Research Training Program

Identifying Etowah Site Funerary Objects Based on Material Criteria

In order to comply with federal regulations regarding the repatriation of Native American artifacts, the Repatriation Office was created for consultation with Native American tribes and to process requests of objects for return. In order to be repatriated, an object must fall into one of several categories, including associated and non-associated funerary objects. The Etowah Mound in northwest Georgia was excavated in the 1880's by the Bureau of American Ethnology. Although many of the objects came from the Burial Mound C, data collection was sparse and much of the contextual data was lost. The funerary status of an object was frequently not recorded. More recent excavations under the supervision of the State of Georgia recorded detailed descriptions of artifacts maintaining contextual data. Using catalog information from the State University of West Georgia, a comparative sample was used for the Smithsonian Institution's Etowah collection. Objects were classified as: 1) associated with a documented Mound C burial; 2) associated with a documented village area burial; or 3) found in the village area with no burial association. Using these three categories, a sample of Etowah artifacts of unknown provenience was compared to funerary and utilitarian artifacts. The results indicate that several artifact types are diagnostic of burials. Most exotic materials, such as copper artifacts, shell gorgets, and stone palettes are only found within a funerary context. Beads and copper headdresses with batons are also found significantly more frequently in burials in comparison to domestic areas. Objects that are diagnostic of the village area include spearheads and various tools. Further research should be conducted to include a comprehensive analysis of all objects in field records of the State University of West Georgia for all field seasons, as well as the entire Smithsonian Etowah collection.