The Poverty Point archaeological site in northeastern Louisiana is most widely known for its massive earthen mounds measuring up to 72 feet tall and forming six concentric semicircles. At its height from 1200 BCE to 700 BCE, the Poverty Point Native American site had an estimated population of around 5,000 and its advanced architecture and tools indicate a thriving society.  Not only is Poverty Point an architectural wonder, it also serves as an indicator of a widespread trading network throughout the Midwest and Northeast. Stones and artifacts from as far as 1000 miles have been found by archeologists at Poverty Point.

When archeologists first began observing large amounts of stone artifacts at Poverty Point, they were able to identify the key element in many of the artifacts as galena, a shiny silver form of lead (II) sulfide. By 1970, over 700 artifacts containing galena had been identified at Poverty Point and four smaller surrounding settlements. The most common galena artifacts are bird effigy pendants, oval pendants, beads, and polished rectangles.

Galena has been found in a wide range of artifacts at Poverty Point including pendants, beads, polished rectangles and stones. Archeologists believe that these artifacts were often used for ceremonial and decorative purposes at Poverty Point as well as other Native American sites throughout the Southeast.

Archeologists used trace element analysis, the process of identifying elements present in small amounts, in order to trace a material back to its source of origin. Trace element analysis of galena artifacts at Poverty Point indicated that the majority of the rocks originated from the Potosi deposit in Missouri while others were from the upper Mississippi valley. Archeologists also conducted trace element analysis of galena artifacts at seven other Native American sites and found that 55% of the artifacts could be traced to the Potosi deposit and 34% to the upper Mississippi valley while the other 11% was inconclusive. Because of this evidence, archeologists were able to identify a trading pattern that used the Mississippi River, the Ohio River and the Arkansas River as well as the Ouachita stream and stopped at sites including Yazoo Basin and a Native American settlement at Calion.

Galena was by no means the only material traded at Poverty Point. This map shows the source areas for other minerals found at Poverty Point in addition to the two main galena source points which are marked as A and C on this map.

Archeologists have also noted a highly similar style of bird pendants made from galena in four different locations along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers indicate that galena was traded both as a raw material and as a finished product. This exhibits the shared cultural importance of galena while also indicating variations in cultural traditions.

Additionally, this trade is especially interesting to archeologists as it does not follow the theory of fall off analysis which states that the quantity of a material will decrease with the distance from the source of that material. There are many more galena artifacts at the Poverty Point site in Louisiana than there are at sites closer to the Potosi deposit. This indicates that the trade was not simply a reciprocal exchange, but rather a more complicated directional trading pattern. The Poverty Point trading network is one of the first instances of large scale long distance trade in the Americas that can be fully shown by archeologists. It represents an extremely important development in society as well as social organization.

Additional Readings:

Feasting at Poverty Point

http://pu6xa6xs3q.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Feasting+at+Poverty+Point+with+Poverty+Point+Objects&rft.jtitle=Southeastern+Archaeology&rft.au=Hays%2C+Christopher+T&rft.date=2018-07-17&rft.issn=0734-578X&rft.eissn=2168-4723&rft.spage=1&rft.epage=15&rft_id=info:doi/10.1080%2F0734578X.2018.1496315&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_1080_0734578X_2018_1496315&paramdict=en-US

Trace Element Analysis on Pottery from Oaxaca

https://www.amnh.org/our-research/anthropology/research/meso-american-archaeology/projects/10.-trace-element-analysis

References

Hays, Christopher T, Richard A Weinstein, and James B Stoltman

2016 Poverty Point Objects Reconsidered. Southeastern Archeology

Hill, Mark A, Diana M Greenlee, and Hector Neff
2016 Assessing the provenance of Poverty Point copper. Journal of Archaeological Science 6: 351–360

Louisiana Division of Archaeology

2014 Discover Archaeology. Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism

Walthall, John A, Clarence H Webb, Stephen H Stow, and Sharon I Goad

1982 Galena Analysis and Poverty Point Trade. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 7: 133–148

Image Citations:

Material Source Map. Louisiana Archaeology Project

https://www.crt.state.la.us/dataprojects/archaeology/virtualbooks/POVERPOI/trade.htm

Galena Artifacts. Louisiana Division of Archaeology

https://www.crt.state.la.us/dataprojects/archaeology/povertypoint/ceremonial-life.html

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When most people think of archaeology, the picture that comes to mind is more-often-than-not one closer to that of Indiana Jones than to that of Lara Croft. Despite both characters existing on a fictional spectrum, this observation of how such popular media culture is represented and absorbed by the general public is an example of a much bigger problem within the field of archaeology itself: androcentrism and the male bias.

