Homecoming was this past Saturday, and it was packed with fun events and activities, celebrations, a parade, a football game, and the crowning of the Crimson Homecoming Court. In America, the idea of selecting a Homecoming court and having a King and Queen arose in the 1930s. Originally, Kings and Queens were chosen based on the float the came in on during the Homecoming parade. The crowning of royalty is something other parts of the world are exposed to as well. With the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II, sometime in 2023 King Charles III will be crowned during a coronation ceremony. In August of this year Misuzulu Zulu was crowned as the new Zulu king in South Africa, wearing a headdress of traditional leopard skin and black feathers.

Although receiving a cheap, bedazzled crown after being voted as the most popular by classmates does not really compare to the coronation of British or Africa royalty, the ceremonies do have something in common; something worn on the head as a symbol of royalty, leadership, and power. Typically called a crown or headdress, these physical symbols are usually made out of rare or symbolic materials, and they legitimize who is in charge and who has the authority to sometimes do whatever they want.

The oldest known crown belonging to the British royal family is the Princess Blanche’s crown, that dates to around 1399; it is set with pearls, diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. Although the origins of the royal crowns we recognize today reach back to the emperors of the Roman Empire, crowns, headdresses, and other forms of adornment that showcase the leader of the group have been used by other civilizations across the world in many different periods of time.

In 2012, archaeologists in China uncovered a 6^th century crown that originally belonged to Empress Xiao from the Sui dynasty (AD 581-618). It is the oldest imperial crown ever discovered in China, found in a tomb in Yangzhou, in the modern-day Jiangsu Province. The crown had been resting in a rotten wooden box and was restored at the Cultural Relic Protection Institute in Shaanxi Province. It was decorated with pearls, cotton, silk, fragile copper wires, and thirteen flower decorations, each composed of gilded bronze wires with delicate representations of stalks, stamens, and petals.

In Korea, five gold crowns excavated from five royal tombs, helped the ancient capital of Guemseong, modern day Gyeongju, justify the meaning of its name, ‘city of gold.’ The five crowns are from the Silla Kingdom that extended their rule from southeast Korea during the Three Kingdoms period (57 BC-AD 668) all the way to the Unified Silla Kingdom period (AD 668-935). The crowns belonged to Silla kings and queens who were buried in large, stone-lined tombs within earth mounds, when they passed. The crowns were preserved and survived because of the clay placed between the layers of stone, the lack of horizontal entrances to the tombs, and the fact that the tombs were never looted. The first of the National Treasures of Korea were found in 1921 in a tomb known as the Gold Crown tomb that dated to the second half of the 5^th century. The other four tombs with their crowns were found nearby and are called the Great Tomb at Hwangnam, Cheonmachong (the ‘Heavenly Horse Tomb’), the Gold Bell Tomb, and the Auspicious Phoenix Tomb. The Silla crowns are made up of three parts, an openwork tall conical cap, a piece resembling a wing or butterfly which fits into the cap, and a diadem; chains with pendants also hang from the sides of the crowns. In addition to the embellished, sheet-cut gold pieces that form the crowns, they are adorned with jade pendants.

Researchers note similarities to gold crowns from the Black Sea area, Bactria, Japan, and China. Baekje and Goguryeo, the other two kingdoms from the Three Kingdoms period besides Silla, also had crowns. Recognized Goguryeo crowns were made of guilt-bronze, but Baekje has famous crown ornaments, in addition to crowns, known as Geumjegwansik attributed to their kingdom, that were excavated from a tomb in Gongju, South Korea in 1971. The two gold diadems are shaped like flames with flower and vine-like patterns and were worn by the king of Baekje. They were found in the tomb of King Muryeon who was in power from AD 501-523.

In 2016 a man found a 2,300-year-old Greek myrtle wreath dating to around 300 BC underneath his bed. The crown, valued at over 100,000 English pounds, was in a cardboard box in Somerset, England. Usually worn for religious ceremonies or given as prizes at athletic and artistic contests, the crown from Ancient Greece is pure gold, handmade, and weighs about 100 grams.

Tombs dating to around 750-700 BC were found by Iraqi archaeologists in 1990. One contained a gold crown with trellis vines, lapis-lazuli grapes, four-winged robed figures, and rows of pomegranates and rosettes. The crown was from the ancient Assyrian empire of Mesopotamia and the tombs were found under the floors of rooms in Ashurnasirpal II’s (883-859 BC) harem.

Archaeologists uncovered a 4,000-year-old copper crown in modern day India in 2015 that belonged to the late Indus Valley civilization. It is one of two crowns from an Indus Valley site ever recovered, was found resting on a skull, and is decorated with a carnelian and a fiance stone. Along with the skeleton and crown, pottery and animal bones were also found nearby. Researchers suggest that this person could have been someone important, like a local leader of some kind, based on the crown. However, the crude, simple, local decorations on the pottery, suggest that this person might have not been all that powerful, that they were more likely to have been someone who was rich or had good taste, rather than a political figure.

