Chemical Chronology of Turquoise Blue Glass Trade Beads from the

Chapter 3

Chemical Chronology of Turquoise Blue Glass Trade Beads from the Lac-Saint-Jean Region of Québec 1

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Downloaded by UNIV OF GUELPH LIBRARY on June 28, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: May 5, 1996 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1996-0625.ch003

R. G. V. Hancock , S. Aufreiter , J.-F. Moreau , and I. Kenyon 1

Slowpoke Reactor Facility and Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, 200 College Street, Ontario M5S 1A4, Canada Laboratoire d'archéologie et Départment des sciences humaines, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Québec G7H 2B1, Canada Ontario Heritage Foundation, Toronto, Ontario M5C 1J3, Canada 2

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Eighty turquoise blue glass trade beads from three archaeological sites in the Lac-Saint-Jean region of Québec have been chemically characterized by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Comparison of their individual chemistries with previously established chemistries of well dated beads from archaeological sites in Ontario, Nova Scotia and New York State allows us to estimate the tentative ages of the Québec beads, and hence to establish the time periods over which each of the three sites were in use.

In exchange for furs provided to European traders, the aboriginal peoples of North America obtained many kinds of trade goods including glass beads. On the basis of their morphology and archaeological contexts, certain glass bead types have been found to be an efficient tool for establishing both regional and continental cultural chrono logies (7). Unfortunately, based on appearance alone, many common beads lack chronological specificity. We have established that chronological ordering could be achieved for the ubiquitous turquoise blue glass beads using their chemical composi tions (2, 3). This is needed for sites that do not produce characteristic beads and for sites that have complex occupational histories. The aim of this paper is to use instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) data to establish the chronologies of three sets of turquoise blue glass beads from the Lac-Saint-Jean area of Québec, relative to the chronology established for similarly colored beads from Ontario, New York and Nova Scotia. The three Québec sites were occupied for many centuries and so have occupational histories that are difficult to disentangle. As a result, it was necessary to analyze large numbers of samples using a technique that would provide non-destructive bulk elemental analysis.

0097-6156/96/0625-0023$12.00/0 © 1996 American Chemical Society

In Archaeological Chemistry; Orna, M.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1996.

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ARCHAEOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY


85°

80°

75°

70°

65°

Figure 1. Location of sites in the Lac-Saint-Jean area of Québec and sites used for comparison in Ontario, Nova Scotia and New York State. · : Sites in Lac-Saint-Jean region; A = Ashuapmuchuan, C = Chicoutimi, M = Metabetchouan; A : Early French regime (1580-1650) 1 = Pictou site (Nova Scotia), 2 = Molson, Ball, Auger, Ossossane, and Train sites (Ontario), 3 = Kleinburg site (Ontario), 4 = Tregunno site (Ontario), 5 = Burke and Sealey sites (Ontario), 6 = Adams, Cameron, Cornish, and Warren sites (New York State); Δ : Late French regime (1660-1760) 7 = Bead Hill site (Ontario), 8 = Fort Frontenac (Ontario); Ο : Early British regime (1760-1840) 9 = Bellamy site (Ontario), 10 = Moose Factory Level m (Ontario); • : Victorian era (1840-1900) 10 = Moose Factory Level I; 11 = Mohawk Village (Ontario).


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Turquoise Blue Glass Trade Beads