A mask of copper, a symbol of status, found near the skull of one of the Moche priestess-queens.

Excavations of the Moche civilization in San José de Moro, Peru that inhabited the area between 1 CE and 800 CE have been taking place for decades. But in the past 27 years, up to eight notable tombs have been discovered in what was once thought of as a society consisting of only male warriors, priests, and kings. Tomb after tomb, archaeologists’ preconceived notions of the civilization’s societal composition were put to the test and quickly fell apart. In 2006, archaeologists were shocked to come across a lavishly decorated tomb on the El Brujo site filled with the remains of—you guessed it—a woman. The findings from a burial analysis of her mummified skeleton and the artifacts deposited in her grave—buried with wooden scepters wrapped in copper, a large crown with an image of a puma, and several tattoos symbolizing sacred figures including snakes, spiders, trees, and stars—led archaeologists to believe that she lived as a high priestess or even a queen of the Moche people. She was later referred to as the Lady of Cao, her burial’s discovery only to be followed by seven additional discoveries of other burial sites of women. The mummies adorned extravagant headdresses and beaded necklaces, were buried next to sacrificed victims, and were surrounded by grand artifacts including scepters and goblets that indicated that they, too, were of higher status and had possessed a more prominent role in the Moche society.

A reconstructed 3D-printed replica of the face of the Lady of Cao, a female priestess-queen of the Moche civilization.

The impact of androcentrism in archaeology is thoroughly and explicitly exemplified in the long-held assumption by archaeologists that the Moche society was ruled only by male figures; with further analysis of the burial sites, findings implied that the buried Moche women belonged to a higher social class, further breaking the notion that the Moche civilization exclusively comprised of higher orders of men and, rather, included—or more often comprised of—women as social elites.

The tomb of the eighth Moche priestess to be discovered, buried 1,200 years ago with an array of artifacts that indicates her high social status.

The discoveries of the priestess-queens of the Moche remind us that we must stay aware of our presumptions and biases as they often bring us to incorrect conclusions. As archaeology is still developing when it comes to including, recognizing, and rewarding women, the male bias is especially important to keep in mind when considering historical archaeological conclusions about the role of gender in ancient societies and cultures. With an awareness of the biases of not only ourselves but also those of archaeologists before us, we can make sure that we are not discounting any potentialities on a matter of assumption or misinterpretation of evidence and that we are, instead, taking into consideration all possibilities in order to accurately restore the archaeological record.

Sources

Renfrew, Colin, and Paul Bahn 2010 Archaeology Essentials. 2nd ed. Thames & Hudson, New York.

Excavated Tombs of Peru’s Moche Priestesses Provide Archaeologists with Troves of Artifacts, Data

Lady of Cao Comes to Life: Face of Peruvian Priestess Reconstructed from 1,700-Year-Old Mummy

Where Women Once Ruled: Excavated Tombs of Moche Priestesses Provide Archaeologists with Troves of Artifacts

Male Bias in Anthropology

Moche Civilization

Mask Image Source

The Lady of Cao and the Royal Tomb Images Source

Additional Readings

Tomb of a Powerful Moche Priestess-Queen Found in Peru

1,500-year-old Ruins Shed Light on Peru’s Mysterious Moche People

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Pollen dating, is one of the lesser utilized methods archaeologists have to determine a relative chronology or timeframe for a certain event. Pollen dating can determine a relative time frame far earlier than radiocarbon dating is able. Although, because of influences such as pollen transportation by wind for thousands of miles and the abundance of certain kinds of pollen, radiocarbon dating is necessary to give absolute dates.

Pollen dating is done by comparing the pollen zones in different rock layers or strata, comparing older, deeper layers to newer ones on top. The pollen zone is the particular time frame where specific species of plants release more pollen into the air than others. Using this, archeologists can determine climate changes, deforestation, or changes in the use of land hundreds of years ago such as the association between European settlement in North America and an increase in the amount of ragweed pollen found. Specific locations can even be determined as the origins for many rare or uncommon pollens.

Pollen can come in a variety of distinct shapes and sizes depending on the plant it is coming from. These microscopic grains are incredibly sturdy with outer shells made from sporopollenin, an incredibly inert substance. This allows the pollen to stay intact for thousands of years, especially when preserved in bodies of water, peat or, lake sediment. Ireland’s bogs are full of sediments and pollen, with certain layers linked to events such as the eruption of Icelandic volcanoes in 1104, 1362, and 1510 and an agricultural shift after the Black Death.

