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THE MANUFACTURE AND BURIAL OF HOHOKAM DISK BEADS IN THE TUCSON BASIN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2018

Jenny L. Adams  and
Mary F. Ownby
Jenny L. Adams
Affiliation:
Desert Archaeology, Inc., 3975 N. Tucson Blvd., Tucson, AZ 84761, [email protected]
Mary F. Ownby*
Affiliation:
Desert Archaeology, Inc., 3975 N. Tucson Blvd., Tucson, AZ 84761, [email protected]
*
[email protected], corresponding author
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Abstract

Recent examinations of more than 13,000 disk beads from mortuary contexts determined that macroscopic examination was not always enough to distinguish shell, stone, and fired-clay beads. Using replication experiments and scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS), we update the 80-year-old conclusions of Emil Haury, who defined features distinctive to bead manufacture. With this renewed confidence in materials identification, we analyzed the distributions of disk beads made from shell, stone, and fired clay among Hohokam inhumations and cremations at the Yuma Wash, Honey Bee Village, and Wetlands sites in the Tucson Basin. Not everyone was buried with disk beads, but all age groups were represented among those who were buried with beads. Some people were buried with only stone, or only shell, or only fired-clay beads, although more were buried with beads of some combination of these three materials. In this article, we consider why fired-clay beads were added to the mix and conclude that they were made as acceptable substitutes for stone beads, not for deceptive reasons concerning wealth or status, but rather in imitation of stone to honor a tradition that could not otherwise be efficiently met.

El reciente análisis de más de 13.000 cuentas anulares procedentes de contextos funerarios en tres sitios de la cuenca de Tucson, Arizona, concluyó que un examen macroscópico no era siempre suficiente para distinguir entre cuentas de concha, piedra y arcilla cocida. Utilizando reproducciones experimentales y el microscopio electrónico de barrido con espectroscopía de energía dispersiva (MEB-EDS), hemos actualizado las conclusiones presentadas por Emil Haury hace 80 años acerca de los rasgos distintivos de manufactura y técnicas de perforación. Con confianza reafirmada en nuestra capacidad de identificar los materiales utilizados para producir cuentas anulares, hemos analizado las distribuciones de las cuentas de concha, piedra y arcilla cocida en entierros en los sitios Hohokam de Yuma Wash, Honey Bee Village y Wetlands. Las cuentas anulares fueron enterradas en proporciones siempre mayores con los difuntos, incinerados o inhumados, durante el periodo Preclásico y hasta el periodo Clásico en Honey Bee Village y Yuma Wash. Hay variación en los materiales utilizados para producir las cuentas, pero la mayoría de los muertos fueron enterrados con cuentas hechas de materiales distintos. Algunos tenían sólo cuentas de piedra, de concha o de arcilla cocida. Concluimos que fue importante manufacturar cuentas de arcilla cocida como sustituto aceptable para las cuentas de piedra. Esa práctica no tuvo el fin de engañar en cuanto al nivel de riqueza o posición social, sino de de imitar la piedra para honrar una tradición que no se habría podido perpetuar de otra manera.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 3 , July 2018 , pp. 536 - 551
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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