Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T13:01:21.634Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Sacred to Profane: Style Drift in the Decoration of Jesuit Finger Rings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles E. Cleland
Charles E. Cleland*
Affiliation:
The Museum, Michigan State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Engraved designs on French Jesuit finger rings from 14 historic sites of the Great Lakes area and the Mississippi Valley were examined. The wide variety of decorative motifs appearing on these rings is attributed to a stylistic drift occurring over a period of 60 yr. An estimated 95% of Jesuit ring designs from this area are traced to 3 prototypes. This paper demonstrates that rings with cast designs on round or oval bezels date between 1624 and 1700, while those with designs engraved on octagonal or heart-shaped bezels were current between 1700 and 1780. The process of stylistic drift and some of the variables conditioning the rate of style drift are considered.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 1972 , pp. 202 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beauchamp, William M. 1903 Metallic ornaments of the New York Indians. New York State Museum, Bulletin 73.Google Scholar
Cleland, Charles, E. (Editor) 1971 The Lasanen site: an historic burial locality in Mackinac County, Michigan. The Museum, Michigan State University, Anthropological Series 1.Google Scholar
Dethlefsen, Edwin, and James, Deetz 1966 Death’s heads, cherubs, and willow trees: experimental archaeology in colonial cemeteries. American Antiquity 31:502–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jelks, Edward, B. (Editor) 1967 The Gilbert site. Texas Archaeological Society, Bulletin 37:1–248.Google Scholar
Kidd, Kenneth E. 1953 The excavation and historical identification of a Huron ossuary. American Antiquity 18:359–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neitzel, Robert S. 1965 Archaeology of the Fatherland site: the grand village of the Natchez. American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers 51:1–108.Google Scholar
Noel Hume, Ivor 1969 Historical archaeology. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.Google Scholar
Ridley, Frank 1954 The Frank Bay site, Lake Nipissing, Ontario. American Antiquity 20:40–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder, Gail S. 1968 Hotel Plaza: an early historic site with a long prehistory. Unpublished M.A. thesis. Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Stone, Lyle M. 1970 Archaeological research at Fort Michilimackinac, an eighteenth century historic site in Emmet County, Michigan: 1959-1966 excavations. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University.Google Scholar
Wittry, Warren L. 1963 The Bell site, Wn 9, an early historic Fox village. The Wisconsin Archeologist 44:1–57.Google Scholar