Identifying Turtle Shell Rattles in the Archaeological Record of the Southeastern United States (original) (raw)
Related papers
An Exploration of Turtle Shell Rattle Manufacture in the Mississippian Period
2011
Please see my newer papers that are peer-reviewed publications: "Creation to Rhythm: An Ethnographic and Archaeological Survey of Turtle Shell Rattles and Spirituality in the United States" published by Journal of Ethnobiology (https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-39.3.425) "An Experimental Study of Turtle Shell Rattle Production and the Implications for Archaeofaunal Assemblages" published by PLOS ONE (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201472) "Identifying Turtle Shell Rattles in the Archaeological Record of the Southeastern United States" published by Ethnobiology Letters (https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.979) Abstract: Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina) remains are frequently recovered from archaeological sites across the Southeastern United States. Typically they are counted as food refuse; however, ethnographic and taphonomic data suggest box turtles may have functioned as rattles. Rattles were made using modern box turtle shells, and examined for manufacturing marks, use-wear, and breakage patterns. The information gained from the experimental studies was compared to archaeological turtle remains from two Mississippian Period sites. We determined that box turtle remains cannot always be classified as food refuse. Instead taphonomic history and contextual associations must be taken into account in functional interpretations.
PLOS ONE, 2018
Turtle shell rattles are percussion instruments used by Indigenous peoples of the Americas in ceremonial contexts to keep rhythm. Archaeological investigations in the southeastern United States produced several complete and partial Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina) shell rattles from mortuary contexts dating from the Archaic (ca. 8000±1000 BC) through Mississippian periods (ca. AD 800±1500). Fragmentary turtle remains, some identified as Eastern box turtle, are frequently recovered from non-mortuary contexts. Traditionally, these fragmentary remains are attributed to food waste. Given the archaeological and ethnographic evidence for turtle shell rattles, we need to consider how fragmentary remains might fit into the chaõÃne ope ratoire of rattle production. This paper presents the results of an experimental study designed to identify one such chaõÃne ope ratoire of rattle production. During this experiment, the data on taphonomic processes such as manufacturing marks, usewear, and breakage patterns, were recorded. We then tested the taphonomic findings from the experimental study and an object trait list we compiled from known rattle specimens and documentary sources with archaeological turtle remains recovered from non-mortuary contexts at two Mississippian period (ca. AD 1000±1450) sites in Middle Tennessee. Historic indigenous groups are known to have, and still do into the present-day, make and use turtle shell rattles in the region. Ultimately, we determined that ªfood refuseº should not be the default interpretation of fragmentary box turtle remains, and instead the taphonomic history and contextual associations must be considered in full. The experimental process of crafting turtle shell rattles enhances our understanding of an ancient musical instrument and the success rate of identifying musical artifacts and distinguishing between other modified turtle remains in the archaeological record. This study expands our knowledge of ancient music in North America and prompts re-analysis of curated turtle remains in museums for rattlerelated modifications.
Journal of Ethnobiology, 2019
Throughout North America, from the Archaic period (ca. 8000–1000 BC) to the present, Indigenous Peoples used turtle shell rattles in a variety of cultural contexts, including in ceremonies. As a material, turtle shells can be an abundant, accessible, and easily processed raw material, whose shape and size lends itself to be a musical instrument. Many Indigenous Peoples in North America have cosmological, foundational beliefs about turtles. These beliefs provide a greater understanding of why turtle shell rattles are incorporated into ceremonies and dances. Furthermore, they help explain why they are used to keep rhythm, which in turn provides a basis for spiritual energy and experience. This paper reviews the ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological records of turtle shell rattle music in the contiguous United States. Turtle shell rattles are related to spiritual concepts of sound and are culturally defined and contextualized. A comprehensive review of their use reveals insights into the musical knowledge of several ancient and historic communities.
Crushed turtle shells: Proxies for lithification and burial-depth histories
Geosphere
We propose a new proxy that employs assemblages of fossil turtle shells to estimate the timing and depth at which fossilization and lithification occur in shallowly buried terrestrial strata. This proxy, the Turtle Compaction Index (TCI), leverages the mechanical failure properties of extant turtle shells and the material properties of sediments that encase fossil turtle shells to estimate the burial depths over which turtle shells become compacted. Because turtle shells are one of the most abundant macroscopic terrestrial fossils in late Mesozoic and younger strata, the compactional attributes of a suite of turtle shells can be paired with geochronologic and stratigraphic data to constrain burial histories of continental settings—a knowledge gap unfilled by traditional burial-depth proxies, most of which are more sensitive to deeper burial depths. Pilot TCI studies of suites of shallowly buried turtle shells from the Denver and Williston basins suggest that such assemblages are sen...
Royal Society Open Science, 2019
Advancements in molecular science are continually improving our knowledge of marine turtle biology and evolution. However, there are still considerable gaps in our understanding, such as past marine turtle distributions, which can benefit from advanced zooarchaeological analyses. Here, we apply collagen fingerprinting to 130 archaeological marine turtle bone samples up to approximately 2500 years old from the Caribbean and Florida's Gulf Coast for faunal identification, finding the vast majority of samples (88%) to contain preserved collagen despite deposition in the tropics. All samples can be identified to species-level with the exception of the Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) and olive ridley (L. olivacea) turtles, which can be separated to genus level, having diverged from one another only approximately 5 Ma. Additionally, we identify a single homologous peptide that allows the separation of archaeological green turtle samples, Chelonia spp., into two distinct groups, which potentially signifies a difference in genetic stock. The majority of the archaeological samples are identified as green turtle (Chelonia spp.; 63%), with hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata; 17%) and ridley turtles (Lepidochelys spp.; 3%) making up smaller proportions of the assemblage. There were no molecular identifications of the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) in the assemblage despite 9% of the samples being morphologically identified as such, highlighting the difficulties in relying on morphological identifications alone in archaeological remains. Finally, we present the first marine turtle molecular phylogeny using collagen (I) amino acid sequences and find our analyses match recent phylogenies based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. Our results highlight the advantage of using collagen fingerprinting to supplement morphological analyses of turtle bones and support the usefulness of this technique for assessing their past distributions across the Caribbean and Florida's Gulf Coast, especially in these tropical environments where DNA preservation may be poor.