Title: Recontextualizing bodily ornaments from north-central Venezuela (AD 900-1500) : the Alfredo Jahn collection at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin
Abstract: Large collections of beads,
pendants and other bodily ornaments have been recovered from pre-Colonial
contexts on the shores of the Lake Valencia in north-central Venezuela. Most
excavations took place in the early and mid-part of the 20th century, but the ornaments
have not been thoroughly studied to date. These artefacts were produced by the
bearers of the Valencioid culture (AD 900-1500) and are currently held in
several public and private collections dispersed throughout the world. This
paper aims to recontextualize shell, lithic, and clay ornaments from the Alfredo
Jahn collection, housed in the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin. Production and
use wear traces were investigated through microwear analysis and were combined
with data concerning raw material acquisition strategies and depositional
contexts. By combining these results with new, unpublished data provided by
Jahn’s excavation report from 1901 and with up-to-date Valencioid archaeology,
we were able to recontextualize an indigenous tradition that encompassed ways
of producing, decorating, and dealing with bodily ornaments.
Publication Year: 2017
Publication Date: 2017-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 5
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