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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
*
(mmcleest@nd.edu, corresponding author)
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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 

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