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PIGMENTS AND PALETTES: ART PRODUCTION AT A MIDDLE MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD HOUSE IN NORTH GEORGIA**

Abstract

The Mississippian Period is defined by the system of interrelated political and cultural ideas that were prevalent in the Midwest and Southeastern regions of the United States from around 1000 to 1550 CE. It is considered by many to be the height of societal complexity and is characterized by a system of strong social and political hierarchy with major centers with mounds and palisades dominating smaller surrounding settlements. The most notable Mississippian period site in Georgia is Etowah in the northwest of the state. It belonged to what is known as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC), which was an exchange network of culture and spirituality that spread during the period. Art from this time period largely followed the themes of the SECC and is largely thought to have been produced by specialists in relatively large quantities and distributed throughout the Mississippian world. However, there is a lack of information on exactly who these art specialists were and what they used to produce their art. The Cummings site in northwest Georgia has provided a unique opportunity to learn more about Mississippian period artists, as a unique assemblage of potentially art related artifacts and chunks of raw minerals have been found on the floor of a Middle Mississippian (1260-1300 CE) house that has been excavated on the site. This presentation focuses on the detailed description of the artifacts as well as a preliminary analysis of the raw minerals using Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), which is used for detecting the elemental composition of a material.

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