One crown that has claimed to be the oldest in the world is a 6,000-year-old crown found in 1961 in a Dead Sea Cave. The cave was in the Galilean highlands of the Judean Desert of Israel and recovered by archaeologists Pessah Bar-Adon. The crown dates to the Copper Age between 4000-3500 BC, more specifically the Chalcolithic period (4500-3600 BC), and was amongst 400 other artifacts in the cave, a finding that has become known as the Nahal Mishmar Hoard. The thick copper ring with vultures and doors jutting from the top was one of five crowns from the hoard. The objects are thought to have been placed in the cave for safe keeping, and from the Chalcolithic Temple of Ein Gedi, which is around 12 kilometers away. Some question if the “world’s oldest crown” was even used as a crown at all; perhaps it was a stand for an urn, or something else, but the seven-inch tall with about equal diameter band of blackened copper, is eye-catching, with its rim of pointed figures, hilt-shaped cross, long-necked birds, and gates or grilles with horns.

The claim to the “world’s oldest crown” is challenged by what some believe is a 35,000-50,000-year-old crown or headband made of woolly mammoth tusk ivory and broken into three pieces. Rediscovered by archaeologists in a Denisova Cave in the Altai mountains of Siberia, the head piece was worn by a man, but it is up for speculation if it was used to designate royalty or leadership, a mark of a family or tribe, or if it was just used to hold his hair back. Diadems such as these are rare, and there would have been several steps taken to create this item. The tusks would have to have been separated from the animal, cut into pieces, soaked in water to be shaped, then physically shaped, scraped, cut, grinded, drilled, and finally polished. This crown was too long to be a bracelet, had microscopic wear that showed it had contact with organic material like skin, was bent to fit to an adult male’s temple, and the longest piece had half a hole on one side drilled into it that was most likely used with cords or straps to affix to the head; all reasons that contributed to the belief that these pieces of ivory potentially had a crown-like function.

Crowns and other head-adorning symbols of leadership are prevalent in many other societies and civilizations; some have survived, while others are recognized through art, written records, oral histories, carvings, and sculptures. Native Americans in Pre-Columbian times wore headdresses, headbands, and war bonnets, in various styles and sizes depending on the tribe and location in the country. They could be made from the hairs of animals such as porcupines, moose, and deer’s tails, from feathers, buffalo fur and horns, and otter fur and tails, in addition to beads, quillwork, and decorative patterns. Ancient Maya headdresses were worn by the elite, with the King’s being the largest, the larger the headdress the more important the person. Wood, cloth, jade, shells, and colorful feathers were used to carefully craft these headdresses that were made to look like animals that were important to the culture, such as the jaguar, snake, or falcon. The quetzal bird was coveted by the Mayan culture and its feathers were used solely for royalty.

Ancient Egyptian pharaohs also had recognizable crowns and headdresses, each with a certain meaning indicated by their shape. The Deshret or Red Crown, established the king as the ruler of Lower Egypt. No physical examples of this crown survive today. Hedjet, the White Crown, establishes the king’s rule over southern Egypt; it too has no surviving example. The Pschent, the Double Crown, also known as Sekhemti or the “Two Powerful Ones”, symbolizes the king’s rule over both Upper and Lower Egypt. This crown is the merging of the Red and White Crowns, a move done under King Narmer during the Pharaonic period (3000 BC-332 BC). Nemes, was a striped head cloth that is easily recognized as being worn by King Tutankhamun on his coffin. The earliest depiction of this headdress was found on an ivory label of King Den from the 1^st dynasty. It was typically worn to cover a crown and the backside of the head. The Khepresh, or Blue Crown, made from stained leather, became popular by the 18^th dynasty, but is known as a war crown, as it was depicted often as being worn by Ramesses II in the Battle of Kadesh. The Atef Crown was the crown of the first mythical king Osiris but was worn by other deities. Its earliest depiction is of being worn by the Pharaoh Sahure in the 5^th dynasty of the Old Kingdom. The Hemhem or Triple Atef became popular during the reign of Akhenaten (1353-1336 or 1351-1334 BC) and the Ptolemaic period or dynasty (323/305-30 BC). It was a variation of the Atef Crown, was also called the “Roaring One”, and was worn by Heka, the god of magic.

The craftsmanship that has gone into making crowns of all shapes, sizes, and materials throughout the centuries is astounding. But archaeologists have to be careful when determining what should be labeled as a crown, or whether the artifact they are studying just resembles the familiar shape. From fakes to mistakes, like when researchers initially concluded that a 6^th century bucket fitting was a crown, archaeologists and scholars need to be vigilant when examining and labeling artifacts.

Crowns will always fascinate people because of what they stand for; power, authority, and even popularity. They are still used by royal families, in Halloween costumes, and to adorn the heads of Homecoming Queens and Kings today. As you celebrate occasions such as Homecoming, take some time to recognize that so many of the mundane parts of customs we celebrate today, are reflections of objects used in ancient traditions for many, many years.

