I was thinking the same thing. As I am a game designer I often look at anthropology and archaeology of cultures with similar technology and access to tools as to the cultures I want to depict. I have found Malcolm's videos to be incredibly inspirational as he has done videos on armor of cultures without ready access to metal. Combining his information with that I can find on African tribes and even SE Asian & Pacific Islander weapons and armor has me back to development on a number of things. For example, wicker shields. They sound dubious until you consider blunt weapons like clubs and slings. If woven certain ways they may well bounce such items better than hide and potentially on part with wooden plank shields but with less labor cost and fewer tools (than the wood and hide shields like the skoldyr)
In the spring of the year in that brief window of time after the bark starts to slip but before the buds grow you can get straight shoots of cranberry viburnum, clip them with pruning shears, peel them and bundle them to dry for arrow shafts. They are about the straightest thing in nature. The wood is very hard but the inside has a foamy core. You can take turkey wing feathers, slice them and cut them to shape cut grooves in the tail end of The arrow shaft and epoxy those turkey feathers into those grooves leaving a short length behind the feather for the arrow nock. Nock the arrow shaft by cutting a groove in it with a flat seat at the end of the groove so the shaft doesn't split. Drill out that pithy core at the front end of the shaft and insert your target point or broadhead point with epoxy. Or you can make your own two blade Arrowhead by cutting a flat piece of steel down in the shape with sharp edges and leave a narrow tail end of the arrowhead as a shank that will fit inside that Hollow core of the viburnum shaft. Epoxy that shank and insert it into the arrow shaft. You can also take those viburnum shafts and cut them down into half inch or inch long pieces and put a string or cable through them to use as necklace. I took an old blue ware pot I found down over a ravine by a creek and cut arrowheads from it with a dremel with cutoff wheel. I also cut the handles off silver spoons and used spoons. I epoxied a small piece of thick wire to the back of the arrowheads and spoons. The wire goes on the concave side and the convex side of the spoon faces outward on the necklace so you can't see the wire. Same with the arrowheads you can't see the wire behind them.When epoxy had dried I wrapped the wire in between each viburnum piece on the necklace bringing each spoon and arrowhead close to the viburnum pieces. You cant see the wire. . These were about 1 1/2 inches long pieces of viburnum with small cable through the center and connectors at the ends to connect the necklace together behind the neck. There were 20 or so pieces of viburnum on it. I alternated one blue arrowhead, one silver spoon, one blue arrowhead, one silver spoon...... Six arrowheads and five spoons. Looks absolutely beautiful. That mottled blue ware looks almost like gemstone. Alternating with the shiny silver. Real silver plated spoons not stainless.
Thanks for this. What I have always been curious about is how wampum could be used as currency if its production wasn't centrally controlled. How did it maintain its value? I never studied economics so maybe I wouldn't understand the answer anyway.
Great question. I'm guessing something like supply and demand. People valued it culturally and knew it could be bartered for other stuff, and so they were willing to receive it in barter themselves.
Except for a very brief period in the colonies, currency is a poor description. It was a trade good, the same as food, pottery furs and tools, any special use in this role came from the great degree of labour involved in production concentrated in such a small/portable, imperishable unit. The value of the beads would depend on the quality of the individual beads as well as what the two parties thought fair.
Also, items may well have a value of time saved making it yourself or, if you could not meet the quality or have access to the material, potentially even more
As one gentleman inferred inland tribes often had little access to quahog shells vs tribes on the coast. Who probably were very adept in working the shell.
Just spitballing here but beads were (and are) a serious thing right? Your spend time making them and make them good. You'd want them to line up and be of similar size. So why would I not go through a bit more trouble if those hour glass shaped holes were deemed sub par? I seriously doubt that that was a 'bug'.
