Флоридагийн эртний олдворуудын химийн найрлага, бүтэц нь тус бүс нутагт хойд зүгээс нүүдэллэн ирсэн урчууд суурьшсаныг нотолж байна.
Зуу гаруй жилийн өмнө Тампа булангын орчмоос олдсон, Миссисипийн соёлтой төстэй хээ хуар бүхий ваарны хэлтэрхийнүүд археологичдын дунд маргаан дагуулсаар ирсэн юм. Флоридагийн Байгалийн түүхийн музейн судлаачид 58 ширхэг ваарны хэлтэрхийг нейтроны идэвхжүүлэлтийн шинжилгээнд оруулж, химийн найрлагыг нь тухайн орон нутгийн шавартай харьцуулан судалжээ. Үр дүнд нь ваарнууд нь орон нутгийн түүхий эдээр хийгдсэн ч үйлдвэрлэлийн арга барил нь хойд зүгийнх болохыг тогтоов.
Судлаачид ваарны бүтцийг микроскопоор нарийвчлан шинжилж, тусгайлан боловсруулсан шавар, ваарны үйлдвэрлэлийн арга барил болон “grog” буюу буталсан хуучин ваарны хольцыг ашигласан болохыг илрүүлжээ. Энэхүү технологи нь Флоридагийн хойгоос 200 орчим миль зайд байрлах Миссисипийн соёлын төвүүдэд түгээмэл байсан арга бөгөөд орон нутгийн энгийн ваар хийх уламжлалт аргаас эрс ялгарч байна.
Археологич Нейл Уоллисийн тайлбарласнаар, тухайн үед ирсэн шинэ иргэд орон нутгийн шаврыг ашиглан өөрсдийн уламжлалт хэв маягийг хадгалан үлдээсэн нь тэднийг тус бүс нутагт өөрийн гэсэн байр суурьтай байсныг гэрчилж байна. Энэхүү ваарнуудын дотор дахин ашигласан шавар, гялтгануур (mica) зэрэг нь Флоридагийн хойд хэсэгт элбэг байдаг ч хойгийн өмнөд хэсэгт таардаггүй материал ажээ.
Судлаачид эдгээр олдворыг үйлдвэрлэх нууцлаг арга барил нь урчуудын нийгэмд эзлэх тусгай статусыг илэрхийлдэг байж болзошгүй гэсэн таамаглал дэвшүүлж байна. Ваар бүрт өмнөх үеийн ваарны хэлтэрхийг дахин ашигласан нь зөвхөн дулааны тэсвэрлэх чадварыг сайжруулахаас гадна гүн гүнзгий соёлын утга агуулгыг илэрхийлж байж болох юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Decorated pottery that has baffled archaeologists for a century appears to have been made by artisans who moved south from northern Florida. A study of 58 fragments shows the vessels were shaped from local clay but built with northern techniques and ingredients.
A hundred years ago, archaeologists digging around Tampa Bay unearthed fragments whose designs seemed out of place. The motifs closely resembled those of Mississippian culture, which emerged around A.D. 1000 in the Mississippi River Valley and spread across much of the Midwest and eastern United States.
The oddity was as much geographic as cultural. Tampa Bay’s coastal communities, known as the Safety Harbor culture, lived hundreds of miles south of that heartland and relied on fishing and other marine resources instead of maize farming. Peninsular Florida had generally been left off maps of Mississippian culture, and lacking the instruments to establish the pottery’s origins, curators stored the pieces while competing explanations went unresolved.
Local Clay, Northern Habits
First came the obvious question: had the pots simply been imported? As reported by the Florida Museum of Natural History, researchers used neutron activation analysis to measure the pottery’s chemical composition and compared it with raw clay sources around Tampa Bay. The profiles matched, indicating that all the sampled pottery was made locally.
Imitation was still possible, but it wouldn’t explain why the decorated vessels also differed in construction, clay preparation, and temper. They were built by stacking coils of clay, a Mississippian method, whereas the plain wares were molded, a technique people without pottery skills could learn quickly. The decorated pieces also used higher-quality clay and more consistent mixtures, pointing to greater expertise.
“It’s been this open debate for a century,” said Neill Wallis, curator of Florida archaeology at the museum. Tampa Bay sites, he noted, “ had some Mississippian-like traits such as platform mound-village complexes and iconography, but lacked others, like maize agriculture and shell-tempered pottery. The Mississippian-looking pottery has always begged the question: How did this stuff wind up in Tampa Bay?”
A Temper That Gives It Away
The sharpest clues were hidden in the clay itself. Mississippian artisans mixed crushed freshwater shell or pieces of old pottery, known as grog, into their clay, which helps vessels withstand the heat of firing and cooking. Grog appeared in 80% of the decorated samples and none of the plain ones. Most plain vessels instead held dry clay chunks or sand, materials used in Tampa Bay pottery for the previous 3,000 years.
Petrography was the tool for peering inside. Fragments were polished into sections about half the width of a human hair so that light from a polarizing microscope could pass through. Wallis described the result as “a sort of fingerprint of the people who made it.” Inside the grog, the team found mica, common in the Florida Panhandle but not typically found in peninsular Florida.
According to Trevor Duke, who began the research for his doctoral dissertation at the University of Florida, grog is “the plain-Jane tempering technique there” in the Tallahassee Hills, where the nearest massive Mississippian mound center is located, about 200 miles away. The researchers read this as evidence that migrating artisans carried old pottery south and crushed it into clay at their new home.
A Craft with Standing
These newcomers entered a region of relatively small chiefdoms, among them the Tocobaga, Mocoso, Pohoy, and Uzita. The communities built flat-topped mounds but never concentrated political power on the scale of the major Mississippian centers.
Andrea Torvinen, collections manager of the Ceramic Technology Lab, said specialized pottery knowledge seems to have been one way for newcomers to establish a role. Because finished vessels didn’t reveal their clay recipes, tempering, or coiled construction, residents could use them without learning how to make them. The researchers suggest instruction stayed within a small group of artisans working closely together. Wallis said:
“The group of potters making the decorated vessels likely had some kind of special status that they maintained through this secretive practice, even if it wasn’t a secret in the sense that no one knew about it,” adding that, “In fact, for secrets like this, you do have to broadcast some of the details so that people know there is a secret.”
Every grog-tempered vessel examined contained older pottery with still earlier grog embedded in it. “It’s sort of like Russian nesting dolls,” he said in a statement. The researchers suggest this repeated reuse likely carried meaning beyond helping pottery withstand heat.
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