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Textile Fibers used in Eastern Aboriginal North America cover

Textile Fibers used in Eastern Aboriginal North America

Chapter 26: OBJECTS FROM SPIRO MOUND, OKLAHOMA
By A. C. Whitford
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The study identifies plant fibers used in artifacts from Indigenous communities east of the Mississippi by examining museum ethnological and archaeological collections. Approximately five hundred objects were sampled and analyzed with standard histological microscopy, bleaching, maceration, staining, and measurements compared to classified botanical specimens. Identifications document monocot and dicot sources — including palmetto, Spanish moss, yucca, nolina, red cedar, grasses such as big bluestem, sweet grass, canebrake, cattail, and occasional maize — and relate these materials to bags, moccasins, mats, ropes, and mound finds. The paper supplies object-level determinations, a table of identifications, and a brief summary of results.

OBJECTS FROM SPIRO MOUND, OKLAHOMA

The well-known Spiro Mound, clearly prehistoric, furnished some examples of basketry, matting, cord, and cloth. The samples were sent to the writer by Mr. H. M. Trowbridge, Bethel, Kansas.

2716-C Twisted fibers covered with feathers Arundinaria tecta
2716-H Twisted fibers covered with feathers Asimina triloba
2717-C Twisted fibers covered with feathers Asimina triloba
2717-G Woody material with feathers attached Asimina triloba
2717-I&E Twisted fiber mass Asimina triloba
2718-E Twisted fiber mass Asimina triloba
2718-K Bristle-like vegetable fiber Nolina georgiana
2719-J Twisted vegetable fiber Asimina triloba
2721-A Mat Arundinaria tecta
2721-S Fragment of basketry Arundinaria tecta
2722-D Twisted fiber Arundinaria tecta
2722-I Twisted fiber covered with feathers Arundinaria tecta
2724-A Twisted fiber covered with feathers Arundinaria tecta
2724-K Fawn colored string Arundinaria tecta
2731 Mat Arundinaria tecta
2782 Copper stained rope Asimina triloba
2781 Charred basket Arundinaria tecta
2783 Fibers adhering to copper sheet Arundinaria tecta

A comparison of materials in prehistoric collections reveals an excess of animal materials in the artifacts from Spiro Mound. One gets the impression that in Spiro textiles strings of vegetable fiber are usually surfaced with hair or other animal materials to increase the softness of the product. This may account for the almost exclusive use of canebrake and pawpaw, both relatively coarse fibers used without preliminary treatment. A striking contrast is between the slipshod way of making string and the highly precise fine techniques of covering it with hair and feathers.