@@MalcolmPL LOL. I know. That is the point I was making. Let me clarify. Not you, but archeology in general makes it about this: **Better tools** = **Better product**. So "iron tools advanced the bead making". My point was that "better" tools make *different* beads. If they wanted straight holes before they could have made them. It was a matter of 'fashion', not a matter of skill. You can drill holes with fine gravel and an heat treated oak pin straight through a bead. Takes time and effort and not as easy as an iron drill, but I believe it's a choice they made. It was fashion that changed through technology. Bit of a pointless point I came to realize. We already agree on this I bet. But I was wondering now what the difference in use of these beads would be. The techniques to make a belt would be similar but somehow I think using hourglass beads would be a bit more challenging.
Oh, second observation. I believe that drilling from both sides is not about alignment. It is about "Blow out". If you drill through a stone or anything brittle you get this: ua-cam.com/video/PrghlNpMGTc/v-deo.html Going only half way and restarting from the other end prevents that damage.
It was for Six Nations members and local archaeologists, the hope was to build community trust by being open about goals and methods, in the hope of persuading people that archaeology isn’t just about grave robbing.
I don’t know, it was kind of structureless and most of the people there were either in peripheral fields or else came to the conference with a preexisting interest.
@@MalcolmPL my maternal grandmother's family came from what was the ancestral grounds of the Mohawk. She died when I was nine. She wasn't White. The family says the ancestry is through her mother. And that would be the Hill family. I'm quite convinced that is Haudenosaunee ancestry and most likely Mohawk but as far as I know at the moment is the names of my great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather.
That's short sweet and to the point. This is the highest quality of content you can get on this site.
Really interesting tidbit. I'll actually end up using this when describing wampum in my Dungeons & Dragons game now 😁
I was thinking the same thing. As I am a game designer I often look at anthropology and archaeology of cultures with similar technology and access to tools as to the cultures I want to depict. I have found Malcolm's videos to be incredibly inspirational as he has done videos on armor of cultures without ready access to metal. Combining his information with that I can find on African tribes and even SE Asian & Pacific Islander weapons and armor has me back to development on a number of things.
For example, wicker shields. They sound dubious until you consider blunt weapons like clubs and slings. If woven certain ways they may well bounce such items better than hide and potentially on part with wooden plank shields but with less labor cost and fewer tools (than the wood and hide shields like the skoldyr)
I’ve been curious about this for some time. Huzzah!
This kind of content is as OG as it can possibly be on UA-cam…. Just a dude talking bout beads and here to listen
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!
In the spring of the year in that brief window of time after the bark starts to slip but before the buds grow you can get straight shoots of cranberry viburnum, clip them with pruning shears, peel them and bundle them to dry for arrow shafts. They are about the straightest thing in nature. The wood is very hard but the inside has a foamy core. You can take turkey wing feathers, slice them and cut them to shape cut grooves in the tail end of The arrow shaft and epoxy those turkey feathers into those grooves leaving a short length behind the feather for the arrow nock. Nock the arrow shaft by cutting a groove in it with a flat seat at the end of the groove so the shaft doesn't split.
Drill out that pithy core at the front end of the shaft and insert your target point or broadhead point with epoxy. Or you can make your own two blade Arrowhead by cutting a flat piece of steel down in the shape with sharp edges and leave a narrow tail end of the arrowhead as a shank that will fit inside that Hollow core of the viburnum shaft. Epoxy that shank and insert it into the arrow shaft.
You can also take those viburnum shafts and cut them down into half inch or inch long pieces and put a string or cable through them to use as necklace. I took an old blue ware pot I found down over a ravine by a creek and cut arrowheads from it with a dremel with cutoff wheel. I also cut the handles off silver spoons and used spoons. I epoxied a small piece of thick wire to the back of the arrowheads and spoons. The wire goes on the concave side and the convex side of the spoon faces outward on the necklace so you can't see the wire. Same with the arrowheads you can't see the wire behind them.When epoxy had dried I wrapped the wire in between each viburnum piece on the necklace bringing each spoon and arrowhead close to the viburnum pieces. You cant see the wire. . These were about 1 1/2 inches long pieces of viburnum with small cable through the center and connectors at the ends to connect the necklace together behind the neck. There were 20 or so pieces of viburnum on it. I alternated one blue arrowhead, one silver spoon, one blue arrowhead, one silver spoon......
