Metal-forming practices among the seventeenth century Illinois, 1640–1682

Abstract

When European copper-based metal trade goods, primarily kettles, first became available to native Americans early in the contact period, they frequently reworked the metal sheet, reforming it into objects that fit into their own indigenous cultural systems. The technical processes through which they converted these products into objects of personal adornment have seldom been investigated archaeometallurgically to determine the elemental make-up of the metals and the techniques involved in reworking them. In this study, undertaken at the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Applied Science Center for Archaeology (MASCA), a sample of 64 copper-based metal artifacts excavated from the Haas/Hagerman Site, Clark County, MO, were examined metallographically to identify manufacturing techniques and technical processes employed by the seventeenth century Illinois to produce these new forms. Proton-induced X-ray emission spectrometry (PIXE) was used to determine the elemental compositions of the artifacts. Results are presented within the larger contexts of early material and technological transformation among the Illinois as European influence intensified.

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