Incised Dentalium Shell Beads in the Plateau Culture Area
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BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers Volume 16 Volume 16 (2004) Article 7 1-1-2004 Incised Dentalium Shell Beads in the Plateau Culture Area Roderick Sprague Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/beads Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Science and Technology Studies Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Repository Citation Sprague, Roderick (2004). "Incised Dentalium Shell Beads in the Plateau Culture Area." BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers 16: 51-68. Available at: https://surface.syr.edu/beads/vol16/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers by an authorized editor of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INCISED DENTALIUM SHELL BEADS IN THE PLATEAU CULTURE AREA Roderick Sprague Whole dentalium and segments of dentalium shell have been used Her study of the archaeological occurrence of marine-shell as beads in the Northwest Coast and interior Plateau culture areas beads in the Fort Rock Basin within the Oregon portion of both prehistorically and ethnographically. Incised whole shells, the Great Basin revealed almost 200 shell beads of which and no more than five known examples of incised segments, have over half were olivella but only four were dentalium been recovered from the Plateau, limited to archaeological contexts. (Largaespada 2006: 19). None of the dentalium was incised. A review of the reported incising clearly shows the use of design Other dentalium in the Great Basin bordering on the Plateau elements typical of the Plateau Culture Area as often also used on are rare with Bonnichsen (1964:32) the only published bone, antler, wood, and historic copper in addition to dentalium. source noted in southern Idaho. The Asotin site (45-AS-9), one of the few well-dated Plateau burial The article by Clark ( 1963 ), in spite of having the Hidatsa sites with incised beads indicates that this phenomena has a broad and Gros Ventre speaking Salish in "Dakota Territory," and, as yet, poorly de.fined chronological occurrence, largely from presents good descriptions and illustrations of dentalium the protohistoric to the early historic. procurement equipment. For additional illustrations of shells and procurement equipment, see Andrews (1989), INTRODUCTION Barton (1991:8-9), Underhill (1945:163), Weld (1963:7), and in color, Nuytten (1993). For details on the antiquity of The shell popularly called tusk shell, haiqua, hiaqua, dentalium use, see Erlandson et al. (2001 ). hiqua, dentalia, and dentalium is, for the most part, recovered The term "dentalium" seems to be the preferred term from the waters off of the west coast of Vancouver Island. in all situations for malacologists and others studying the Other terms in English include tooth shell, Indian tusk shell, animal while anthropologists, especially archaeologists, horn shell, and Indian money shell. There is also a list of tend to use the correct Latin forms dentalium for the 18 native terms (plus one added in ink by the publisher) singular and dentalia for the plural. Of course, for the as recorded by explorers (Galois and Mackie 1990:3). genus the correct form is Dentalium, always capitalized Of the several species found along the Pacific coast, only and italicized. The 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Dentalium pretiosum Sowerby is found in the Pacific Collegiate Dictionary (Mish 2003:333) continues the Northwest archaeological record (Erickson 1990:94), listing of dentalium with the plural form dentalia. For the however, D. neohexagonum is found in coastal California benefit of copy editors and the sake of uniformity, the term waters (Erlandson et al. 2001). Unlike the Atlantic variety, dentalium will be used exclusively here but the arbitrary D. entails, the dentalium traded in the West is smooth statement by Andrews (1989:14) based on one personal surfaced thus making it an excellent medium for fine etching communication - "References referring to 'dentalia' in a or incising and, according to one authority, "scratched" plural sense are incorrect" - is rejected. Appending the word (Clark 1963:18). For a detailed study of the distribution of shell to dentalium, as in the title of this article, is considered procurement sites and the various species available, consult redundant by some authorities. the thesis by Barton (1994). - The segmenting and decorating by incising or engraving A detailed study of the major species of shell used in of dentalium has not been adequately discussed in the the Plateau and their trading routes is provided by Erickson literature of the Northwest, neither coastal nor interior. The (1990). Other sources for the distribution and trading of present discussion will examine the distribution of sites in the dentalium include Andrews (1989), Clark (1963), Galois Plateau containing shells with these unusual modifications. and