Shake, Rattle, and Roll: Continuity of Rattling Ceramic Vessels and Adornos in the Caribbean

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ceramic rattles and rattle vessel adornos have received little attention in current Caribbean archaeology literature. These rattles may be overlooked or misidentified in Caribbean ceramic collections due to their minimal audibility or “failure” during the construction process due to their technical complexity. Here, we evaluate existing reports of rattle ceramics and adornos in the Caribbean as well as report on the discovery of five rattle adornos within collections at the Florida Museum of Natural History. A detailed review of adorno rattles, including microscopic analysis, measurement of sound intensity, and a replication experiment is conducted. This study answers questions regarding their technological construction, potential function, geospatial and temporal spread, and cultural implications to Indigenous groups in the Caribbean. Despite difficulty in their construction, adorno rattles and ceramic rattles appeared in the Greater and Lesser Antilles throughout the Ceramic Age and likely functioned in ceremonial spaces. The importance of rattles to Indigenous groups in the Caribbean and their association with cemísm indicates their significance as a social valuable.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38440.0