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Site Descriptions


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The Lac-Saint-Jean area covers a hydrographie watershed of around 90,000 km , located to the northeast of Québec city. Its main feature consists of Lac-Saint-Jean, that empties into the St. Lawrence River via the 200 km long Saguenay River. The Saguenay River, and theriversthat feed Lac-Saint-Jean, provides a water access route north to Hudson Bay and west to the Saint-Maurice and Ottawa Rivers. Among more than three hundred archaeological sites in the area, three (Ashuapmuchuan, Chicoutimi and Metabetchuan) have provided large (>200) glass bead collections (see Figure 1) (4,5). The Ashuapmuchuan site is located in the highlands, about 125 km northwest of Lac-Saint-Jeaa It is a multicomponent site, whose first clearly defined component is Middle Woodland (5th to 10th century AD.). A Late Woodland component (14th century) may extend to the early 17th century, with the arrival of European trade goods (69, and Moreau, J.-F.; Langevin, E. Rapport de fouille, site DhFk-7, lac Ashuapmouchouane (Lac-Saint-Jean), été 1990, Chicoutimi, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Laboratoire d'archéologie, 1992). Although European trade goods may have arrived at the site up to the 19th century, many of them, on typological and distributional grounds (7-8 and Moreau, J.-F.; Langevin, E. Rapport de fouille, site DhFk-7, lac Ashuapmouchouane (Lac-Saint-Jean), été 1990, Chicoutimi, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Laboratoire d'archéologie, 1992), seem to be earlier (9). The Chicoutimi site is about 125 km northwest of the confluence of the Saguenay and St. Lawrence Rivers. It consists of two stratigraphically distinct components. The lower component, called indian couche, includes mainly aboriginal materials from the end of the Middle Woodland Period and the beginning of the Late Woodland Periods (11th century), through to European trade goods of the early 17th century (70). The second component consists mainly of European trade goods from a non-palisaded, 18th century trading post, with materialfromthe late 17th to the 19th century (77). The Metabetchuan site is located on the south shore of Lac-Saint-Jean, at the mouth of the Metabetchuan river. It may have been occupied as early as the Late Archaic Period, with Woodland Period, especially Late Woodland Period occupations confirmed by diagnostic pottery sherds (Laliberté, M.; Moreau, J.-F. DcEx-1 - Un site traditionnel d'échange sur les berges du lac Saint-Jean, Université du Québec à Chkx)utirni, Laboratoire d'archéologie, 1988a, and Laliberté, M.; Moreau, J.-F. DcEx-1: les résultats de la campagne de fouille de 1987, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Laboratoire d'archéologie, 1988b). European contact components extendfromthe early 17th century to the 19th century. Analytical Procedure All eighty turquoise blue (copper-based) glass bead samples were assembled for non destructive instrumental neutron activation analysis using the SLOWPOKE Reactor Facility at the University of Toronto (2, 12). Beads of mass 20 mg, stored in 1.2 mL polyethylene vials, were irradiated serially forfiveminutes at a neutronfluxof 1.0 χ 10 neutrons cm' sec" . Two tofiveminutes after irradiation, their radioactivity was counted for five minutes using a hyper-pure germanium detector-based gamma-ray spectrometer. 12

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Table I. Aluminum-, Antimony- and Cobalt-rich Glass Beads from Ashuapmuchuan (A), Chicoutimi (C) and Metabetchuan (M) Al

Ca

%

%

CI

Co ppm %

Aluminum-rich A51 2.13 2.7 50.16 A54 2.24 2.8 50.14 Antimony-rich A52 0.38 1.4 0.86 C71 0.26 2.7 0.41 Cobalt-rich A53 0.48 2.7 1.92 A55 0.59 4.8 2.15 C70 0.61 4.2 1.60 M56 0.67 5.2 2.15 M58 0.59 4.8 2.15 M59 0.68 5.0 2.44 M60 0.70 5.5 2.51 M61 0.66 5.6 1.85 M62 0.65 5.1 2.24 M63 0.65 5.2 2.00 M65 0.58 4.0 1.96

Cu Mn % ppm

As ppm

Sb ppm

12.9 51100 14.2 51300

940 960

5140 5150

10.2 7.7

5860 5750

980 430

18600 10400

12.8 5880 13.2 5800 12.7 2500 13.3 51010 13.2 51010 13.8 5870 14.0 51000 13.0 5770 13.4 5890 13.1 5930 12.2 5780

