Prehistoric shell beads on the Georgia coast

ABSTRACT

The prehistoric peoples living along the Georgia coast fabricated and used shell beads for millennia. Out of a number of mollusk species inhabiting the region, only a few were selected for the fabrication of beads. The knobbed whelk (Busycon carica) was the most common species used, and it represents the most common whelk found in Atlantic coastal waters. The lightning whelk (Busycon sinistrum), the second most common whelk in the region, was occasionally used in the production of beads. Small numbers of beads were made from marginella and olive shells and, rarely, from bivalve species. Small beads were manufactured from the body whorl of whelks, while larger beads were fabricated from whelk collumella. Shell beads appear in small quantities in Late Archaic period contexts, and then almost disappear during the Woodland period. Beads reappear in quantities at about AD 800 in the Early Mississippian period. More shell beads have been recovered from Mississippian period archaeological contexts along the northern Georgia coast than along the southern coast, reflective of cultural differences between these two geographic areas in the post-Woodland period era.     

CERAMIC SHELL CUP EFFIGIES FROM ILLINOIS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

Ceramic effigies of marine shell cups have long been known from Mississippian sites in Illinois and elsewhere in the Southeast, and have been included in studies of other ceramic effigies, such as animal figures and head pots (Holmes 1886). This paper focuses on 31 known Illinois specimens. I will show that, in Illinois, the geographic range of these effigies is primarily restricted to the American Bottom around Cahokia, and their occurrence is largely limited to Late Mississippian Moorehead and Sand Prairie phases (A.D. 1200 to 1400). I also explore possible meanings of shell cups and, by extension, ceramic effigies of shell cups. Ethnohistoric as well as archaeological evidence show that lightning whelk cups and, by analogy, shell cup effigies functioned in contexts of uncertainty and conflict, consistent with their context in Illinois.     

Cooking Pots as Burial Urns

Abstract

Large ceramic vessels used as burial urns occasionally have been found in Late Mississippian/protohistoric contexts in Alabama and Mississippi. Ethnohistorical documents suggest that large vessels were used for cooking in a domestic context. A systematic examination of three urns from east-central Mississippi shows multiple uses prior to their final deposition with burials. Vessel size analysis of a temporal sequence of sherds from midden contexts used sherd thickness and curvature data to show that large vessels became more common. Three explanations are examined to better understand the use of large vessels during this time: bet hedging, costly signaling, and changing technology. The results confirm the use of burial urns in domestic contexts before their final use as interment containers, making technological change the most viable of the three hypotheses.     

Shells below,stars above: four perspectives on shell beads

ABSTRACT

In the papers assembled here, five scholars focus on shell beads at site, watershed, and regional scales. Themes include manufacturing techniques such as bore size discussions, changes in bead preferences over time and geography, the appearance of beaded regalia, and shell bead meaning. Claassen’s paper addresses the beads at Late Archaic Indian Knoll; Connaway discusses shell beads in northwestern Mississippi; Pearson looks at beads from coastal Georgia; and Webster and King examine beads before and after European contact in the Potomac basin.     

The beads of Indian Knoll

ABSTRACT

Busycon discs, barrels, rings, and columellas, Leptoxis and Prunum shell beads, and stone and coal beads from Webb and Moore excavations at Indian Knoll (15OH2) are discussed in this paper as the author seeks to determine how beads were deployed to convey social information during the Archaic period. After wrestling with the count of beads (ca. 27,337) and the number of burials (ca. 260) with beads, the types of beads are tallied and measurements given based on the author’s examination of beads. The presence and distribution of beads in the shell-bearing stratum and the hardpan, and their distribution among women, men, and subadults, are explored. The beads appear to have been assembled rather than manufactured as sets. An argument is made that shell beads were used at Indian Knoll as regalia for members of and victims of a hunt god/spirit cult. Leptoxis sashes are identified in 36 burials and discussed as regalia. Bead co-occurrence with atlatls, faunal species, and violent death is examined as part of the hypothesized cult rituals.     

