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Craft Specialists


Finely made arrow points from Mound 72, Cahokia 		Typically, the presence of goods of better workmanship and design than most is assumed to be the work of specialists. A hierarchical settlement pattern and differentiation of civic, communal, and religious structures suggest the presence of religious and political specialists as well. Specialists are therefore interpreted as de facto evidence of chiefdom or state level social complexity. Because specialists are involved in activities not related to food-production or household maintenance, someone must support them. Accordingly, the presence of specialists is taken to mean that the chief employed people to spend much of their time producing these goods.

Contrary to expectations, however, craft specialization does not always leave a readily identifiable archaeological record in artifacts and non-residential structures. This is because of the difficulty in distinguishing the works of especially skilled craftsmen, which are present in all societies regardless of complexity, from part-time specialists who use their spare time to fashion objects of desire, from the craft-specialist or artisan who works at little more than his or her craft.

Therefore, identification of full-time craft specialists requires more that just the presence of particularly well-made, beautiful objects. Archaeological data also required include the following:

  1. The artifacts may display a high degree of standardization in size, shape, thickness, and other features related to the manufacture processs.
  2. If present, the design elements of the artifacts should also display a high degree of standardization in size, and shape.
  3. Craft specialists have workshops that should be recorded archaeologically in the form of extensive scatters of manufacturing debris including both pieces broken in manufacture (e.g., pots that exploded during firing) as well as objects rejected, discarded, and broken due to some defect percieved by the craftsmen. Extensive debris scatters indicate production beyond what is needed by the household and are suggestive of markets.
  4. Artifacts produced by the craft-specialist, though not common, should be found frequently enough to rule out episodic manufacture.

Marine shell bead necklace.

While some Mississippian goods from the American Bottom (such as the fire clay figurines, Cahokia points from burials, shell bead necklaces, and perhaps Ramey-Incised pots) were produced by skilled people, there is little or no archaeological evidence of full-time specialists. It is worth noting, for example, that with the possible exception of a high density of chert drills in a few storage pits at Cahokia, no workshops have been excavated. Present archaeological evidence seems to indicate that the people who produced much of the prestige and high quality goods in the American Bottom did so, at most, on a part-time basis. With the possible exception of religious specialists of the highest rank, there is no evidence of an full-time class of craftsmen.



Chunkey stones from Mound 72, Cahokia Mounds Museum. 		Nevertheless, it is worth considering the functions of the items that skilled Mississippian artisans produced. Finely crafted goods such as Ramey-Incised pots, Cahokia points, polished chunkey stones, and other objects all serve three main functions. (1) They are visible signs of wealth and prestige. (2) They are visible signs that the owner has special socio-political and religious connections (see below and ART). (3) They serve as powerful items of exchange for other material goods, to curry favour with others, as well as for payment to meet social, political, and religious obligations. Owners use their prestige items and objects of wealth to manipulate others, to gain more power and wealth.

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