Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T23:17:28.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Protohistoric Marine Shell Working: New Evidence from Northern Illinois

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2019

Madeleine McLeester ,
Mark R. Schurr ,
Katherine M. Sterner  and
Robert E. Ahlrichs
Madeleine McLeester*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, 296 Corbett Family Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
Mark R. Schurr
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, 296 Corbett Family Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
Katherine M. Sterner
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Sabin Hall 290, 3413 N. Downer Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA
Robert E. Ahlrichs
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Sabin Hall 290, 3413 N. Downer Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA
*
([email protected], corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the US Midwest, the working of marine shell procured through vast trade networks has typically been associated with elite prestige economies and craft specialization at major Mississippian centers. Outside of these contexts, marine shell goods are often assumed to have been brought into communities as completed goods. A recent finding suggests that local, small-scale marine shell working occurred at an early seventeenth-century village in northern Illinois, Middle Grant Creek (11Wi2739). This finding represents the first probable evidence of marine shell working in the Midwest outside of large, Mississippian contexts. Consequently, this practice may be much more geographically and temporally expansive than previously thought. This evidence encourages a rethinking of marine shell finds whenever they are assumed to be imported as finished goods.

En el Medio Oeste Norteamericano, el trabajo con conchas marinas obtenidas mediante amplias redes de intercambio ha sido típicamente asociado a economías de prestigio y especialización artesanal vinculadas a los grandes centros del Mississippi. Fuera de estos contextos, se asume que este tipo de bienes fueron incorporados a estas comunidades como objetos terminados. Un reciente hallazgo en el sitio Middle Grant Creek (11Wi2739), una aldea del siglo XVII ubicada en el norte de Illinois, sugiere la existencia de trabajo en concha marina a pequeña escala y en un contexto local. Este hallazgo representa la primera evidencia probable de una artesanía en concha marina fuera de contextos Mississippi. En consecuencia, esta práctica podría haber estado distribuida de manera mucho más amplia, tanto geográfica como temporalmente, a lo previamente establecido. Este descubrimiento invita a repensar la idea de que los objetos manufacturados con conchas marinas fueron invariablemente importados como bienes terminados.

Keywords

Oneotamarine shellshell workingmicrowearUS MidwestOneotamalacologíaartesanía en conchasanálisis de micro huellas de usoMedio Oeste Norteamericano
Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 549 - 558
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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

