When European copper-based metal trade goods, primarily kettles, first became available to native... more When European copper-based metal trade goods, primarily kettles, first became available to native Americans early in the contact period, they frequently reworked the metal sheet, reforming it into objects that fit into their own indigenous cultural systems. The technical processes through which they converted these products into objects of personal adornment have seldom been investigated archaeometallurgically to determine the elemental make-up of the metals and the techniques involved in reworking them. In this study, undertaken at the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Applied Science Center for Archaeology (MASCA), a sample of 64 copper-based metal artifacts excavated from the Haas/Hagerman Site, Clark County, MO, were examined metallographically to identify manufacturing techniques and technical processes employed by the seventeenth century Illinois to produce these new forms. Proton-induced X-ray emission spectrometry (PIXE) was used to determine the elemental compositions of the artifacts. Results are presented within the larger contexts of early material and technological transformation among the Illinois as European influence intensified. D
The creative ways in which native North American peoples of the Eastern Woodlands utilized copper... more The creative ways in which native North American peoples of the Eastern Woodlands utilized copper throughout prehistory present provocative contrasts to models of Old World metallurgical development. Archaeological approaches that incorporate laboratory methods into investigations of indigenous metalworking practice have brought new insights and raised new questions about the development and use of techniques, sources of materials, and the social dynamics of copper consumption. This paper integrates the results of these studies into a discussion of copper use in Old Copper, Hopewellian, and Mississippian traditions that focuses on illuminating the complex relations among levels of technological sophistication in the manipulation of the material itself, the often elaborate and meaning-laden contexts in which artifacts were used, and the relative social complexity of the cultures that supported copper procurement, transformation, and use. It is suggested that 'technological style' approaches will assist archaeologists in efforts to flesh out culture-specific aspects of its consumption.
one of John Walthall's most enduring research interests lies in the contribution that archaeology... more one of John Walthall's most enduring research interests lies in the contribution that archaeology has and can yet make to our understanding of the timing, tempos, and contexts of early native/French contact and settlement in the western Great Lakes and Illinois Country. In 1991 and 1992 (with Thomas E. Emerson), he published companion edited volumes on the subject, French Colonial Archaeology, and Calumet and Fleur-de-Lys, respectively. The introductions to these volumes set out cogently the nature and scope of the problems researchers who worked in this period faced, and the contributed articles imparted what constituted the current state of our knowledge of the region's complex seventeenth-and early eighteenth-century history. While no one questioned the research value of these contributions, Walthall helped us realize how little we actu-One of John Walthall's most enduring research interests concerns the contribution that archaeology has made and can yet make to our understanding of the timing, tempos, and contexts of early native/French contact and settlement in the Western Great Lakes and Illinois County. This interest took most comprehensive form in the two major volumes he edited (Walthall 1991) on the subject in the early 1990s. The introductions to the volumes set out cogently the nature and scope of the problems researchers who work in this period faced, and the contributed articles imparted what constituted the then-current state of our knowledge of the region's complex 17 th and early 18 th century history. This paper reviews some of the important work that has taken place in the protohistoric Illinois Country subsequent to the publication of these volumes, and concentrates on select questions they, particularly Calumet and Fleur-de-Lys (1992), raised. I evaluate our progress in two major research areas 1) identifying ethnically the various native peoples occupying the area at the time of first European interactions, 2) sorting out the timing, nature, meanings, and implications of these contacts for future French expansion in the region. Kathleen L. Ehrhardt, 930 S. Rangeline Road Columbia, Missouri 65201, kathy@eclipse.net
In northeastern North America, early (sixteenth-and seventeenthcentury) encounters between native... more In northeastern North America, early (sixteenth-and seventeenthcentury) encounters between native peoples and Europeans were accompanied by exchanges of foreign materials and objects that were of immediate and lasting interest to native consumers. Goods moved into the interior with surprising rapidity, appearing in the Mississippi valley well before Europeans themselves arrived. In this essay, I examine the social dynamics of native appropriation of foreign material culture, specifically copper-base metals, into their own systems. I posit that the artifacts that resulted from these exchanges and the processes through which they were reconceptualized and made useful in native eyes are examples of material culture hybridity and hybridization. I suggest that a technological "systems" framework and technological "style" approach are well suited to the study of these processes in culture contact situations. Analyzing the distribution of almost 1,400 pieces of European-derived copper-base metal and objects made from it over excavated areas of the Iliniwek Village site, a large mid-to-late-seventeenth-century Illinois settlement on the Des Moines River (Clark County, Missouri), I explore the technological and social organization of crafting activity there. I identify domestic kin-based production and specialization manifested as skilled crafting as two important themes that figure prominently in the local transformation of European metals to ornamentation and the incorporation of these special types of hybrid material objects into everyday and specialized use contexts.
