Applying Glass Bead Chemistry to Examine Wendat Village Intrasite Organization

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum: Celebrating 20 Years Serving the Archaeological Community " session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Glass bead compositions and typologies from late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Wendat villages in Ontario have been used to examine chronological differences and regional exchange networks; these artifacts may also be useful for investigating patterns of interaction and change within individual village contexts. Here, we test this hypothesis by examining spatial patterning within three Wendat village sites: Ball, Warminster, and Le Caron [Santimo]. At these sites, others have used historical evidence combined with archaeological data to identify areas of core occupation and later expansion, shifts in the village’s boundaries over time, and individual longhouse structures. Robust radiocarbon chronologies aid in understanding these social patterns for the Ball and Warminster villages. This paper examines data from both polychrome and monochrome glass beads (n = 117 LA-ICP-MS samples) from these sites. It discusses patterns of glass bead chemistry in relation to current interpretations of intrasite spatial organization. This research demonstrates how glass bead compositions may be useful for exploring social differences and community organization across time and space within individual settlement locations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• The Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum: Celebrating 20 Years Serving the Archaeological Community

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38344.0