Cahokia's Mound 72 shell artifacts

ABSTRACT

Around AD 1050 at Cahokia, a sudden coalescence of peoples with new ceremonials and Mound 72's commemorative human interments provide evidence of long–distance contacts and finely crafted artifacts. Beads from the famous Mound 72 Beaded Burial have remained unstudied since they were unearthed-a strange situation given the importance of the Beaded Burial. This article presents results from my reexamination of all shell artifacts from Mound 72, including some new artifact identifications, bead counts, and measurements. Artifacts previously called gorgets are shell cups, and one was remarkably large. The source was probably the eastern Gulf of Mexico for most marine shells. I present a new method of examining bead drill holes using the frustum formula, suggesting that porcupine quills or biological materials were used as drill tips for columella beads. This method can be used on stone and bone beads as well. I hypothesize a general decline in bead crafting through time. Paired shell artifact emplacements throughout Mound 72 echo the paired male/female human interments from the Beaded Burial, adding to evidence that Mound 72's burials were part of a ritual theater. My analysis supports the contention that marine shell artifacts were symbolic conduits of human spirits and power.

KEYWORDS:

• Cahokia
• Mound 72
• shell cups
• shell beads
• symbols
• Mississippian

Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the help of many people at the Illinois State Museum, including Brooke Morgan and Dee Ann Watt. Their patience during my multiple visits is much appreciated, especially during the pandemic. Bill Iseminger was quick to answer my queries regarding the numbers and types of beads housed at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Sites. The notion that porcupine quills were used as drill tips for columella beads was suggested to me by Richard Yerkes in 1995 and he deserves much credit for that. No permits were needed for this work. Robin Beck guided the review process and is greatly appreciated, as are anonymous reviewers. Any errors or omissions are my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on the contributor

Laura Kozuch received a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Florida and is retired.

Data availability statement

Most Mound 72 artifacts are housed at the Illinois State Museum and a minority are at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. A spreadsheet and textual description of the raw data presented here is available at the Illinois Data Bank: https://doi.org/10.13012/B2IDB-0946771_V1.

Notes

1 All molluscan nomenclature follows that of WoRMS Editorial Board (2020).

2 Original analyses of all artifacts can be found in Fowler et al. (1999), and shell artifact analyses were presented in Fowler et al. (1999:132–137, 215, Table 10.3).

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this project.