SOUTH APPALACHIAN MISSISSIPPIAN AND PROTOHISTORIC MORTUARY PRACTICES IN SOUTHWESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Abstract

Mississippian societies of southwestern North Carolina are generally thought to have been less centralized and less hierarchical than their counterparts elsewhere in the Southeast. This paper compares and contrasts mortuary patterns at the Warren Wilson, Garden Creek, and Coweeta Creek sites to reconstruct patterns of social and spatial differentiation within late prehistoric and protohistoric communities in southwestern North Carolina. These sites include, respectively, a late prehistoric stockaded village, a platform mound and village, and a protohistoric Cherokee town with a public structure and several domestic dwellings. Distributions of burial goods and the placement of burials indicate that some social distinctions were reflected in the treatment of the dead by Mississippian and protohistoric groups in southwestern North Carolina, and that those distinctions were embedded in the architecture and built environment of these sites.     

Evaluating the Reliability of Fluoride Dating at Two Prehistoric Mound Sites in Mississippi

Abstract

Ion-selective electrode fluoride dating is used to address chronological problems at two mound sites located in Mississippi. At the Mississippian period (A.D. 900–1520) Lyon's Bluff site, 220K520, the fluoride content of deer and human bone is compared with radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic levels to evaluate the reliability of the fluoride dating method for understanding relative burial chronology. At a second site, Pocahontas Mound A (22HI500), fluoride content of deer bone is used to corroborate radiocarbon dates and to establish the proper chronology of levels associated with two distinct occupations (Archaic and Coles Creek/Plaquemine) identified in a large midden area. Fluoride analysis also is used to date a second midden area at this site. For Lyon's Bluff; fluoride dates did not correspond with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)-dated burials and midden strata. In contrast, fluoride dating proved very useful in determining chronological placement of midden levels and dating other areas at Pocahontas Mound A. Sample age, site location, soil, and bone preservation are considered as possible causes for the negative results at Lyon's Bluff.     

THE BEAD MAKER’S MIDDEN: EVIDENCE OF LATE PREHISTORIC SHELL BEAD PRODUCTION ON OSSABAW ISLAND,GEORGIA

Abstract

In 2005, archaeological excavations were undertaken in a single shell midden at a late prehistoric Irene phase (circa A.D. 1380) site on Ossabaw Island, Georgia. The excavations were designed specifically to collect information on the fabrication of shell beads and other shell ornaments. A considerable amount of stone was recovered, almost all of which is petrified wood used specifically in the production of “microdrills” for perforating shell beads. Also recovered were large quantities of fragmented knobbed whelk (Busycon carica), the principal raw material used for shell beads, as well as examples of shell beads in all stages of manufacture. The excavations of this midden, designated the Bead Maker’s Midden, produced abundant information bearing on shellworking technology, including the full range of tools and raw materials used and the sequences involved in the production of shell beads. Replication experiments were conducted to validate the archaeological findings. The collected data provide direct evidence of the process of shell bead production during the Late Mississippi period.     

Social integration at a frontier and the creation of Mississippian social identity in southwestern Virginia

ABSTRACT

Frontier areas are poor in labor but rich in land. To be successful, frontiers must attract people and socially integrate them using both low- and high-level social integrative mechanisms, which can range from basic work groups to elaborate feasts. Craft production can be a useful means of accomplishing low and high levels of social integration because it can be done as part of a work group but for special purposes, such as exchange. In the process of social integration, social identity specific to the types of crafts produced and their uses emerges. This paper examines a Mississippian frontier site, Carter Robinson, and discusses evidence for the production and use of ceramics and shell beads as integrative mechanisms at the Southern Appalachian Mississippian frontier area. Through the use of these types of mechanisms I argue that both a communal social identity and an identity of social inequality were created at Carter Robinson which resulted in the production and reproduction of Mississippian identity.     

Questioning Craft Production at Angel Mounds Analysis of the 2006–2009 Angel Mounds Field-Schools

Abstract

Seventy years of archaeological investigations at the site of Angel Mounds (12VG1) have led to a broad overall understanding of the cultural practices of the Mississippian people in southwest Indiana nearly 1,000 years ago, but have also raised ever expanding new questions. Recent field-school excavations at Angel Mounds, sponsored by the Glenn A. Black Laboratory (GBL) at Indiana University, explored magnetic anomalies in a previously unexcavated area at Angel Mounds. Analyses of features and artifacts encountered during the excavations at Unit A (the “Potter's House”), including large amounts of Mississippi Plain pottery and craft-production objects, inspired new questions on the organization of craft production at Angel Mounds and other Mississippian archaeological sites. In this article, I test whether a structure at Unit A may have been a craftproduction workshop by reviewing data archaeologists traditionally associate with workshops and examining the standardization of pottery found at the location. Preliminary results demonstrate the variability of Mississippi Plain pottery, even within single locations, and also show the potential analytical utility of such variability for testing important issues in the archaeology of Mississippian societies, including supposed elite-control over craft production and intrasite social organizations.     

