Etowah Mound fabrics

Table 11. Fiber Identification and Elemental Analyses of Etowah Mound Fabrics...

The Etowah fabric bundle (No. 840) contains fine yarns made of bundles of vegetable fibers typical of bast fibers. The core yams of Etowah Mound C (EMC) No. 1145 also are bast, and they are wrapped with feathers. Figure 10 is an electron micrograph of the nodes on the barbules of these feathers. The copper plate EMC No. 1156 contains a twisted yarn of undetermined fiber composition the fibers are smooth, untwisted, and long. Perhaps they are hair, but no scale structure was apparent on their surfaces. In the same area of the plate, some loose fibrous material adjacent to the yam proved to be feather. In a second area of the plate, some fibrous material of undetermined type similar in appearance to that in the first area is present. 

A more complicated use of the two-ply unit is found in two clay-encrusted fabric fragments (No. 1145, Burial 103) from Etowah Mound... 

Conservation measures have not been taken for the fabric bundle, and it remains in a crumpled heap. All observations and comments are based upon the state of the fabric as it is now. Future work should lead to a better understanding of how these structurally varied areas fit together. The fabric was found underneath the skull of the human remains of Burial 57. Preliminary examination of similar fragments from the same burial at the Etowah Mounds Museum indicates the same fabric structural variation. These were, however, fragments found under the right and left arms as well as under the head. 

Further analysis of the fabrication techniques employed in the production of these examples also is necessary. The Etowah bundle, for example, should be unfolded, while using correct conservation methods, and its structure should be subjected to detailed scrutiny. Only then can its relation to the fragments from the same burial on display in the Etowah Mound Museum and other Mississippian fabrics be known. When more data about the phenomenon of fabric pseudomorphism are obtained, then questions associated with the Tunacunnhee objects can be answered. Certainly the relationship between alternate-pair twined fabric found in both sites in Georgia deserves further study. 

Figure 4. Fabric Bundle, No. 840, Burial 57, Mound C, Etowah, 13.5 X...

Byers (19) reports analyses of Etowah fabrics that adhered to copper objects from Mound C. One was described initially by Willoughby (23) in 1932, and one was described by Moorehead (24) in the same year. Schematic illustrations of both fabrics bear a resemblance to fabric bundle No. 840, but differences also are seen. In the first of these fabrics, Byers indicates a spaced fabric with a System A (warp) as a single, two-ply, S-twist yarn and a System B (weft) as two, two-ply, S-twist yarns twining around the System A yarns. He notes that no selvage was present and that in certain areas Z-twist warp was used and provided a ribbed effect. Since his examination, the plate to which the fabric was attached has been cleaned. 

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