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New Data on Early Bells from Florida

1988; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 7; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

2168-4723

Jeffrey M. Mitchem, Bonnie G. McEwan,

Archaeology and Natural History

Thirteen previously undescribed from Florida archaeological sites are described and illustrated. These include seven Clarksdale and six Flushloop bells. A general discussion of archaeologically recovered Clarksdale is presented. Using archaeological and ethnohistoric data, the probable sources and dates of the are discussed. Small of sheet brass or copper, often called hawk's bells, have long been recognized as one of the items of trade brought to the New World by early European explorers and colonizers. Brain (1975:129130) summarized sixteenthand seventeenth-century ethnohistoric accounts which indicate that these bells, along with formed the core of the typical Spanish gift kit given to New World aborigines to achieve a variety of objectives. Bells proved to be such popular items among native groups that the British and French also brought numbers of them for trade (Brown 1977, 1979:197; Smith 1956:100). The purpose of this paper is to synthesize currently available data respecting this temporally sensitive artifact class (specifically Clarksdale bells), as well as to present information on some previously undescribed examples. The discussed below were recovered from six sites in Florida (Figure 1). Those from western Florida are of special interest, since the early sixteenth-century Spanish expeditions of Panfilo de Narvaez and Hernando de Soto passed through this portion of the state (Nunez Cabeza de Vaca 1961; Swanton 1985:113-116, 139-148). Bells were not specifically mentioned in the narratives of the Soto expedition. However, the sole account of the Narvaez entrada provides two references to being given to Indians. The first was in Florida, where a chief named Dulchanchellin was presented with beads, little bells, and other trinkets'7 (Nunez Cabeza de Vaca 1961:37). Swanton (1985:55) suggested that this event occurred near the Suwannee River. Farther west along the Gulf of Mexico coast, another Indian group was given beads and bells, which were highly prized by the recipients (Nunez Cabeza de Vaca 1961:56). These early explorers were not the only Europeans who brought to the Florida Indians, however. When Pedro Menendez de Aviles traveled down the Banana and Indian Rivers in east Florida in 1565, he left mirrors, knives, scissors, bells, and other objects with the cacique of the Ais (Barcia Carballido y Zuniga 1951:98; Solis de Meras 1964:127). The following year, while meeting with Carlos and the principal Calusa headmen on the southwest Florida coast, Menendez presented Carlos's favorite wife and his sister Dona Antonia with chemises, dresses, glass scissors, hawkbells, mirrors, and knives (Barcia Carballido y Zuniga 1951:105). He also gave undescribed objects to the others present. On a return visit later in 1566, Menendez presented Carlos and his followers with maize, cassava, knives, scissors, and hawk bells (Barcia Carballido y Zuniga 1951: 122). In 1567, the Frenchman Gourges met with the Timucuan chief Saturiba and several other Timucuan caciques somewhere in southeast Georgia or northeast Florida. He handed out hawk bells, knives, scissors, and clothing to those present (Barcia Carballido y Zuniga 1951:145). The 1675 letter of Gabriel Diaz Vara Calderon, the Bishop of Cuba, lists the most common items of trade to the Christianized Florida Indians, among which were cascabeles grandes de bronce (Wenhold 1936:13). According to a recent Spanish dictionary (Velazquez de la Cadena et al. 1974), this phrase translates as large hawk-bells of brass (or bronze). By 1687, Spaniards from Mexico were trading as far north as the Ouachita River basin (Swanton 1985:56). Numerous have been recovered from archaeological contexts in the Southeast, many of which have been reported in the literature (Brain 1975, 1985: 105; Brown 1977). Brown (1977, 1979) has extensively studied early and devised a useful classification for the varieties found in eastern North America. The two varieties of most interest in the present discussion are the Clarksdale (Brain 1975:132-135; Brown 1977:76, 1979:204) and the Flushloop (Brown 1977:75, 1979:201). This paper focuses primarily on the Clarksdale variety since Brown's (1979) thorough discussion adequately synthesizes current data on Flushloop bells. A Clarksdale bell is characterized by a wide (ca. 5 mm) attachment loop which was secured by pushing the ends through a hole in the top and soldering the separate ends to the interior, a square flange around the equator where the two hemispheres were crimped together, an undecorated surface, and two