Six arrowheads and five spoons.
Looks absolutely beautiful. That mottled blue ware looks almost like gemstone. Alternating with the shiny silver. Real silver plated spoons not stainless.
Awesome video
It's funny I just started making amber beads last month. Wonder what future archeologists would make of my haphazard use of dremel bits.
Interesting indeed
Thanks for this. What I have always been curious about is how wampum could be used as currency if its production wasn't centrally controlled. How did it maintain its value? I never studied economics so maybe I wouldn't understand the answer anyway.
Great question.
I'm guessing something like supply and demand. People valued it culturally and knew it could be bartered for other stuff, and so they were willing to receive it in barter themselves.
What else is as easy to move an is so durable?
Its not like there's a state setting prices and the value of other item's will change too.
Except for a very brief period in the colonies, currency is a poor description.
It was a trade good, the same as food, pottery furs and tools, any special use in this role came from the great degree of labour involved in production concentrated in such a small/portable, imperishable unit.
The value of the beads would depend on the quality of the individual beads as well as what the two parties thought fair.
Also, items may well have a value of time saved making it yourself or, if you could not meet the quality or have access to the material, potentially even more
As one gentleman inferred inland tribes often had little access to quahog shells vs tribes on the coast. Who probably were very adept in working the shell.
Just spitballing here but beads were (and are) a serious thing right? Your spend time making them and make them good. You'd want them to line up and be of similar size. So why would I not go through a bit more trouble if those hour glass shaped holes were deemed sub par?
I seriously doubt that that was a 'bug'.
You misunderstand me, the hourglass cross section is not a flaw, it’s just the result of the manufacturing techniques.
@@MalcolmPL LOL. I know. That is the point I was making. Let me clarify.
Not you, but archeology in general makes it about this: **Better tools** = **Better product**. So "iron tools advanced the bead making".
My point was that "better" tools make *different* beads. If they wanted straight holes before they could have made them. It was a matter of 'fashion', not a matter of skill. You can drill holes with fine gravel and an heat treated oak pin straight through a bead. Takes time and effort and not as easy as an iron drill, but I believe it's a choice they made. It was fashion that changed through technology.
Bit of a pointless point I came to realize. We already agree on this I bet.
But I was wondering now what the difference in use of these beads would be. The techniques to make a belt would be similar but somehow I think using hourglass beads would be a bit more challenging.
thanks again
Oh, second observation. I believe that drilling from both sides is not about alignment. It is about "Blow out". If you drill through a stone or anything brittle you get this:
ua-cam.com/video/PrghlNpMGTc/v-deo.html
Going only half way and restarting from the other end prevents that damage.
Thaaaat explains all my broken shells... I'll apply this next time, miigwetch!!
Word.
😎 👍🏼
📿
Was this archaeology conference open to the public?
It was for Six Nations members and local archaeologists, the hope was to build community trust by being open about goals and methods, in the hope of persuading people that archaeology isn’t just about grave robbing.
@@MalcolmPL That sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing a tidbit of what you learned there.
@@MalcolmPL Do you feel like the conference achieved the hopes and goals you described?
I don’t know, it was kind of structureless and most of the people there were either in peripheral fields or else came to the conference with a preexisting interest.
Are you Haudenosaunee?
Yes.
@@MalcolmPL my maternal grandmother's family came from what was the ancestral grounds of the Mohawk. She died when I was nine. She wasn't White. The family says the ancestry is through her mother. And that would be the Hill family. I'm quite convinced that is Haudenosaunee ancestry and most likely Mohawk but as far as I know at the moment is the names of my great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather.
@@MalcolmPL My grandmother was born in 1912