A couple year ago ScrapIron was metal detecting an early Native American trade site along the Missouri river when he unearthed an intriguing artifact using his XP Deus II metal detector. The object is pictured below.
Front of Item
Rear of Item
Also found in the same hole was a worked copper piece and an abrasion stone.
Not thinking much about it he knew the site was an early site so he hung onto it. He has asked several very experienced detectorists about the piece over the years and nobody seemed to know what it was. Rather than tossing it he decided to keep it. He had always had it in the back of his mind.
One day recently when organizing some of his finds, he ran across it again. He had a little time on his hands so he decided to do some more research. He decided to use Google Image Search to see if it yielded any results.
Lo and behold, the search turned up a result...kind of. It lead him to an article by the Florida Historical Society's FHSAI Adventures in Florida Archaeology Magazine 2022. In one of the articles, there was a picture of the exact thing he had found!
Angola was a prosperous community of up to 750 maroons (escaped slaves) that existed in Florida from 1812 until Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, at which point it was destroyed. The location was along the Manatee River in Bradenton, Florida, near Manatee Mineral Springs Park.
Image from FHS Adventures in Archaeology Magazine
In the article Professor Rosalyn Howard stated “...the underlying intentions of the ritual objects, to attract spiritual power for offensive or defensive purposes, remained and their physical placement inside or outside the home had significant meaning.” As Howard noted, the G-shaped belonging could have been used for many purposes, including an ornament, buckle, or fastener, but its burial in a pit was intriguing. One cultural possibility is as a representation of the Yoruba orisa (deity) Ogun, a god of war and iron, who is honored by jewelry usually made of iron, but other metals could have substituted.
The item in the picture featured in the article had been cleaned and the two iron rivets are missing. The one ScrapIron found still had the iron rivets in it. We are curious if anyone else has found something similar. If you have, let us know, we would love to hear your story!
Front of Item
Rear of Item
Also found in the same hole was a worked copper piece and an abrasion stone.
Not thinking much about it he knew the site was an early site so he hung onto it. He has asked several very experienced detectorists about the piece over the years and nobody seemed to know what it was. Rather than tossing it he decided to keep it. He had always had it in the back of his mind.
One day recently when organizing some of his finds, he ran across it again. He had a little time on his hands so he decided to do some more research. He decided to use Google Image Search to see if it yielded any results.
Lo and behold, the search turned up a result...kind of. It lead him to an article by the Florida Historical Society's FHSAI Adventures in Florida Archaeology Magazine 2022. In one of the articles, there was a picture of the exact thing he had found!
Angola was a prosperous community of up to 750 maroons (escaped slaves) that existed in Florida from 1812 until Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, at which point it was destroyed. The location was along the Manatee River in Bradenton, Florida, near Manatee Mineral Springs Park.
Image from FHS Adventures in Archaeology Magazine
In the article Professor Rosalyn Howard stated “...the underlying intentions of the ritual objects, to attract spiritual power for offensive or defensive purposes, remained and their physical placement inside or outside the home had significant meaning.” As Howard noted, the G-shaped belonging could have been used for many purposes, including an ornament, buckle, or fastener, but its burial in a pit was intriguing. One cultural possibility is as a representation of the Yoruba orisa (deity) Ogun, a god of war and iron, who is honored by jewelry usually made of iron, but other metals could have substituted.
The item in the picture featured in the article had been cleaned and the two iron rivets are missing. The one ScrapIron found still had the iron rivets in it. We are curious if anyone else has found something similar. If you have, let us know, we would love to hear your story!
