The use of microwear analysis has made substantial contributions to the study of archaeological bodily ornaments. However, limitations persist with regard to the interpretation of use and the reconstruction of systems of attachment, hampering a holistic understanding of the diversity of past bodily adornment. This is because the complexities of ornament biographies and the resulting wear traces cannot be grasped exclusively from the study of experimental reference collections. In this paper, we propose to bridge this gap in interpretation by systematically researching ethnographic collections. We conducted a microscopic study of 38 composite ornaments from lowland South America housed at the Musée du quai Branly (Paris). These objects involve organic, biomineral, and inorganic components, attached through different string configurations. The combined use of optical and 3D digital microscopy at different magnification ranges provided a thorough understanding of wear trace formation, distribution, and characterization. We demonstrate how individual beads develop characteristic use-wear in relation to one another and to the strings. We further challenge common assumptions made in the analysis of archaeological ornaments. In sum, this research addresses methodological and interpretative issues in the study of bodily adornment at large, by providing insight into the biographies of objects that were actually worn in a lived context. In the future, our results can be applied as reference for a more effective understanding of the use of ornaments worldwide.

No abstract

The present paper examines bodily ornaments made of semiprecious lithic materials from the site of Pearls on the island of Grenada. The site was an important node in long-distance interaction networks at play between circum-Caribbean communities during the first centuries of the Common Era. Pearls was an amethyst bead-making workshop and a gateway to South America, from where certain lapidary raw materials likely originated. The importance of the site for regional archaeology and local stakeholders cannot be overstated. However, it has undergone severe destruction and looting over the decades. Here, we present a study of a private collection of ornaments from Pearls, which combines raw material identification, typo-technological analysis and microwear analysis. We identify great diversity in lithologies and in techniques adapted to their working properties. Multiple abrasive techniques for sawing, grinding, polishing and carving are identified. Furthermore, the use of ornaments is examined for the first time. Finally, we contrast our dataset to other Antillean sites and propose management patterns for each raw material. Our approach ultimately provides new insights on ornament making at Pearls and on its role in regional networks.

Resumo: O sítio arqueológico MMA-02, encontrado na Serra dos Carajás, Pará, e associado à variante amazônica da tradição Tupiguarani era um local especializado na produção de adornos corporais em uma matéria prima lítica, a caulinita silicificada. Principalmente, contas discoides estariam sendo produzidas, o que está evidente na predominância de suas pré-formas e restos brutos de debitagem. Para o presente artigo, foi feita a análise tecnológica de uma amostra do material, centrada no estudo da cadeia operatória das contas, com o objetivo de acessar as escolhas feitas por aqueles que frequentaram o sítio: quais as técnicas utilizadas e como se encadeavam em sucessivas operações no trabalho do material. Ao mesmo tempo, procuramos entender o sítio, tanto dentro do padrão observado para as ocupações Tupiguarani no sudeste amazônico, quanto no contexto mais amplo da região amazônica durante a Nossa Era, na qual a referência à circulação de adornos corporais é uma constante.Palavras-chave: Contas líticas. Adornos corporais. Tecnologia lítica. Tupiguarani. Amazônia. Abstract:The archaeological site MMA-02, found in the Serra dos Carajás region (state of Pará, Brazil) and associated with the Amazonian variant of the Tupiguarani tradition, was a specialized place for the production of body adornments in raw stone material, known as silicified kaolinite. Stone disc beads were the main goal of production, as evidenced by the predominance of bead preforms and cutting products among the collected assemblage. For this paper, a technological analysis was conducted on a sample of the pieces, focused on the 'operational chain' involved in the production of beads, with the aim of assessing choices made by those that used to frequent the site: which techniques were used and how were these enchained in successive operations for working the material. At the same time, an effort was made to understand the site both in relation to the settlement pattern observed for Tupiguarani occupations in the Southeastern Amazon, and to the Amazonian context during our Current Era, in which there is continuous reference to the circulation of bodily ornaments.

The Caribbean Sea was a conduit for human mobility and the exchange of goods and ideas during the whole of its pre-colonial history. The period cal. AD 1000-1800, covering the Late Ceramic Age and early colonial era, represents an archaeologically understudied time during which the Lesser Antilles came under increasing influence from the Greater Antilles and coastal South America and participated in the last phase of indigenous resistance to colonial powers. This article summarizes the results of the Island Network project, supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in which a multidisciplinary set of archaeological, archaeometric, geochemical, GIS, and network science methods and techniques have been employed to disentangle this turbulent era in regional and global history. These diverse approaches reveal and then explore multi-layered networks of objects and people and uncover how Lesser Antillean communities were created and transformed through teaching, trade, migration, movement, and exchange of goods and knowledge.