The Use of Shell Ornaments at Early Agricultural Period Sites in the Tucson Basin

Summary

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

Recent excavations of Early Agricultural Period (circa 1200BC-AD 50) sites in the Tucson Basin of southern Arizona have produced a number of ornaments of personal adornment manufactured from marine shells that are found in either the Gulf of California or the Pacific coastal region of southern California. Thriving shell ornament manufacturing industries in both California and northern Mexico at La Playa were the likely contributors for the finished items of jewelry that have been recovered. It has been suggested that the origin of some of these ornament forms may be found in the exchange of shell artifacts between the populations from the California coast and the Great Basin region. This suggests that the local inhabitants were active participants in one or more exchange networks, and were intent on maintaining these networks. The ornaments may represent symbols of a connection to a faraway place and people, knowledge and experience as a result of their journey to the Tucson Basin.

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): 23514