Tracing the source of Late Neolithic Spondylus shell ornaments by stable isotope geochemistry and cathodoluminescence microscopy

Determination of the source of Spondylus objects is essential for the interpretation of Late Neolithic exchange systems and the social role of shell ornaments. We performed stable isotope analysis combined with cathodoluminescence microscopy study on ornaments (beads, bracelets) made of Spondylus shells excavated at the Aszód-Papi földek archaeological site in Hungary, to define their origin. For comparison Spondylus finds from Neolithic sites of Greece, modern Spondylus shells from the Aegean and the Adriatic, as well as fossil Spondylus and Ostrea shells from the Carpathian Basin were also examined. Oxygen isotope composition of Spondylus finds from Aszód ranges between ?1.9 and 2.1‰ and overlaps with the oxygen isotope range of shell objects from other Neolithic sites. Modern Spondylus shells from the Aegean and the Adriatic show overlapping δ¹⁸O values with one another and with the Neolithic objects; while recent shells of the Black Sea clearly are separate isotopically from the Mediterranean ones and most of archaeological artefacts. Spondylus shells from the Aszód site have Mediterranean origin; their source can be the Aegean or the Adriatic. Based on a former strontium isotope study the use of fossil Spondylus shells is excluded as raw material used for ornaments, however, in recent years the use of fossil shells was reintroduced. The shell ornaments from Aszód-Papi földek and the fossil oyster shells collected from the Carpathian Basin exhibit some overlapping oxygen isotope values; however, cathodoluminescence microscopy indicates that the Spondylus objects retained their original aragonite material. Diagenetic calcite, which occurs typically in the fossil shells, was not detected in the ornaments suggesting that the studied objects were made of recent shells. Calcitic parts observed in some Spondylus objects are not related to fossilisation.     

To submit and to serve: forced native labour in the Cuchumatán highlands of Guatemala, 1525–1821

The Indian peoples of the Cuchumatán highlands of Guatemala, like their counterparts throughout Spanish America, were forced to render labour to their European conquerors in a variety of ways. Foremost among the institutional devices which controlled and exploited native labour were the encomienda, the tasación de tributos, and the repartimiento. Prominent and prestigious chiefly during the first century of colonial rule, the encomienda was a means whereby a privileged individual was granted the right to enjoy the tribute, and originally also the labour, of a certain number of Indians in a designated town or group of towns. The amount of tribute owed by a town was stipulated by the tasación de tributos, which assessed tribute-paying capacity principally in terms of age, sex, and marital status. Through the operation of repartimiento, labour was coerced from the Indians and channelled into a number of menial and servile tasks. During the eighteenth century, debt peonage was a further means of securing a work force in the Cuchumatán highlands, particularly on the large haciendas which dominated the commercial agricultural economy of the region.