Pseudomorph Tunacunnhee site

Three copper objects from the Tunacunnhee site with pseudomorphs after fabric adhering to their surfaces were selected for analysis. These were the copper plate, one set of earspools from Mound C (F-30), and a copper earspool from Mound E (F-33). 

Types of twined fabric structures composed of bast or phloem fibers and feathers were identified in prehistoric fabrics of southeastern North America by chemical and physical analyses and technical fabrication studies. Fabrics and either partially or completely mineralized pseudomorphs after fabric from the Tunacunnhee and Etowah sites in Georgia (dated respectively A.D. 150 95 years and about A.D. 1200) were examined. The work confirms the presence of at least two types of twined structures for the earlier Hopewell site and intricately constructed re-plied yarns and twined fabric for the later Mississippian one. The study of fabrics from both sites provides evidence of the kinds of materials produced and used by prehistoric peoples of the region during a 1000-year interlude. 

The discovery of pseudomorphs after spaced weft twining from the Tunacunnhee Burial Mounds site is not surprising. Twining as a structural process is widespread in America (3,8,12,16,17), and spaced weft twining is represented in a number of sites (16, 17). Furthermore, Jefferies (I) notes the presence of a bag in which the Mound C ornaments were coated. Initial photographs made of the objects in situ suggest that their spaced weft twining covered all the objects. Pseudo-... 

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. 

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