5140 360 450 5200 630 300 5190 5170 290 5160 460

620 5100 5100 5180 420 5110 5170 5150 5110 5160 590

Να

%

%

525 0.43 538 0.44

75 84

51.6 51.7

549 1.74 538 1.64

260 145

5.8 9.6

1.65 310 1.13 170 1.06 1940 0.80 230 1.06 610 0.85 230 0.89 240 0.83 210 0.84 250 0.81 230 1.16 320

51.3 51.5 51.5 51.6 51.6 51.5 51.9 51.6 51.4 51.5 51.2

144 172 150 200 179 185 190 189 202 189 180

Sn ppm

Κ

Table Π. Tin-rich Glass Bead Data from Ashuapmuchuan (A), Chicoutimi (C) Al

Ca

%

%

Tin-rich A43 0.56 A44 0.68 A45 0.60 A46 0.59 A47 0.59 A48 0.62 A49 0.60 C29 0.66 C30 0.74 C31 0.71 C32 0.64 C33 0.62 C34 0.68 C35 0.63 C36 0.63

4.0 5.6 4.8 4.2 4.4 5.2 4.8 5.5 5.7 5.0 5.4 5.0 5.7 5.9 5.9

Co % ppm

a

1.23 1.35 1.14 1.20 0.95 1.14 1.15 1.03 1.18 0.97 1.11 0.98 1.04 0.97 0.85

516 520 520 522 514 518 121 517 523 517 520 517 517 517 515

Cu Mn % ppm 0.77 0.71 0.61 0.62 0.60 0.60 0.57 0.35 0.41 0.45 0.52 0.51 0.50 0.50 0.32

370 1500 1200 1300 1230 1300 1200 1660 1460 1570 1650 1500 1610 1580 1570

%

Sn ppm

As ppm

Sb ppm

12.3 13.3 11.7 11.7 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.0 10.9 9.3 11.5 10.1 10.4 10.5 10.4

8600 10900 8400 9300 9400 9800 8900 7700 9500 11200 8700 11200 11300 11300 7500

590 5100 590 590 580 5110 5100 580 5100 580 580 5140 5110 5120 5140

5100 5120 5100 5100 590 5120 5110 5100 5110 570 590 5140 5110 240 5140

Κ

Να

%

3.2 51.5 3.3 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.2 3.9 4.4 4.4 4.0 3.4 3.0 3.6 4.1


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This produced analytical concentration data for cobalt (Co), tin (Sn), copper (Cu), sodium (Na), aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn), chlorine (CI) and calcium (Ca). The samples were recounted for five to thirty-three minutes the next day to measure the concentrations of the longer-lived radioisotopes of sodium (Na), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb) and potassium (K). The Na measurements were used to link both counts. Elemental concentrations were calculated using the comparator method (72). Beads of larger mass were irradiated at proportionately lower neutron fluxes to generate enough radioactivity for reasonable chemical analyses. The Al content was not corrected for the ^ A l produced by the ^Sifap) Al nuclear reaction. This neglected correction may account for 4%

Cl/Na0.14 Cl/Na>0.14

K/Na 0.14 K/Na>0.33

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1

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«1750-1850 (J) #22-41

Antimony-rich

Sb>10,000ppm

1

0

1

«1800-1900? (3) #42-50,63-64

Arsenic-rich

As >30,000 ppm

0

0

0

«1840-1900 (3) #51-58,62,79

Aluminum-rich modern

Al>2% Cl^O.3%

2

0

0

«1900-1950 (5) #69-78,80

Types I, Π and ΙΠ are differentiated on the basis of Ca, K/Na and Cl/Na and are roughly equivalent to the Ontario material as follows: Type I « Glass Bead Periods Π and m (2) Type Π « Late French regime (Fort Frontenac, Kingston) (3) Type ΠΙ « Early British regime (Moose Factory) (3) By definition, Type I, Π and ΙΠ beads are relatively low in Sn, Co, Sb, As and AL A = Ashuapmuchuan

M = Metabetchuan

C = Chicoutimi


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chlorine-poor) beads. The Metabetchuan site provided 12 beadsfromthe 17th century and 10 beadsfromthe 18th century. It may be significant that no tin-rich beads were recovered from this site. Although the Chicoutimi site produced 16 turquoise blue beadsfromthe 17th century, it is the only site of the three to give large numbers of turquoise blue beads (27)fromthe 18th and possibly early 19th centuries.


