). In contrast to ethnohistorical narratives that characterize shell tools exclusively as manioc peelers, the starch remains recovered in this study suggest a broader suite of plants and functions. The results provide evidence that a diversity of plants (Dioscorea spp., Dioscorea trifida L., Fabaceae, Ipomoea batatas L., Manihot esculenta Crantz, cf. Zea mays L., cf. Acrocomia media O. F. Cook, and Zingiberales) were prepared with these shells. This new evidence contributes to ongoing discussions about culinary practices in the Caribbean and other related late precolonial (c.800–1500 ce) foodways.