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Further Reading and Sources:

https://visual.ly/community/Infographics/history/history-homecoming

https://www.dw.com/en/south-africa-thousands-witness-crowning-of-new-zulu-king/a-62877697

https://www.grunge.com/865856/this-is-the-oldest-known-british-royal-family-crown/

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/6th-century-crown-chinese-empress-revealed-first-time-its-full-glory-006631

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/957/the-gold-crowns-of-silla/

https://www.worldhistory.org/image/5961/baekje-gold-crown-ornaments/

https://www.primidi.com/crown_of_baekje/national_treasure_of_korea_no154

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3610916/Incredibly-rare-2-300-year-old-Ancient-Greek-gold-crown-worth-100-000-kept-decades-tatty-box-old-newspapers-bed-owner-no-idea-was.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/cultures/mesopotamia_gallery_08.shtml

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/4000-year-old-copper-crown-found-india-002558

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/34290

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/6000-year-old-crown-found-dead-sea-cave-revealed-001436

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-worlds-oldest-crown

https://www.livescience.com/64297-ancient-woolly-mammoth-tiara-denisova-cave.html

https://theamericanhistory.org/important-facts-native-american-headdresses.html#:~:text=The%20roach%20headdresses%2C%20also%20known%20as%20porcupine%20roaches%2C,headdresses%20were%20often%20worn%20by%20dancers%20and%20warriors.

https://mayansandtikal.com/mayan-clothing/mayan-headdresses-clothes/

https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/crowns/

https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa-news-general-opinion/crowns-pharaohs-00579

https://quickjewelryrepairs.com/articles/what-is-the-history-of-the-royal-crowns/#:~:text=The%20oldest%20crown%20in%20the%20world%20was%20discovered,of%20this%20culture%20is%20their%20mastery%20of%20coppersmithing.

https://www.dw.com/en/a-crown-or-a-bucket-when-archaeologists-make-mistakes/a-46807172

 

It’s been getting chilly and crisp in Indiana, PA this past week and I don’t know about you but fall weather makes me want to sit inside and make something. If you are like me, you might be interested in experimental archaeology which is a practice where archaeologists make and utilize technologies of past people in order to understand them better. Archaeologists use experimental archaeology to test hypotheses of how and why people used different technologies. Typically, materials are gathered from the environment around you making it an accessible hobby for anyone interested in the technologies of the past.  Here are some experimental archaeology crafts that you can do while you enjoy the lovely fall weather! 

The first and most beloved example is flintknapping! This is a process that pre-contact societies used to make stone tools. It involves carefully chipping away at specific parts of a “raw” stone, also called a core. You first start with percussion flakes which chip off because of the force you apply to certain parts of the core. Then, you take off smaller pieces by applying pressure to an edge of the core with a deer antler or some other type of sharpened tool. This step refines the tool into whatever you want it to be such as an arrow/spear point or an adze. If you have kids or if you’re worried about injuring yourself you can also try “soapknapping” which takes some of the same ideas of flintknapping as you carve your stone tool out of a bar of soap. The supplies needed for flintknapping are flint/chert which is what you make your stone tool out of, a hammerstone, a piece of leather to protect your leg, a billet made from deer antler or hard wood, and an antler tine or sharpened wood for pressure flaking. 

 

If stone tools aren’t your thing maybe you would like to make a basket out of pine needles, sweetgrass, or other dry plant materials that you can forage. There are many ways to make a basket but one of the most comprehensible ways is by coiling. To make a coiled basket you first have to collect the materials. Once you have your pine needles or sweetgrass make sure to wash them, bundle them, and lay them out to dry before you start working with them. Once they are dry, you can finally begin by wrapping a cord that is attached to a tapestry needle around a bundle of around four to six pieces of your material. Your foundation cord should be wrapped 10-15 times and be ¾ inch long at first. Then, you will curl the end in and start the spiral formation by pushing the needle through the middle of the two beginning rows and sewing the new rows into the previous coil. If this sounds incredibly confusing don’t worry, there are step-by-step instructions linked at the bottom under “Sources and Further Reading”. 

If you’re looking for an easier project, you could make a pinch pot which is one way Native Americans made pottery for food storage and cooking. To make a pot you need to either find clay in a local clay bed,  buy it at your local craft store, or make it by looking up a salt-dough recipe. If you collect your clay, you will likely have to process it so if you are looking for a really easy project you might want to stick with air-dry clay. Once your clay is prepared, roll it out and then roll it into a ball. Then you will put your thumb in the center to make a crater in the clay and from that crater you can pinch the sides of your pot to your desired thickness. From there you can add imprinted designs using a pencil or anything else you have around your house! If you are using air-dry clay then you can simply set your project out to dry but if you are using a salt-dough or you gathered clay you will have to bake and fire it respectively. 

No matter what project you choose, you will be able to get into the mindset of the people who created and used these technologies many years ago. This is what archaeologists are interested in, understanding the people of the past through the materials that they produced. By making these materials ourselves, we can get a sense of what it was like to make them and experiment with different processes to test the feasibility of certain hypotheses. We can also have fun while we’re at it which is a big benefit! 