Fort Ancient-Mississippian Interaction and Shell-Tempered Pottery at SunWatch Village,Ohio

Abstract

The use of mussel shell for tempering pottery vessels by Fort Ancient societies is poorly understood. Suggestions have included both diffusion from neighboring Mississippian social groups and local developments, although no studies have investigated whether shell-tempered pottery is non-local or associated with Mississippian features and artifact types within Fort Ancient sites. This study begins to remedy this deficiency by examining the social and temporal contexts and petrographic composition of shell-tempered pottery at the Sun Watch site, a Fort Ancient village located in sw Ohio that was occupied during the height of neighboring Mississippian developments (ca.A.D. 1150–1450). Our findings indicate that shell tempered pottery was not produced locally and is linked with a village leader and Mississippian-inspired architecture.     

THE SHELBY FOREST SITE IN SOUTHWEST TENNESSEE AND EARLY MISSISSIPPIAN RED-FILMED POTTERY IN THE CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

Abstract

The Shelby Forest site in southwest Tennessee is an Early Mississippian component characterized by Varney Red Filmed ceramics. Comparison to other sites in the Reelfoot Lake area of west Tennessee and the Upper St. Francis Basin of Missouri and Arkansas allows refinement of the direction, timing, and characteristics of influences from these areas northeastward to American Bottom and southward into the Yazoo Basin of Mississippi. Subsequent influences from the Cahokia area into the southern Yazoo Basin and northeast Louisiana are also discussed.     

DETERMINING THE SEASON OF MISSISSIPPIAN HOUSE CONSTRUCTION FROM PLANT IMPRESSIONS IN DAUB

Abstract

It has been suggested that Mississippian farmsteads in some parts of the Southeast were abandoned in the late fall/early winter, with concomitant population concentration in large, palisaded villages. This assertion is contradicted by published data on plant impressions in daub which indicate farmstead house construction during the fall. Missing from this debate has been information on the season of house construction at mound centers. Plant impressions in daub from a structure at the Lyon’s Bluff site (22OK520) in Mississippi indicate that house construction took place during early to midspring. When coupled with other data, year-round construction at this mound and village complex is suggested. Although these results do not solve the question of the season of house construction at farmsteads, they do suggest that house construction at mound sites was not confined to any particular season of the year, as might be expected with seasonal influxes of farmstead inhabitants.     

A FRESH LOOK AT A LITTLE-KNOWN SOUTHEASTERN COPPER PLATE

Abstract

Chauga (38OC47) is a mound site now under Lake Hartwell at the head of the Savannah River in Oconee County, South Carolina. Excavations in 1958–1959 by the University of Georgia recovered a Mississippian copper plate. Upon comparison to others of its kind, it is clear that this lesser-known plate encompasses some interesting design features, most notably the presence of the only known depiction of a chunkey stone on copper. We have recently created a more accurate representation of its design. The plate appears to portray many similarities to depictions of Birdman dancers: kilted dancers and dancing elders within the “Stack” style. Birdman themes are common in Mississippian iconography. Given the importance that copper plates have for interpreting Mississippian art and belief systems, this updated examination provides useful new information for researchers studying Mississippian iconography.     

ADENA MORTUARY PATTERNS IN CENTRAL OHIO

Abstract

This study examines how the Adena mortuary program was practiced in the upper Scioto Valley in central Ohio. In the Alum Lake area of the valley, Adena mortuary rituals consisted of a relatively homogeneous and stable program of secondary cremation burials. By contrast, mortuary rituals in the Columbus area were highly variable in their treatment and placement of the bodies and artifacts. To interpret this pattern, I suggest that groups may have more heterogeneous ritual patterns when their ritual leaders have frequent contact with other people and ideas. Conversely, smaller and more isolated groups may more closely approach an ideal of ritual stability since the interpretations of their ritual leaders will not be challenged and influenced by outside groups. Finally, I consider some of the broad implications of the study for Adena sites throughout the Ohio Valley.     