By looking at the sedimentary build up of pollen at the microscopic level, 400-1000x magnification, the pollen grains can be identified and the taxa concentrations determined, which can paint a picture of the climate as it changed over time.

Pollen can also be collected from the inside of pottery such as pots and stone tools, trapped in the fabric of clothes, the the cracks of floors and walls, or on other archeological artifacts and features. This can be used to help determine the diets of a people, their crops, and the materials they used to build their homes. By looking at these specific pollen samples as well as the layer of accumulated pollen, researchers can develop a better understanding of the environment and biodiversity throughout the history of an area.

Pollen magnified

https://www.123rf.com/photo_84820593_stock-illustration-pollen-grains-from-different-plants-3d-illustration-they-are-factors-causing-hay-fever-and-allergic-.html

Two researchers taking core samples

https://www.crowcanyon.org/index.php/palynology

Extra Links:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20210068?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

https://www.encyclopedia.com/earth-and-environment/ecology-and-environmentalism/environmental-studies/pollen-analysis

Citations:

Hirst, K. Kris. “How Does Palynology Inform Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction?” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 8 Mar. 2017, www.thoughtco.com/palynology-archaeological-study-of-pollen-172154.

“Picture Climate: How Pollen Tells Us About Climate.” National Climatic Data Center, www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/picture-climate-how-pollen-tells-us-about-climate.

The Irish Times. “Pollen Dating Paints Picture of Our Past.” The Irish Times, The Irish Times, 24 Feb. 2013, www.irishtimes.com/news/pollen-dating-paints-picture-of-our-past-1.365947.

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Three fossilized hominid skulls were found near Herto, Ethiopia in 1997. The skulls were determined to be those of two adults and one child. The remains were too old to be dated using radiocarbon dating. In order to determine the age of the artifacts found at Herto (Figure 1), scientists performed argon-argon dating on volcanic rock that was found near the artifacts (Zielinski 2008).

Figure 1. A map showing the location of Herto, Ethiopia, the village the hominid skulls were found near.

There are multiple radiometric methods of dating artifacts. Some of these radiometric methods include radiocarbon dating, potassium-argon dating, uranium-series dating, and fission-track dating (Renfrew 2010:120-129). Potassium-argon dating, which measures the ratio of potassium-40 to argon-40, is one radiometric method, but this method of dating is not as precise as argon-argon dating. Scientists converted potassium-40 to argon-39. This allowed the scientists to use argon-argon dating. The volcanic rock analyzed by scientists at Herto were found to be around 154,000 to 160,000 years old (Zielinski 2008).

The hominid skulls found at Herto are important discoveries because at the time of their discovery, they were some of the oldest near-modern human remains on record (Graham 2003). Based on archaeological artifacts like the ones found at Herto, artists have created depictions of near-modern humans (Figure 2). The Homo sapiens remains found at Herto, which were distinct from Homo neanderthalensis remains, were given a subspecies name, Homo sapiens idaltu. Other artifacts from the same time period were found near the fossilized skulls. Some of these artifacts include stone tools and animal bones with marks from tools. Additionally, cut marks on the skulls are indicative of the mortuary practices and rituals of the early humans (Sanders 2003). These marks and tools, which include hand axes, help the people of today understand how Homo sapiens lived over 100,000 years ago.

Figure 2. An artist’s depiction of a near-modern human.

Scientists claim the analysis of the Herto hominid skulls supports claims made by molecular anthropologists. Before the discovery of the Herto artifacts, molecular anthropologists have claimed modern humans evolved out of Africa (Sanders 2003). The discovery of near-modern human skulls in Herto, Ethiopia supports this Out of Africa hypothesis. Before the discovery of the Herto artifacts, other Homo sapiens remains had been discovered in Ethiopia and other African countries. The ages of these other remains range from 80,000 years old to 130,000 years old (Sanders 2003). Since the discovery of the Homo sapiens idaltu fossils near Herto, remains found in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco have been found to be about 315,000 years old, making them the oldest Homo sapiens remains on record (Callaway 2017). While the Herto remains may no longer be considered the oldest Homo sapiens remains on record, the discovery was important in the understanding of the origins of Homo sapiens and illustrates the importance and usefulness of radiometric dating methods like argon-argon dating.

Additional Content

An article that details the importance of dating methods in the Herto discovery and other discoveries: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/showing-their-age-62874/

An article about the Jebel Irhoud Homo sapiens discoveries: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/world-s-oldest-homo-sapiens-fossils-found-morocco

References Cited

Callaway, Ewen
2017 Oldest Homo sapiens fossil claim rewrites our species’ history. Electronic document,
https://www.nature.com/news/oldest-homo-sapiens-fossil-claim-rewrites-our-species-history-1.22114, accessed September 19, 2018.