 

Sources and Further Reading: 

https://exarc.net/experimental-archaeology

 

Flintknapping: 

https://archaeology.uiowa.edu/flintknapping-0 https://www.elymuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/HAH-worksheet-Pre-history-Stone-Age-Knapping.pdf 

https://wildernessawareness.org/articles/stone-tools-and-flintknapping/

 

Basket Weaving: 

http://www.nativetech.org/basketry/coilinstr.html

https://www.knowitall.org/interactives/anaturalstate/pine-needle-basket/

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/sflarch/collections/seminole-baskets/technique/

 

Pinch Pot:

https://exploreandmore.org/sanity-savers-make-a-pinch-pot-for-the-archaeological-society-anniversary/

https://www.instructables.com/Harvesting-Your-Own-Clay-Dirty-But-Delightful/

https://exploreandmore.org/sanity-savers-salt-dough-unicorns-and-easter-eggs/

https://thepotterywheel.com/pinch-pot-history/

https://newjerseyarchaeology.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/miniature-clay-pot-an-ancient-toy/

 

Image Credits:

https://closternaturecenter.org/?event=primitive-technology-2

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/how-to-weave-pine-needle-baskets

https://newjerseyarchaeology.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/miniature-clay-pot-an-ancient-toy/

 

The first day of Fall for 2022 was officially on September 22^nd. As the season change, flowers of summer will begin to fade. Flowers die out every season, every year, and some species are known to have even gone extinct. Flowers are fragile and rarely preserved in the archaeological record. However, biologists, archaeologists, and other researchers have been able to recover evidence of flowers, such as fossilized flowers, in the archaeological record. Researchers can also gather information from studying the iconography on ceramics and jewelry, in paintings, texts, sculptures, and other forms of artistic expression, to learn more about the flowers that were popular in the past.

Flowers permeate many aspects of the ancient world. Ancient Egyptians worshiped, Nefertum, the god of perfumes who was also the god of the lotus blossom. In the Egyptian creation story, Ra, the sun god, emerged from a blue lotus. Statuettes and amulets often portrayed Nefertum with a lotus on his head or as a lotus flower with two feathers. During the Tang dynasty in ancient China, around 8-12^th centuries CE, tree peonies were seen as symbols of feminine beauty, love, wealth, and status. They became common and popular in paintings during the Song dynasty. Even one of the famous Nazaca Lines, 2,000-year-old giant geoglyphs etched into the ground in Lima, Peru, includes a shape that resembles a flower.

In 2021 bouquets of flowers were discovered in the ancient city of Teotihuacán in Mexico by archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico. The four bouquets date to 1,800 years ago and were found in a tunnel under a pyramid, 18 meters down. They were well-preserved and likely a gift for the deity Quetzalcoatl.

Archaeologists in Israel from the University of Haifa have also found plant impressions, including flowers, in graves. The plants appear to have been buried underneath the dead and date to around 12,000 years ago. This is one of the earliest uses of flowers in ceremonial burials.

In terms of preserving ancient flowers, amber is a fantastic means as it is essentially fossilized resin. In 1986 a cave in the Dominican Republic was discovered. It was home to hundreds of fossilized plants and insects. However, it wasn’t until 2016 when a preserved fossil flower was announced. The flowers were a new species, Strychnos electri, and are around 45-15 million years old. They were part of the asterid plant clade, which are one of the largest lineages of flowering plants, and are antecedents to over 80,000 species, such as potatoes, coffee, and even the poisonous strychnine tree.

A flower dating to the mid-Creataceous, Lijinganthus revoluta, was discovered by a team from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2018, in Myanmar amber. A new genus and species of fossil angiosperm was also found by paleontologists in 2020 from Oregon State University and the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Myanmar in their mid-Cretaceous amber deposits. This fossil flower is almost 100 million years old and is named Valviloculus pleristaminis.

In the Salamonca Shale Formation in Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina, fossilized flowers dating to around 66 million years ago, the early Paleocene epoch, were found in 2017. The compressions and impressions on flat-laminated gray shale are part of the Rhamnaceae, buckthorn, family, and are called Notiantha grandensis.

Fossilized remains of an aquatic plant from the beginning of the Cretaceous period were discovered in Spain in 2015. Montsechia vidalii dates to around 130 million years ago and looks similar to the modern-day coontail. Prior to this discovery, Archaefructus sinensis, a 125-million-year-old fossil from Liaoning Province in China, was thought to be the world’s oldest flower.

However, in 2018, scientists at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology found fossilized flowers that date to 175 million years ago, the early Jurassic in the South Xiangshan Formation in China’s Nanjing Region. There were over 200 specimens of the fossilized flowers, named Nanjinganthus dendrostyla, which allowed the researchers to combine information and reconstruct a single flower, now recognized as the oldest evidence of a flower plant, an angiosperm.

It was debated whether N. dendrostyla represented a true angiosperm, for it was too “primitive” to be considered a flower and too “complex” to be a gymnosperm (a plant that does not have a flower but does have unenclosed seeds). Then, Florigerminis jurassica, a fossilized flower bud dating to 164 million years ago that included a stem, flower bud, fruit, and a leafy branch, was found in China earlier this year! F. jurassica appears to be more of an angiosperm and will shift how researchers organize angiosperm evolution.

What is clear today is that as work continues and new discoveries are made, researchers will be able to continue to piece together the evolution of flowers on this planet. Flowers are small, but each uniquely made with the tiniest of beautiful details. They have and will continue to fascinate humans, as we incorporate them into ceremonies and art, at weddings and funerals, in paintings and as decorations in our homes. When we pass, how will archaeologists and anthropologists view our practices with flowers?