Conclusions The bead chemistry chronologies match the archaeological expectations, based on other lines of archaeological evidence, of the periods of use of each site. This matching confirms that the relatively short-lived isotope producing elements that are analyzable by INAA are indeed appropriate for characterizing glass beads. If the bead evidence is definitive for each site, all sites were in use in the 17th century; the Metabetchuan site was used into the early 18th century, and the Chicoutimi site was repeatedly occupied in the 18th to 19th centuries. Unlike the other sites, Ashuapmuchuan contains some near-modem beads. Acknowledgments Field work on the Metabetchuan and Ashuapmuchuan sites was made possible through various grants to Laboratoire d'archéologie de l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) from the Programme d'actions spontanées and the Programme d'établissement de nouveaux cherchers of the Québec Fonds pour la création et l'aide à la recherche (FCAR) as well as a grant from the Social Sciences and Human Sciences Research Council of Canada. Chemical analysis of the glass beads was supported by part of a joint grant made available to UQAC by R. Oullet (Université Laval), principal investigator of a Programme équipes et séminaires grantfromthe Québec FCAR funds that includes J.-F. Moreau as a co-researcher. The analytical work was also made possible by an infrastructure grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada to the SLOWPOKE Reactor Facility at the University of Toronto. Literature Cited 1. Kenyon, I.T. and Fitzgerald, W. R. Man in the Northeast, 1986, 32, 1-34. 2. Hancock, R. G. V.; Chafe, Α.; Kenyon, I. Archaeometry, 1994, 36(2), 253-266. 3. Kenyon, I.; Hancock, R. G. V.; Aufreiter, S. Archaeometry, 1995, (in press). 4. Moreau, J.-F. Recherches Amérindiennes au Québec, 1994, 24(1-2), 31-48. 5. Moreau, J.-F. Saguenayensia, 1993, 35(2), 21-28. 6. Moreau, J.-F. In L'Archéologie et la rencontre de deuxmondes;Fortin, M. Ed.; Musée de la Civilisation: Hull, Québec, 1992; pp 103-131. 7. Moreau, J.-F. In Transferts culturels en Amérique et ailleurs (XVIe-XXe siècle); Turgeon, L.; Delâge, D.; Oullet, R., Eds.; Les Presses de l'Université Laval: Québec, 1995, (in press). 8. Moreau, J.-F. In Mots, représentations. Enjeux dans les contacts interethniques et interculturels, Fall, Ν. Κ.; Simeoni, D.; Vignaux, D., Eds.; Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa,coll.Actexpress: Ottawa, Ontario, 1994, pp 343-374.


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Moreau, J.-F.; Langevin, E. Recherches Amérindiennes au Québec, 1992, 22(4), 3748. 10. Chapdelaine, C. Le site de Chicoutimi. Un campement préhistorique au pays des Kakouchaks. Québec, ministère des Affaires culturelles, 1988, Dossiers 61. 11. Lapointe, C. Le site de Chicoutimi. Un établissement commercial sur la route des fourrures du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Québec, ministère des Affaires culturelles, 1988, Dossiers 62. 12. Hancock, R. G. V. J. Internat. Inst. Conserv.,Canadian Group, 1978, 3(2), 21-27.


RECEIVED October 9, 1995


Chemical Chronology of Turquoise Blue Glass Trade Beads from the

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