Ahlrichs, Robert E., and Sterner-Miller, Katherine M. 2015 The Susceptibility of Wyandotte Chert to High Power Use-Wear Analysis. Paper presented at the 2015 Midwest Archaeological Conference, Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Bluhm, Elaine A., and Fenner, Gloria 1961 The Oak Forest Site. In Chicago Area Archaeology, edited by Bluhm, Elaine A., pp. 139–161. Illinois Archaeological Survey Bulletin, Urbana.Google Scholar
Bluhm, Elaine A., and Liss, Allen 1961 The Anker Site. In Chicago Area Archaeology, edited by Bluhm, Elaine A., pp. 89–137. Illinois Archaeological Survey Bulletin, Urbana.Google Scholar
Brain, Jeffrey P., and Phillips, Philip 1996 Shell Gorgets: Styles of the Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric Southeast. 2 vols. Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Brown, James A., and Kelly, John E. 2000 Cahokia and the Southeastern Ceremonial Center. In Mounds, Modoc, and Mesoamerica: Papers in Honor in Melvin L. Fowler, edited by Ahler, Steven R., pp. 469–510. Scientific Papers Vol. XXVIII. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.Google Scholar
Brown, James A., Kerber, Richard A., and Winters, Howard D. 1990 Trade and the Evolution of Exchange Relationships at the Beginning of the Mississippian Period. In The Mississippian Emergence, edited by Smith, Bruce D., pp. 251–280. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Drooker, Penelope B. 1997 The View from Madisonville: Protohistoric Western Fort Ancient Interaction Patterns. Memoirs No. 31. University of Michigan Museum, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Douka, Katerina 2017 Radiocarbon Dating of Marine and Terrestrial Shell. In Molluscs in Archaeology: Methods, Approaches and Applications, Studying Scientific Archaeology Volume 3, edited by Allen, Michael J., pp. 381–399. Oxbow Books, Oxford.Google Scholar
Faulkner, Charles H. 1972 The Late Prehistoric Occupation of Northwestern Indiana: A Study of the Upper Mississippi Cultures of the Kankakee Valley. Indiana Prehistory Research Series Vol. 5(1). Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis.Google Scholar
Hall, Robert L. 1962 The Archaeology of Carcajou Point. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Henning, Dale R. 1998 The Oneota Tradition. In Archaeology on the Great Plains, edited by Wood, W. Raymond, pp. 345–414. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Herold, Elaine B., O'Brien, Patricia J., and Wenner, David J. 1990 Hoxie Farm and Huber: Two Upper Mississippian Sites in Cook County, Illinois. In At the Edge of Prehistory: Huber Phase Archaeology in the Chicago Area, edited by Brown, James A. and O'Brien, Patricia J., pp. 1–122. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Jackson, Douglas 2010 The Anker Site Marine Shell Maskette and Mask Gorgettes. Illinois Archaeology 22:359–378.Google Scholar
Juel Jensen, Helle 1994 Flint Tools and Plant Working. Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, Denmark.Google Scholar
Kozuch, Laura 2003 Use of Fire in Shell Bead Manufacture at Cahokia. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 44:81–90.Google Scholar
Kozuch, Laura 2007 Replication of Busycon Columella Shell Beads. Illinois Archaeology 15:142–157.Google Scholar
Kozuch, Laura 2013 Ceramic Shell Cup Effigies from Illinois and Their Implications. Southeastern Archaeology 32:29–45.Google Scholar
Kozuch, Laura, Walker, Karen J., and Marquardt, William H. 2017 Lightning Whelk Natural History and a New Sourcing Method. Southeastern Archaeology 36:226–240.10.1080/0734578X.2017.1364959Google Scholar
Lamb, Elizabeth 2011 Freshwater Mussel Shells from Three Late Prehistoric Glenwood Locality Earthlodge Sites in Western Iowa: Analysis of Species Composition and an Assessment of Shell Modification. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Journal of Undergraduate Research 14:1–29.Google Scholar
Lippincott, Kerry (editor) 1997 “Marine Shell Ornaments from the Plains.” Special issue, Central Plains Archeology 5(1).Google Scholar
Marquardt, William H., and Kozuch, Laura 2016 The Lightning Whelk: an Enduring Icon of Southeastern North American Spirituality. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 42:1–26.Google Scholar
McGuire, Randall H., and Howard, Ann V. 1987 The Structure and Organization of Hohokam Shell Exchange. Kiva 52:113–146.Google Scholar
McLeester, Madeleine T. 2017 Moving Mosaics: Locating the Mobile Foundations of Chicago's Late Prehistoric Landscapes. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Chicago.Google Scholar
McLeester, Madeleine T., Casana, Jesse J., Schurr, Mark R., Hill, Austin C., and Wheeler, Joseph H. III 2018 Detecting Prehistoric Landscape Features Using Thermal, Multispectral, and Historical Imagery Analysis at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Illinois. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 21:450–459.Google Scholar
Miller, G. Logan 2015 Ritual Economy and Craft Production in Small-Scale Societies: Evidence from Microwear Analysis of Hopewell Bladelets. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 39:124–138.10.1016/j.jaa.2015.03.005Google Scholar
Pollack, David A., Henderson, Gynn, and Begley, Christopher T. 2002 Fort Ancient/Mississippian Interaction on the Northeastern Periphery. Southeastern Archaeology 21:206–220.Google Scholar
Pope, Melody K. 1989 Microtools from the Black Warrior Valley: Technology, Use, and Context. Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University, Binghamton.Google Scholar
Pope, Melody K. 2005 Chipped Stone, Tools, and Towns: An Archaeological Study of Uruk Period Lithic Production and Use at Abu Salabikh, Iraq. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Binghamton, Binghamton.Google Scholar
Sterner, Katherine M. 2018 Stone Tools and Agricultural Communities: Economic, Microwear, and Residue Analyses of Wisconsin Oneota Lithic Assemblages. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Sterner-Miller, Katherine M., Jeske, Robert J., and Ahlrichs, Robert E. 2015 Understanding Oneota Stone Tool Functions: A Case Study of Precision and Accuracy in Use-Wear Analysis. Paper presented at the 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Trubitt, Mary Beth D. 2003 The Production and Exchange of Marine Shell Prestige Goods. Journal of Archaeological Research 11:243–277.10.1023/A:1025028814962Google Scholar
Trubitt, Mary Beth D. 2005 Crafting Marine Shell Prestige Goods at Cahokia. North American Archaeologist 26:249–266.10.2190/4NR2-8C4H-AWXB-JVPEGoogle Scholar
Vaughan, Patrick C. 1985 Use-Wear Analysis of Flaked Stone Tools. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Yerkes, Richard W. 1983 Microwear, Microdrills, and Mississippian Craft Specialization. American Antiquity 48:499–528.Google Scholar
Yerkes, Richard W. 1991 Specialization in Shell Artifact Production at Cahokia. In New Perspectives on Cahokia: Views from the Periphery, edited by Stoltman, James B., pp. 49–64. Monographs in World Archaeology 2. Prehistory Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Yerkes, Richard W. 1993 Methods of Manufacturing Shell Beads at Prehistoric Mississippian Sites in Southeastern North America. In Traceologie et Fonction: Le Gest Retrouve, edited by Beyries, Sylvie, pp. 235–242. Centre de Recherches Archeologiques du CNRS, Etudes et Recherches Archeologiques de l'Universite de Liege, Liege, Belgium.Google Scholar