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Sources and Further Reading:

https://www.ancientpages.com/2021/04/17/nefertum-god-of-lotus-blossom-perfumes-aromatherapy-beauty-in-egyptian-mythology/

https://www.treepeony.com/pages/peonies-in-chinese-art

https://www.history.com/topics/south-america/nazca-lines

https://www.txtreport.com/life/2021-08-16-archaeologists-have-discovered-in-mexico-bouquets-of-flowers-of-1800-years—curious.SyPdZkdet.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/1800-year-old-flower-bouquets-found-below-temple-teotihuacan-180978518/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/archaeologists-find-evidence-of-flowers-buried-in-a-12000-year-old-cemetery-4280031/#:~:text=SCIENCE%20Archaeologists%20Find%20Evidence%20of%20Flowers%20Buried%20in,were%20buried%20ceremonially%2C%20atop%20a%20bed%20of%20flowers

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-species-prehistoric-flower-discovered-preserved-amber-180958156/

https://www.nature.com/articles/nplants20165

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-35100-4

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-ancient-fossil-core-eudicot-boom.html

https://www.sci.news/paleontology/valviloculus-pleristaminis-09184.html

https://journals.brit.org/jbrit/article/view/1014

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0176164

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/17/fossilised-remains-worlds-oldest-flower-discovered-cretaceous

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/17/fossilised-remains-worlds-oldest-flower-discovered-cretaceous

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/oldest-known-flowers-world-180956962/#:~:text=Excavated%20in%20Virginia%20by%20a%20former%20Smithsonian%20curator%2C,oldest%20known%20flowers%20in%20North%20America.%20Nathan%20Jud

https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/science-news/earliest-fossil-flowers-found-china

https://www.livescience.com/64354-oldest-fossil-flower.html

https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.1144/SP521-2021-122

https://ancient-archeology.com/charles-darwin-mystery-solved-after-140-years-as-scientists-make-stunning-ancient-find/

Welcome back students, the new semester and school year has begun. You’ve reconnected with friends here at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, but also some of you might have said goodbye to friends in your hometown. Friends play powerful roles in our lives, and sometimes, we wish to show that bond by giving and wearing tokens of our friendship for the world to see. As children, some of us might have even purchased beads and string to create friendship bracelets! These tiny and simple circlets showcased to whomever saw them that those wearing the matching ones were connected, firm, friends.

The origin of friendship bracelets is difficult to track down. Some credit influence to ancient China as decorative knots on bracelets trace back to 481-221 B.C., but these knots were used not solely on bracelets. Macrame is also seen as an influence and was popular in 13^th century Arabia, spreading to France and Italy, and was also used by sailors at sea. It became popular in 19^th-century Britain and found its way to the United States in the 1960s.

In the Victorian era, giving mourning jewelry with strands of a loved one’s hair incorporated into the piece was common, and leads some to believe that this also contributes to the trend of exchanging meaningful pieces of jewelry between friends. Others claim that the popular trend youngsters across world take part in today actually dates to ancient Central American times. Many friendships bracelet designs we see today mirror Native American patterns, as well. In the United States, the art of making friendship bracelets became popularized again in the 1980s when they were seen during rallies and protests about the disappearances of Mayan Indians and laborers in Guatemala.

Earlier this year though, archaeologists in modern-day Finland made an incredible discovery. They found both intact and fragmented ‘slate rings’ that date back to around the 4^th millennium B.C. at several Stone Age sites. The ring-shaped artifacts were made of different slates and tuffites. After studying geochemical composition, micro details, and use-wear, and piecing fragments back together, it was suggested that many of the rings were actually broken up on purpose and as part of the prominent gift-giving system in that region. Many of the fragments appear to have been fashioned into pendants and some from the same ring were even found in two different locations with different finishes, thus showing that the fragments were used as ‘friendship ornaments’ or “tokens of social relationships.”  The few that were intact, were “likely worn as personal ornaments.”

Some of the slate traces back to a region in northwest Russia near Lake Onega, supporting theories of widespread trade networks in northeastern Europe and social relationships with people hundreds of kilometers away. Some fragments were also found at settlement sites, with the matching fragment from the same ring, stone, and manufacturing process being found at a nearby burial site. This practice suggests there was a belief in a connection between the living and the dead through the use of these objects prevalent during this time period in this region.

It’s fascinating to think that by wearing a broken heart trinket around your neck or tying a woven or beaded string around your wrist, you have something in common with the person that around 5,000 years ago wore a whole or fragmented slate circle to also represent their social bonds and relationships with others.

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Sources and Further Reading

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10816-022-09556-8

https://ancient-archeology.com/these-5000-year-old-stone-age-rings-may-have-been-the-original-friendship-bracelets/

https://www.keyssoulcare.com/connection/the-history-of-friendship-bracelets.html#:~:text=The%20exact%20origin%20of%20the%20friendship%20bracelet%20is,recognizes%20the%20Native%20American%20tradition%20of%20exchanging%20bracelets.

https://www.braceletbook.com/history/#:~:text=A%20friendship%20bracelet%20is%20a%20handmade%20bracelet%20intended%20for%20a%20special%20person.&text=Macrame%2C%20a%20craft%20of%20tying,items%20made%20on%20a%20loom.

https://www.wristband.com/content/all_about_friendship_bracelets/

https://www.jewelslane.com/blog/the-origin-meaning-and-importance-of-friendship-bracelets

https://www.novica.com/blog/friendship-bracelets-their-origin-meaning-and-importance/

https://www.harbourukbracelets.com/blog/friendship-bracelets-their-history-and-significance-explained

https://ericaweiner.com/history-lessons/hair%20jewelry

 

 

 

Time for a new introduction and a reintroduction! This year the blog will be managed by Bridget Roddy and Mikala Hardie! We are both second-year graduate students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania studying Applied Archaeology, and are this year’s Public Archaeology Graduate Assistants!

