Climate Change, Population Migration, and Ritual Practice in the Lower Mississippi Valley

Ceramic rattles and rattle vessel adornos have received little attention in current Caribbean archaeology literature and may be overlooked or misidentified in Caribbean ceramic collections due to their minimal audibility or “failure” during the construction process. Here, we evaluate existing reports of rattle ceramics and adornos in the Caribbean and report on the discovery of rattle adornos within collections at the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Yale Peabody Museum. A detailed analysis of adorno rattles, including microscopic analysis, measurement of sound intensity, and a replication experiment was conducted. This study answers questions regarding their technological construction, potential function, geospatial and temporal spread, and cultural implications to Indigenous groups in the Caribbean. Despite difficulty in their construction, adorno rattles and ceramic rattles appeared in the Greater and Lesser Antilles throughout the Ceramic Age and likely functioned in ceremonial spaces.

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Climate Change, Population Migration, and Ritual Practice in the Lower Mississippi Valley

Cited by 3 publications

References 68 publications

The Beginning of the End: Abandonment Micro-histories in the Mississippian Vacant Quarter

The Beginning of the End: Abandonment Micro-histories in the Mississippian Vacant Quarter

Social change and late Holocene hydroclimate variability in southwest Indiana

Shake, rattle, and roll: Continuity of rattling ceramic vessels and adornos in the Caribbean

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