Crafting Bones: An Analysis of a Worked Bone Assemblage from a Mississippian Ceremonial Complex in Northeast Florida

Summary

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

Bone has been used as a medium for crafting both tools and decorative items since our earliest ancestors; however, this important component of material culture has often been overlooked, with the few published studies focusing on assemblages from either a utilitarian or burial context. The Mill Cove Complex, located along the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, Florida, would have served as a locus for ritual activity among the St. Johns II communities in the area. The analysis of the worked bone assemblage recovered from the excavations of a special activity midden (Kinzey’s Knoll) has the potential to provide insights into the role of worked bone within this unique ritual context. This study will create a typology using a multi-analytical approach to highlight the relationships between form and function supported by use-wear and macro fracture analysis to provide insights into the manufacturing, use, and discard of worked bone artifacts recovered from the site. The data gathered from this study will contribute to a better understanding of the role of worked bone within a unique ritual context among the pre-contact communities along Florida’s Northeast coast.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40059.0