Extant Shark Tooth Artifacts at Cahokia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Past Human-Shark Interactions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Cahokia is one of the most important archaeological sites in North America and was populated from AD 1000 to 1300. It was mound-building center with exotic lithics, ceramics, marine shell beads, and shark teeth. Here, I present information on 21 Greater Cahokia extant shark teeth along with contextual and chronological information. None of the teeth are fossils but rather are from freshly caught animals, and as such they are considered trade goods. More than one-third of the teeth were drilled in the middle of the root indicating that they were hafted for pendants or for tools/weapons. Shark teeth are rare from Mississippian sites, making shark teeth at Greater Cahokia especially unique. I show that the teeth and/or jaws were extracted from extant, freshly caught sharks and probably acquired from the Gulf of Mexico or south Florida. Shark teeth were found in high-status contexts, and shark tooth replicas were made from chert. The intentional importation of shark teeth is another indication of the seminal nature and far-reaching trading relationships of Cahokian culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Past Human-Shark Interactions   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37754.0