When European copper-based metal trade goods, primarily kettles, first became available to native... more When European copper-based metal trade goods, primarily kettles, first became available to native Americans early in the contact period, they frequently reworked the metal sheet, reforming it into objects that fit into their own indigenous cultural systems. The technical processes through which they converted these products into objects of personal adornment have seldom been investigated archaeometallurgically to determine the elemental make-up of the metals and the techniques involved in reworking them. In this study, undertaken at the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Applied Science Center for Archaeology (MASCA), a sample of 64 copper-based metal artifacts excavated from the Haas/Hagerman Site, Clark County, MO, were examined metallographically to identify manufacturing techniques and technical processes employed by the seventeenth century Illinois to produce these new forms. Proton-induced X-ray emission spectrometry (PIXE) was used to determine the elemental compositions of the artifacts. Results are presented within the larger contexts of early material and technological transformation among the Illinois as European influence intensified. D
The creative ways in which native North American peoples of the Eastern Woodlands utilized copper... more The creative ways in which native North American peoples of the Eastern Woodlands utilized copper throughout prehistory present provocative contrasts to models of Old World metallurgical development. Archaeological approaches that incorporate laboratory methods into investigations of indigenous metalworking practice have brought new insights and raised new questions about the development and use of techniques, sources of materials, and the social dynamics of copper consumption. This paper integrates the results of these studies into a discussion of copper use in Old Copper, Hopewellian, and Mississippian traditions that focuses on illuminating the complex relations among levels of technological sophistication in the manipulation of the material itself, the often elaborate and meaning-laden contexts in which artifacts were used, and the relative social complexity of the cultures that supported copper procurement, transformation, and use. It is suggested that 'technological style' approaches will assist archaeologists in efforts to flesh out culture-specific aspects of its consumption.
one of John Walthall's most enduring research interests lies in the contribution that archaeology... more one of John Walthall's most enduring research interests lies in the contribution that archaeology has and can yet make to our understanding of the timing, tempos, and contexts of early native/French contact and settlement in the western Great Lakes and Illinois Country. In 1991 and 1992 (with Thomas E. Emerson), he published companion edited volumes on the subject, French Colonial Archaeology, and Calumet and Fleur-de-Lys, respectively. The introductions to these volumes set out cogently the nature and scope of the problems researchers who worked in this period faced, and the contributed articles imparted what constituted the current state of our knowledge of the region's complex seventeenth-and early eighteenth-century history. While no one questioned the research value of these contributions, Walthall helped us realize how little we actu-One of John Walthall's most enduring research interests concerns the contribution that archaeology has made and can yet make to our understanding of the timing, tempos, and contexts of early native/French contact and settlement in the Western Great Lakes and Illinois County. This interest took most comprehensive form in the two major volumes he edited (Walthall 1991) on the subject in the early 1990s. The introductions to the volumes set out cogently the nature and scope of the problems researchers who work in this period faced, and the contributed articles imparted what constituted the then-current state of our knowledge of the region's complex 17 th and early 18 th century history. This paper reviews some of the important work that has taken place in the protohistoric Illinois Country subsequent to the publication of these volumes, and concentrates on select questions they, particularly Calumet and Fleur-de-Lys (1992), raised. I evaluate our progress in two major research areas 1) identifying ethnically the various native peoples occupying the area at the time of first European interactions, 2) sorting out the timing, nature, meanings, and implications of these contacts for future French expansion in the region. Kathleen L. Ehrhardt, 930 S. Rangeline Road Columbia, Missouri 65201, kathy@eclipse.net
In northeastern North America, early (sixteenth-and seventeenthcentury) encounters between native... more In northeastern North America, early (sixteenth-and seventeenthcentury) encounters between native peoples and Europeans were accompanied by exchanges of foreign materials and objects that were of immediate and lasting interest to native consumers. Goods moved into the interior with surprising rapidity, appearing in the Mississippi valley well before Europeans themselves arrived. In this essay, I examine the social dynamics of native appropriation of foreign material culture, specifically copper-base metals, into their own systems. I posit that the artifacts that resulted from these exchanges and the processes through which they were reconceptualized and made useful in native eyes are examples of material culture hybridity and hybridization. I suggest that a technological "systems" framework and technological "style" approach are well suited to the study of these processes in culture contact situations. Analyzing the distribution of almost 1,400 pieces of European-derived copper-base metal and objects made from it over excavated areas of the Iliniwek Village site, a large mid-to-late-seventeenth-century Illinois settlement on the Des Moines River (Clark County, Missouri), I explore the technological and social organization of crafting activity there. I identify domestic kin-based production and specialization manifested as skilled crafting as two important themes that figure prominently in the local transformation of European metals to ornamentation and the incorporation of these special types of hybrid material objects into everyday and specialized use contexts.
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