Hello everyone! My name is Mikala Hardie and I will be sharing the public archaeology duties with Bridget this year which includes writing for this blog! I am a second-year grad student with interests in public/community archaeology, historical archaeology, and hidden narratives. My alma mater is Kutztown University where I received a B.A. in anthropology and minored in history, music, and Spanish. My other hobbies include taking nature walks, crocheting, and reading. This past summer I interned with the National Park Service’s Northeast Archeological Resources Program where I ran their social media, revitalized their website, and developed lesson plans for children ages 4-12. I am excited to use the writing and public outreach skills I have learned over the summer to create interesting and engaging blog posts!

Hello readers, my name is Bridget Roddy! I graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with bachelor’s degrees in both psychology and sociology/anthropology, and I minored in international studies. I also studied abroad in Ireland for a semester in undergrad at the University of College Cork. My favorite dig was at the Roman Fort of Halmyris in Romania where I volunteered for a month! Outside of archaeology, I have a passion for running, making resin earring (check out my Etsy shop at SpringDazeByBridget), reading, painting, drawing, and traveling! But the most important thing to me is my family! I love exploring other cultures and ancient traditions, so check out future blog posts to explore some fascinating topics and reflections!

The rainy morning of April 21st was met with a sunny visitor to IUP, with the arrival of Kelley Berliner, the Eastern Regional Director of the non-profit organization known as The Archaeological Conservancy, for our final Graduate Colloquium of the semester. We had a great turnout for her fascinating presentation on the Conservancy’s preservation efforts from Paleoindian to Historic sites.

The Conservancy is the only non-profit dedicated to the acquisition and preservation of archaeological sites in the United States. Founded in 1980 from the realization that most legislation focused on preserving sites on public land, the Conservancy sought to purchase and protect sites on private property, and now they have over 20,000 members! They also publish the American Archaeology magazine, provide archaeological tours out of their offices, and of course, preserve and manage archaeological sites. The sites are now all open-space research preserves open to professional archaeologists, but they do keep parts unexcavated for future researchers with improved technologies.

The Archaeological Conservancy is made up of five regional offices, with Pennsylvania in the Eastern Region. In the history of the Eastern Regional Office, the Conservancy has up to around 70 preserves. Kelley does a bit of everything as being the only person in the Eastern Office, such as acquiring and researching sites, handling real estate closings, managing properties, reviewing proposals, attending descendent community events. She gets together two times a year with the other offices, which is their general board meeting as they are run by a board that approves their acquisitions.

So how do they start their process? They first identify what sites would be good for preservation, using the disciplines network of archaeologists, university professors, CRM professionals, avocational archaeologists, state societies, travel and state offices, and more, in order to locate sites that could need the Conservancy’s efforts. This might even include reviewing museum and library archives or old site records that have not been looked at in a long time.

When determining whether a site is important for preservation, a main consideration is whether it is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The Conservancy does nominate their preserves for the National Register, and many are already on it. There are of course other considerations, such as, budgetary issues, how it will be managed, its research potential, and accessibility, to name a few. Threats sites are facing, such as development, fracking, coastal erosion, and looting, are also factors.

The next step is to contact the property owners and get acquisition options. Berliner noted that it takes quite a bit of work to get to the point of sending out letters, and for about every 25 letters she sends, they might get about one response back. If they get someone willing to work with them, they try to acquire the land through outright purchase, ideally a donation, or a bargain sale, so that people can sell slightly below the appraised value and receive tax benefits! She also mentioned that depending on the site, she does work with descendent communities often, and in various ways, from contacting them to having site dedications.

They then of course must manage the sites. All sites are unique, some require surface collection and some don’t, some need to be kept mowed and some are woods lots, and some are going to have different management needs, and therefore management plans will be developed with the site’s differences and best interests in mind. Berliner stated that when the Conservancy monitors sites after they have been acquired, it depends on the sites and their needs, so for example, some sites are fenced. Their main deterrent is working with a national system of site stewards, such as former property owners, a neighbor, a farmer, a hunter, a local archaeological society or local archaeologist. In the east, the biggest issue is metal detecting on military sites. The Conservancy is careful when posting or writing about their properties, and they follow purple paint laws (marking purple blazes for property lines). In terms of public access to their preserves, they want to keep their locations secret in order to prevent looting, and some sites are just challenging to get to. However, they do post videos on YouTube, and they are open for educational purposes, such as a school field trip.