Graham, Sarah
2003 Skulls of Oldest Homo sapiens Recovered. Electronic document,
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/skulls-of-oldest-homo-sap/, accessed September 19, 2018.

Renfrew, Colin, and Paul Bahn
2010 Archaeology Essentials. 2nd ed. Thames & Hudson, New York.

Sanders, Robert
2003 160,000-year-old fossilized skulls uncovered in Ethiopia are oldest anatomically modern humans. Electronic document,
https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/06/11_idaltu.shtml, accessed September 18, 2018.

Zielinski, Sarah
2008 Showing Their Age. Electronic document,
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/showing-their-age-62874/, accessed September 18, 2018.

Image Sources

Amos, Johnathan
2003 Oldest human skulls found. Electronic document,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2978800.stm, accessed September 19, 2018.

Sanders, Robert
2003 160,000-year-old fossilized skulls uncovered in Ethiopia are oldest anatomically modern humans. Electronic document,
https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/06/11_idaltu.shtml, accessed September 18, 2018.

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In the mid 1800’s Crystal skulls began to circulate, some even finding their way into museums – claiming to be made by pre-Columbian peoples. Although these allegedly magical artifacts raised suspicion among historians and archaeologists for almost a century, they remained in museum collections. However, in 1992 one notable example, The Smithsonian Skull, was donated anonymously to the British Museum, and this event finally moved American and British archaeologists to begin research that led to the debunking of these mysterious artifacts.

Though the Smithsonian Skull was donated anonymously, many other similar crystal skulls were traced back to the 19th century French antiquity dealer, Eugene Boban. Boban had sold the skulls to art dealers claiming they were ancient aztec artifacts, exploiting the imagination of the ignorant buyers. With this forged pre-Columbian provenance, the skulls found their way into both the British Museum and The Quai Branly Museum in Paris.

As research on these skulls commenced, the initial evidence of falsification was the fact that the Smithsonian skull had come from an undocumented site. Furthermore, as crystal can not be carbon dated, no absolute dating method had ever been used to test the authenticity of the skulls. However, archaeologists used relative dating to compare the style of real Aztec skull symbolism to the crystal skulls, and a discrepancy was found in representation of teeth. In the crystal skulls, teeth had been created in linear, symmetrical rows – unlike the more natural pattern of the Aztec designs. Archaeologists also used relative dating methods to compare surface etchings. On the surface of an authentic, Aztec, crystal goblet, etchings showed variance – signs of a handcrafted object. However, the crystal skull etchings showed the use of a rotary wheel, which was only introduced after the Spanish Conquest. The relative date Archaeologists had begun to consider of at least the late 1500’s, was then cross checked using an X-ray diffraction system. The researchers found leftover residue of silicon carbide: an abrasive material used for smoothing in stone carving workshops beginning in the 20th century. Lastly, iron-rich chlorite mineral traces that were found in the crystal of the skull suggested that the crystal material wasn’t even naturally occurring in the Yucatan region, but rather from Brazil or Madagascar.

    The story of the Smithsonian Skull highlights the importance of empiricism in archaeology. Though Babon did sell fake artifacts, he had also traded real ones – making it likely that he knew he was selling forges, but let his personal bias and motivations for profit allow him to look past this. On the other hand, British and American researchers had to look past their own possible, natural biases in order to question the authenticity of the crystal skulls – which up to this point had been ignorantly assumed to be pre-Columbian. Lastly, this series of events shows the importance of the use of multiple dating methods to cross check, and how relative dating can become crucial in artifacts that do not allow absolute dating methods.

The image above is an authentic pre-Columbian skull mask carved in stone from the 1st century AD.

The image above is the Smithsonian Skull sent to the British Museum in 1992.

Work Cited
“Ancient Costa Rica Stone Underworld Skull Deity Death Mask.” Busacca Gallery , www.busaccagallery.com/catalog.php?catid=157&itemid=6383.

Everts, Sarah. “Crystal Skulls Deemed Fake.” CEN RSS, American Chemical Society, 4 Mar. 2013, https://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i9/Crystal-Skulls-Deemed-Fake.html

“Is This Crystal Skull Really Ancient?” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/history/a-real-crystal-skull/.

“The Smithsonian Skull .” Chemical and Engineering News , https://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i9/Crystal-Skulls-Deemed-Fake.html

Additional Content
https://anthropology.si.edu/crystal_skulls/
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/news/studying_the_crystal_skull.aspx

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