Exploring Perforated Earspools of the Arkansas River Valley

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Earspools dating from the Mississippi Period are found throughout the Southeast region of North America. Some of these artifacts were recovered from sites in the Arkansas and Red River Valley regions, and share similarities with those from other Mississippian sites in form, material type, size, and decorative motifs. The variability suggests that not all earspools were intended to be identical. The degree of diversity and lack of standardization with regard to the decorative features in the sample of earspools suggest that some of these items of adornment may have been created for specific individuals or for a specific purpose. One of the different types of stylistic attributes present on the artifacts in the assemblage is a perforation. This poster presents results from the analysis of earspools to determine if there is a relationship between the diameters of the perforations and the earspool types in order to further identify diversity in the artifacts and its implication in personal identity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26074