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SITUATING THE CLAIBORNE SOAPSTONE VESSEL CACHE IN THE HISTORY OF POVERTY POINT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2017

Kenneth E. Sassaman  and
Samuel O. Brookes
Kenneth E. Sassaman*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Samuel O. Brookes
Affiliation:
National Forests in Mississippi (retired), 820 Arlington St., Jackson, MS 39202, USA
*
(sassaman@ufl.edu, corresponding author)
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Abstract

A cache of 12 soapstone vessels from the Claiborne site in Mississippi was recently repatriated to the state after being excavated in 1968 and removed to Ohio. As a locus of Poverty Point affiliation, Claiborne was positioned along a Gulf Coast route for the influx of soapstone into the lower Mississippi valley from quarries in the southern Appalachians, hundreds of kilometers to the east. Although residents of Claiborne were likely to have been active traders during the heyday of Poverty Point exchange, ca. 3600–3400 cal BP, new AMS assays on carbon deposits from seven of the soapstone vessels show that the cache was emplaced ~200 years later, during or shortly before the abandonment of Poverty Point. Reported here are the results of AMS assays, observations on vessel form and function, and preliminary inferences about the significance of the cache in the context of environmental and cultural change after 3200 cal BP.

Un depósito votivo de doce vasijas de esteatita, procedentes del sitio Claiborne en Misisipi, fue repatriado recientemente a su estado de origen después de haber sido excavado en 1968 y reubicado en el estado de Ohio. Siendo uno de los centros asociados con Poverty Point, Claiborne fue establecido en la ruta de la costa del Golfo de México para el ingreso y circulación de la esteatita en el Valle Bajo del Misisipi; dicho mineral proviene de los yacimientos ubicados al sur de los Apalaches, a cientos de kilómetros al este. Si bien es posible que los pobladores de Claiborne participaron activamente en el intercambio inter-regional durante el apogeo de Poverty Point, aproximadamente 3600–3400 años cal A.P., nuevas pruebas de datación por AMS (trad. es. Espectrometría de Masas con Aceleradores) en los residuos carbónicos que fueron extraídos de siete de las doce vasijas de esteatita indican que el conjunto votivo fue depositado cerca de 200 años después, durante o poco antes del abandono de Poverty Point. A continuación, se presentan los resultados de las pruebas por AMS, las observaciones sobre la forma y función de estas vasijas, y las inferencias preliminares sobre la importancia de este depósito votivo en el contexto de los cambios ambientales y culturales ocurridos después de 3200 años cal A.P.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 82 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 781 - 797
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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References

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