The sites they preserve include a range of Prehistoric and Historic sites. Prehistoric sites include Paleoindian sites like the Nevers Preserve in New Hampshire, Archaic sites like the Dresden Preserve in Maine, Woodland sites like Koon’s Landing in North Carolina, Contact period sites like the Oscar Leibhart Preserve in Pennsylvania, and quarry sites likes the Prince Edward Soapstone Quarry Preserve in Virginia. Historic sites include colonial sites like Kippax Plantation Preserve in Virginia, which is also a multicomponent site, African American sites like the 18th century Arbuckle’s Fort Preserve in West Virginia, industrial sites like the 19^th-20^th century Pamplin Pipe Factory Preserve in Virginia and the Big Pond Furnace Preserve in Pennsylvania, religious sites like the Upper Lunenburg Episcopal Church in Virginia and the Synagogue parcel of the NEHFES Synagogue and Creamery site in Connecticut which is the site of a 19th century Russian-Jewish immigrant community, and military sites like forts, battlefields, and the Royal Blockhouse of Fort Edward in New York.

In Pennsylvania, the Conservancy has 17 preserves. These include sites like Prehistoric Earthworks like the Dingfelder Circle in Erie County, Monongahela village sites, Woodland village sites which include the largest preserve they have in the Region, the Queen Esther’s Town in Bedford County that is almost 100 acres in size, quarry sites like King’s Quarry in Lehigh County that was used for a long period of time as people returned to it, and of course Historic sites like the Fort Littleton (Lyttleton) Preserve in Fulton County.

They also have the Ebbert Spring Archaeological Preserve and Heritage Park in Franklin County which is open to the public. This site has a dense Prehistoric component, dating back 10,000 years, and a Historic component, and yet it is not near any major waterway. However, it has a karste, limestone landscape that creates many high-output freshwater springs! Ebbert Spring in particular puts out over 600 gallons of water a minute! The area was also highly desirable for industrial development and the property was owned by a man named Al Bonnell. The Archaeological Conservancy was able to purchase the site from his son after Bonnell passed, knowing that his goal was to have it preserved ultimately. And today, after 15 years of work, it is a site that is now a park that is accessible to the public through a partnership with the local museum and the town, and by working with the nearby developers.

We thank Kelley Berliner for her presentation and for all of the incredible work she has done and will continue to do at the Conservancy!

Visit their website at https://www.archaeologicalconservancy.org/msclkid=1734ee7dc7dc11ec80df9ec684a2c46b for more information! And check out their YouTube videos here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheArchaeologicalConservancy

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By Samantha Taylor (M’ 18) and Angela Jaillet-Wentling (M’ 11)

Nestled along a rural road in Mercer County exists a partially wooded property intersected by a small creek known as the Indian Run. If you drove past this property, it would likely not catch your eye. The site’s location blends in with the larger agricultural landscape of Mercer County. It and its story might be easy to miss save for a blue historical marker that has adorned the edge of Route 19, one of the more-frequented roads in the region since November 2019. The pristine marker reads:

“PANDENARIUM. Arriving in November 1854, 63 African Americans Settled an agricultural community north of Indian Run. Freed through manumission by Va. Plantation owner Dr. Charles Everett, many of these formerly enslaved men and women worked to purchase the freedom of others. Abolitionist-built houses on land provided by Everrett awaited them. Archaeological investigations have uncovered their stories of hard-fought freedom, collaboration, and perseverance.”

Though historical markers play a significant role in validating and commemorating historical spaces, in the case of Pandenarium, it serves as a brief introduction to a complex cultural and social landscape that still resonates with descendants and the broader African American community in northwestern Pennsylvania.

Since 2011, archaeology has been a driving force in the interpretation and dissemination of the story of Pandenarium. Early work at the site was focused on exploring the settlement’s location and layout, in many ways disproving local narratives steeped in racial bias. Such narratives suggested that the people of Pandenarium were unable to contend with seasonal flooding and harsh Pennsylvania winters and that the settlement was a short-lived failure.

In 2011, Angela Jaillet-Wentling (M’11) published her thesis detailing the results of extensive background research, landscape analysis of the site involving Ground Penetrating Radar, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and excavation. Her analysis determined that the settlement persisted into the first couple decades of the twentieth century. During their time along the Indian Run, the settlers began to expand outward from the homes built by local abolitionists in the center of the property. Succeeding generations built their homes along the Indian Run and nearer to the main road, giving them access to the broader community while altering the landscape to suit their needs.

In 2017, Pandenarium was revisited as the subject of a comparative ceramic analysis conducted by Samantha Taylor (M’18). This analysis sought to compare Pandenarium to similar African Diaspora sites, such as Mulberry Row in Virginia and Timbuctoo in New Jersey. The work focused on the residence of John and Rosie Allen, first generation settlers at Pandenarium. The comparative analysis determined that the ceramics recovered from the Allen Residence most resembled those recovered from contemporaneous freedman and fugitive sites, particularly Timbuctoo, suggesting socioeconomic similarity amongst freedman and fugitives from enslavement.

While both theses were completed nearly seven years apart, we have since partnered to pursue opportunities to spread the story and its implications on how we understand the legacies of slavery and freedom for African Americans in the antebellum North. In addition to presentations at local, regional, and national conferences and workshops, we worked with the local historical society to nominate the site for a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission historical marker. In 2020, the marker was installed at its current location. Last year, we published an article entitled, “Finding Freedom: Exploratory Archaeological Investigations at the Free African American Site of Pandenarium (36ME253), 1854–1930s” in Historical Archaeology.