Mackie (1990), Mackie and Galois (1990), and Weld The important work of Hayden and Schul ting ( 1997 :53, 57, (1963). For the Klamath-Modoc region, often included 65) makes such a task vastly easier because of their fairly in the Plateau, consult the article by Largaespada (2006). complete listing of sites with incised dentalium. While the BEADS 16:51-68 (2004) 52 Asotin site is listed as having dentalium, they missed it as 3, 5, 6a-b); 3) segmented, unincised (Asotin Type 48); and having the incised styles. Caution should also be used when 4) the rare segmented, incised dentalium (Asotin Type 49) locating sites from their map. One interesting fact derived (Figs. 4, 6c ). The Asotin burial site is especially significant from this work is that all of the incised dentalium they list to the study of Plateau dentalium not only because it contains are from disposals (burials and cremations), a trait also all four types but because these beads are associated with true of Andrews' (1989) listing with the exception of one historic grave goods with comparatively accurate dates, bead which, according to Andrews, was found by Greengo and the burials in the site represent the first and still basic (1982) in a house excavation. Several other sources such as chronology of the Plateau Burial Complex (Sprague 1959, Osborne ( 1957) were not instructive as to usage. 1967, 1971). The thesis by Andrews (1989) presents extensive One major problem in the analysis of these bead types information on the distribution of incised dentalium on the is the confusion in the writing of some researchers between Northwest Coast but suffers major deficits for the Plateau. broken (accidental) and segmented (intentional) dentalium, She has created a new cultural area from a physiographic neither of which are complete shells. This problem is region-the Okanogan Highlands-without a definition and especially acute in the case of archaeological examples no known previous use of the term in archaeology. Also, excavated from acidic soil. In every case where segmenting for unknown reasons, there is no mention of the extensive was found on recent samples, the bead still retained the use of incised and unincised dentalium on the lower Snake hard shiny surface in contrast to the soft, chalky surface River, yet southern Idaho and the area beyond is included in resulting from long burial. This difference is also useful the discussion. Numerous publications and graduate studies in determining the unethical or even illegal use of from the lower Snake can be found prior to 1989, including archaeological (chalky) beads in modem jewelry reputed to the distribution notations of Erickson (1983). be from ethnographic sources. In spite of these deficiencies, Andrews has a fairly In the Plateau, whole beads do not appear to have thorough listing of dentalium excavated in the Plateau served as actual money or for the accumulation of wealth except those areas just mentioned. In her Table 3, notation as they often did on the Northwest Coast and clearly did is generally made of incised dentalium but numbers are not in parts of northern California, but rather were more for always available (Andrews 1989:77-84). Where figures are ornamentation (Spinden 1908:220). Largaespada (2006:6- available, of a total of 7 ,978 beads, only 104 ( 15 from the 7), in a brief summary of ethnographic uses of dentalium in Great Basin and California deleted) or 1.3% are incised. The the Fort Rock Basin of south-central Oregon, similarly found actual number of incised specimens is probably much lower decorative use preferred over a monetary use. The coast area partially because each fragment of a broken incised shell is preferred whole beads while the interior seemed to readily counted as one bead. For example, the original description utilize, if not actually desire, the segments. This preference of the seven count of Bonnichsen (1964:32) is possibly one also affected the actual value of the beads as the whole and no more than three. Further research seeking more exact shells were more highly valued closer to the source where figures and comparing the Plateau to the Northwest Coast the class structure was well developed. In the Plateau the might yield significant data on incising and segmenting in segments were accepted because they were more practical the two areas. As noted above, only one of the 104 incised for decoration and their monetary value was of less concern specimens was not located in a disposal area (0.96% ). in the more egalitarian interior. It is not known which form was more valued among the Nez Perce at the time of the Any study of distribution or statistical manipulation Asotin burials, but the presence of both is worthy of note. of dentalium data from the Plateau must await the analysis Hayden and Schulting (1997), among others, suggest we of the numerous minor reports sequestered in the British need to review the generally held view of the egalitarian Columbia Heritage Conservation Branch, Victoria.