Shell

Archaeologists use ceramic and stone tools to piece together the past Amerindian social set-ups. The people in the Caribbean were using stone tools before 6000 BCE but the people in South American mainland were using them even earlier. In about 2000 BCE, during a ceramic period known as Saladoid, groups from the mainland travelled and settled in a new sea environment and had to use different materials for making tools. Shell tools made from conch and other shells have been found in many parts of the Caribbean. Archaeologists have also found shell deposits, which proves that groups of early inhabitants who ate sea fish lived there.

This shell object was used as an adze or a tool for removing meat from other shellfish. It has not been scientifically dated but is pre-15th Century.