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

When European copper-based metal trade goods, primarily kettles, first beca me available to native Americans early in the contact period, they frequent ly 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 be en investigated archaeometallurgically to determine the elemental make-up o f the metals and the techniques involved in reworking them. In this study, undertaken at the University of pennsylvania Museum's Applied Science Cente r for Archaeology (MASCA), a sample of 64 copper-based metal artifacts exca vated from the Haas/Hagerman Site, Clark County, MO, were examined metallog raphically to identify manufacturing techniques and technical processes emp loyed by the seventeenth century Illinois to produce these new forms. Proto n-induced X-ray emission spectrometry (PIXE) was used to determine the elem ental compositions of the artifacts. Results are presented within the large r contexts of early material and technological transformation among the Ill inois as European influence intensified. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.