All that glitters isn’t calcite: a research update on crystalline artifacts from the Middle Cumberland Region

ABSTRACT

This report offers updated information from crystalline artifact research results initially presented in 2014 by Michael C. Moore and colleagues. At that time, worked and raw crystal items from four Mississippian sites in the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee were assessed by the Tennessee Geological Survey as calcite through visual techniques. Subsequent analysis using Fiber Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) has determined these specimens are, in fact, fluorite. The known sample of six worked crystal artifacts in 2014 has also increased by 50% through the recent discovery of two earplugs and one bead from three Mississippian period sites. FORS analysis determined these three artifacts to be fluorite as well.

KEYWORDS:

• Crystalline objects
• Mississippian sites
• Middle Cumberland Region
• FORS analysis
• fluorite
• Tennessee

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Tennessee Division of Archaeology; Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Middle Tennessee State University; Arkansas Archeological Survey; and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for their continuing support of this research project. Thanks also to Dr. Jan Simek of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for allowing the authors access to the FORS equipment.

Our deepest appreciation goes to several individuals and organizations for sharing their discoveries with the project team. Dr. Paul Eubanks with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) informed authors Moore and Smith of the worked crystal bead recovered during the 2017 MTSU Archaeological Field School. Tennessee Valley Archaeological Research (TVAR) alerted author Moore regarding the Logan site (40DV8) earplug. Mr. Maury Miller notified author Moore regarding a crystal earplug he picked up many years ago while surface-collecting site 40CH69.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Site information, data, and materials used in this study are maintained at the Tennessee Division of Archaeology in Nashville, Tennessee.

Notes

1 A May 2023 review of the Tennessee Division of Archaeology site files affirmed that no crystal quarry or surface spoil sites have been recorded to date.

2 Two worked specimens mentioned in the 2014 research were not part of the FORS testing (see Moore et al. 2014b:28–29). As noted in the 2014 study, the Rutherford-Kizer (40SU15) bead was reburied in 1995 in accordance with Tennessee state law. The bird effigy figurine from an unspecified location in Williamson County, held in a private collection, was not available for this analysis.

3 Tennessee state law provides a mechanism for public and private landowners to relocate a cemetery from one piece of property to another. This mechanism is the Termination of Land Use as Cemetery statute (T.C.A. 46-4-101-104). A landowner has the legal right, through the termination statute, to seek a court order to remove and relocate a cemetery at the landowner’s expense. The decision to remove graves is up to the landowner, and the law is used for both ancient and modern burials. The proposed construction project that impacted the Logan site area was a privately funded venture on private property (in other words, this was not a project that invoked NAGPRA). All skeletal remains and associated burial objects removed from Logan were held at the private consultant’s office until they were reburied on the property in 2018 in accordance with the chancery court order and as mandated by Tennessee state law (T.C.A. 11-6-119).