Copper Earspools

This is the second in a series of posts concerning artifacts recovered from a Middle Woodland cache at 15Mn137 in Montgomery County, Kentucky. In addition to the tetrapodal vessel described in the previous post, two copper ear spools (Figure 1 and 2), marking Hopewellian influence, were also recovered. We are posting photographs and descriptions of the earspools simply because of the unique nature of these artifacts and the rare occurrence.

Earspool A
This specimen was nearly complete. The outer edges of the obverse and reverse discs were slightly fragmentary. The specimen was a composite piece, formed from at least three plates and a stem. The stem was wrapped in fiber. No clay was observed packed between the plates. No center holes were observed on the obverse or reverse discs. An obvious dimple was noted in the center of the obverse disc. The center portion of the reverse disc was slightly marred but a slight dimple was apparent. The profile of the obverse disc showed a continuous cup curvature and the transition between annulus and cup is abrupt. The profile was reminiscent of Styles 6-9 of Ruhl’s (1992) seriation or the first of the profiles in Style D in Ruhl and Seeman’s (1998) study. This profile is found near the center of the sequence and closely resembles early specimens from Turner, a site with considerable temporal depth (Katherine Ruhl, personal communication).

Earspool B
This specimen was highly fragmentary. It was positioned under Earspool A at approximately 43 cmbs in Feature 2. The earspool did not appear to be crushed as has been observed at several Hopewell sites (Ruhl 1992). Post-depositional corrosion processes can account for the fragmentary condition of the earspool. Subsequent to burial, copper artifacts are subjected to carbonation processes that occur in the soil (Ottonello 1991; Richmond 2000). Water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) react to form carbonic acid (H2CO3). Carbonic acid in turn reacts with the copper as a corrosive or diagenetic agent, changing the physical and chemical makeup of the metal.

The fragments from this specimen weighed 14.3 grams. Most pieces were too fragmentary for analysis. Portions of the outer obverse and reverse plates and the stem were recognized. The profile of the obverse disc was similar to that of Earspool A, although the cup depth was slightly shallower. The profile; however, was similar to the styles noted above. A hole in the center cup of the obverse disc was noted. A dimple was noted in the center cup of the reverse disc.

Pictured below are a photographs of Earspool A showing obverse outer plate, cordage from Earspool B, and profiles of the obverse outer plate.




References Cited

Ottonello, G.
1991 Principles of Geochemistry. Columbia University Press, New York.

Richmond, Michael D.
2000 A Geochemical Analysis of Select Copper Artifacts from the Midcontinental United States. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Kent State University.

Ruhl, Katherine C.
1992 Copper Earspools From Ohio Hopewell Sites. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 17(1):46-79.

Ruhl, Katherine and Mark Seeman
1998 The Temporal and Social Implications of Ohio Hopewell Copper Ear Spool Design. American Antiquity 63(4):651-662.