Mississippian monumentality in the Yazoo Basin: recent investigations at the Carson site (22CO505), northwestern Mississippi

Investigations at the Carson site (22CO505), located in Coahoma County, Mississippi, have uncovered data on the development of a large Mississippian mound center dating to the period from A.D. 1200 through European contact. Recent sediment coring, excavation, artifact analyses, and radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating shed light on earthworks and household structures at Carson, and on Mississippian culture in the Yazoo Basin more generally. Sediment coring demonstrates a laterally transgressing Mississippi River system deposited coarse sandy ridges and clay-filled swales underneath a surface horizon comprised of variously coarse to medium-fine sediment originating from generalized overbank flooding. In some instances, flood-borne sediments were found on mound flanks, indicating that at times river-based flooding may have interrupted mound construction. Sediment coring and trench excavation also demonstrate that Carson’s Mound D was built in four stages, with Stages II and III comprising the major stages of earth moving. Excavations on the mound summit reveal evidence of several superimposed structures that were burned in place and likely used for the production of stone, shell, and wooden craft items, perhaps related to Mississippi Ideational Interaction Sphere (MIIS) paraphernalia. Here we describe recent investigations at Carson and present preliminary findings; forthcoming publications will emphasize strategies of power, monumentality, craft production, and Mississippian exchange systems.     

Terminal Late Woodland Mortuary Ceremonialism,Social Differentiation,and Long Distance Interaction in Northern Ohio: New Evidence from the Danbury Site

Abstract

The period from A.D. 800 to 1200 was a time of marked cultural transitions across the Midwest which featured the Mississippian emergence in the west and development of sedentary, tribal societies to the north and east. Recent salvage excavations at the Danbury site, a terminal Late Woodland habitation and cemetery in northwestern Ohio, document the intensified exploitation and storage of aquatic faunal resources and maize and the creation of a large corporate cemetery. Whelk shell ornaments accompanying certain burials point to long-distance interaction with southeastern societies as well as new forms of social differentiation. Preserved fibers of cotton (Gossypium spp.) in the dental calculus of several important individuals reveal previously unrecognized social or economic linkages with societies as distant as the Southwest or northern Mexico. The combined evidence for subsistence intensification, specialized mortuary treatments, and long-distance material exchange at Danbury represent unique local responses to pan-regional socio-cultural transformations.     

A REASSESSMENT OF THE CHRONOLOGY OF MOUND A AT TOQUA

Abstract

The Toqua site (40MR6) is one of the most thoroughly excavated Late Mississippian mound sites in East Tennessee. The site has been a focal point of research on late prehistory in southern Appalachia, but there are issues surrounding its chronological placement. The radiometric dates obtained for the site in the 1970s and the archaeomagnetic dates reported in 1999 have large standard deviations. These dates are too imprecise to be useful for a temporal placement of the site that is clear enough for current discussions of the development of Mississippian culture. A newly obtained Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) date from the large platform mound (Mound A) allows a reevaluation of the occupation sequence of the Toqua site. This date provides an anchor for a refined chronology for Mound A. In addition to the new AMS date, this refined chronology is based on complementary lines of evidence, including architectural evidence, mortuary practices, pottery traditions, and shell gorget styles.     

From shell to glass: how beads reflect the changing cultural landscape of the seventeenth-century lower Potomac River valley

ABSTRACT

This article examines over 7,500 beads from eight Native archaeological sites located in the lower Potomac River valley in order to understand how changes in bead assemblages between AD 1300 and 1712 expressed an ever-evolving Chesapeake cultural landscape. This analysis demonstrates clear differences in the types and distributions of beads from mortuary and domestic/nonmortuary contexts. Ossuary contexts contained the highest frequency of beads with the number of beads increasing over time. Following the arrival of English settlers in the 1620s, glass beads begin to appear in ossuary contexts. Beads from domestic or nonmortuary contexts are fewer in number, and those present were manufactured using local materials, including bone and clay, as well as shell. However, after 1680, there is a shift from shell beads being predominate on Native sites, to sites containing exclusively glass beads, red and black glass beads in particular. Post-1680 sites appear to reflect Piscataway displacement and the disruption of indigenous trade routes, leading Natives to obtain beads from colonial vendors. The distribution of bead color, an important attribute for communicating Native states of being, also shifts after 1680, with assemblages once dominated by white shell beads now dominated by black and red glass beads.