With all of our summer travel, it’s been hard to find time to create new weekly artifact featu
With all of our summer travel, it’s been hard to find time to create new weekly artifact features - for that we apologize! The office is also busy analyzing artifact from the Dixon site (Woodbury County) excavations. Cherie Haury-Artz is analyzing the faunal remains and artifacts, and came across this amazing shell bead!This large shell bead was recovered from a trash-filled pit feature at the Dixon site during the 2017 excavations. It is an elongated oval shape, 2.5 cm long and 1.16 cm wide, and has a thin line incised around the perimeter at each end (top image). The pearly luster of the shell must have made it a lovely ornament. As sad as the owner may have been when it broke in half, the resulting cross-section provides archaeologists clues about how it was made. It was made from a thick, solid piece of a freshwater mussel shell, probably obtained locally. The circular marks of a drill are visible on the interior surface near both openings (bottom image). The hour-glass shape of the interior channel indicates that it was drilled from both ends. -- source link
#archaeology#jewelry#indigenous art#shell artifacts#faunal analysis