Most importantly, the public outreach and publications helped spread the story to others who spread the word to descendants of the community. In 2019, Bill Davison and his daughter, Amanda, reached out in regard to their ancestors, Lucy Myers and William Reeves, two of Pandenarium’s original inhabitants. Bill’s genealogical research piqued the interest of another researcher who then put him in contact with Angie. In 2021, local history buff and bike enthusiast, Frank Bell, identified and coordinated a meeting with descendants of John and Rosie Allen to include Rev. Dr. Bryan CrawlCharlene, Jeffrey, and Sarita Rankin, as well as, Darrell and Jodie Warden. Identifying the descendant population has been a boon and it is our hope that we can continue to support the research and ever-expanding narratives coming out of the site of Indian Run/Pandenarium as new voices join our own.

When someone thinks of Earth Day, their first thought is usually not of archaeology! However, as many of us know, archaeology is intrinsically tied to the natural world in more ways than one! While celebrating Earth Day today, remember to think about its connection to archaeology and what we can do for the environment! An obvious connection is of course the fact that archaeologists dig into the earth itself, in search of contributions to the archaeological record. The earth covers pieces of history and holds onto them until we come and find them. Certain environments can preserve artifacts and remains better than others and provide us with unique glimpses into the past.

Places like peat bogs preserve ancient bodies quite well, especially in Ireland, Great Britain, Denmark, northern Germany, and the Netherlands. Generally referred to as “bog bodies,” these bodies can date from 8000 B.C. to the early medieval period. Some have even been found dating to the early 20^th century, such as the remains of Boris Lazarev, a Soviet fighter pilot shot down over northern Russian in 1943. The oldest bog body belongs to Koelbjerg Man, a skeleton found in Denmark that dates to 8000 B.C. The oldest fleshed bog body is called Cashel Man and dates to 2000 B.C. He was found in Ireland’s Cashel Bog and died a violent death connected to an ancient ritual of sacrificing young men. His arm was broken, his spine shattered in two places, and his back had been hit several times with an ax.

While studying abroad in Cork, Ireland, in 2018, I had the pleasure of visiting the National Museum of Ireland. There, I stumbled upon their Kingship and Sacrifice exhibition that includes several bog bodies all from the Early Iron Age, including Clonycavan Man (392-201 BC), Oldcroghan Man (362-175 BC), Gallagher Man (400-200 BC) and Baronstown West Man (200-400 AD). Two of them were found by the National Museum of Ireland’s Bog Bodies Research Project in 2003 and all were named after the counties they were found in. It was such an incredible and humbling experience to be able to view bodies that were so old and yet so well preserved.

Bog bodies have also discovered in American peat bogs, including the Windover burials that were found in a peat-bottomed pond located between Cape Canaveral and Disney World in Florida, and are now a National Historic Landmark. Dating to 6280 B.C., 168 burials have been found along with artifacts such as bone tools, a bottle gourd, and even woven fabric shrouds that belonged to the early Floridians. 91 skeletons had intact brain masses, indicating many were buried within 48 hours of their deaths. Many were also buried in late summer and fall (July and October) based on the plant material associated with the bodies’ last meal. DNA analysis on bones has revealed that the people at Windover were not related to any living Native American tribe or known prehistoric group, rather they had migrated to North America from Asia.

Other environments that preserve artifacts and bodies well are colder or frozen environments that tend to refrigerate materials. However, as discussed in previous blogs, climate change is affecting the earth as frozen environments tend to melt away, exposing artifacts and remains to natural elements, such as the sun and warmer temperatures, that could be detrimental to their preservation. Sea levels continue to rise, thus putting many known and unknown archaeological sites along water in danger as well.

An example of the preservation power of cold environments and threats from rising sea levels, is Nunalleq, a site located in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region of Alaska, situated in a waterlogged, frozen tundra. Dating back to around 700 years ago, this site is a multi-period, prehistoric Yup’ik winter village. Permafrost had preserved tens of thousands of artifacts, including many made of wood and organic materials, such as wooden dolls and masks. However, located just inland from the Bearing Sea the site is at risk from larger waves and storm surges. The melting permafrost is also releasing anything once embedded.

Other dry environmental conditions that favor preservation are those of hot, arid climates, such as deserts. Dry environments (both hot and cold) preserve artifacts through the process of desiccation, the removal of moisture from something. Just recently in February, an American tourist accidentally found an Early Bronze Age pottery vessel in the area known as Qumran, located in the Judean Desert. The vessel is around 5,000 years old and may be the first complete jug discovered in the area from its time-period. The Judean Desert Cave, Cave 53, where the vessel was found is located in an area filled with caves, with dry air perfect for preservation.

I hope you all have a very Happy Earth Day!

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Further Reading:

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/envarch/what/#:~:text=Environmental%20archaeology%20is%20the,plants%2C%20animals%2C%20and%20landscapes.

https://archive.archaeology.org/bog/

https://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/bog/

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/116-1401/features/1580-peat-bog-body-cashel-ireland

https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Archaeology/Exhibitions/Kingship-and-Sacrifice

https://michaelwtravels.boardingarea.com/2017/07/visiting-the-bog-bodies-at-the-national-museum-of-ireland/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/americas-bog-people/

https://everhart-museum.org/preserving-the-past-examples-of-preservation-science-within-the-everharts-collection/

https://nunalleq.wordpress.com/about/

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/187-1509/features/3558-alaska-yupik-cultural-revival

https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-700842