Indian trade items

[Tom_in_CA]

These are pix of a type of item that is not uncommon to find around mission era sites here in CA. We've become comfortable with the theory that they are indian trade items. The reason for this is that they seem most predominantly recovered from indian rancheria sites. Also historical records indicate the padres/missionaries took "trade items" with them when starting new missions, or exploring new areas. The items were apparently for nothing more than "trinkets" with which to trade with the indians. While those historical citations don't say what the "trinkets" were, my hunting partners and I feel pretty confidant that these are one such type of those trade items.

They come in various styles from "bell-clapper" type, to the more ornate type.

Has anyone else ever found these? Any other ideas on what they might be? The pistol balls on the right are for size.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

Here's one particular "bell clapper" style that was just found a week ago during an allowed hunt in one of the mission gardens at Carmel Mission, CA. It will be entering the mission museum's "dug artifacts" display cabinet. So any info. I can ad about it's ID would be helpful. I'm planning on saying it was an indian trade item, but wonder if there's any true proof of this? I've showed them to archaeologists here, who've done missions work, and they're stumped.

 

[Rege-PA]

I have never seen any thing like them but they might be some kind of horse tack item, maybe from a saddle or bridle. They also could have been some type of fastener that is threaded through a leather slot, being that some are decorated they were meant to be seen and not hidden inside a bell. Just some thoughts.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

J. Brown. I/we have already thought they might be "jingle bobs". They are made even today for some sort of horse & tack "jingler" device that hangs from spurs. If you google "jingle bob" you find pix like this:

http://www.smithbrothers.com/product.asp?splid=0508T&pn=X3-25113&bhcd2=1223389703 (look below the rowel)

http://www.domvet.com/pharmvet/images/109.jpg

http://www.cowboyshowcase.com/images/glossary/jingle10.jpg

http://www.buckaroosales.com/images/Pg14-4.jpg

http://www.westernshop.com/product_images/30h.jpg

But if you look closely at the "jingle bobs" in these links, and look closely at the pix I posted of what we find here in mission sites, you will see that they do not match. Ours are larger, don't look the same, etc..... *Maybe* the smaller bell-clapper style *might* fit that description. They measure about 3 cm (1.25 inch). But the others are longer, not at all like "jinglers" (see the pix comparison).

In any case, the pix of "coscojos" in your link (pg. 75 of the link page index, or page 64, if you go by their page #s), appear to have nothing to do with the type item I'm posting. The "coscojos" you refer to are smaller, different looking, and much less ornate.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Yes I saw the text on p. 42, and studies the pix they referred to. They still have no similarity to the ones we find here. Not to say they're not the same thing, but it's just weird that as many we've found in distinct mission era sites (next to reales, etc....) that I've found nothing that matches. Look close at the pix they show of theirs, verses what I posted here on this thread. No similarity whatsoever. I have seen this "jingle-bob" explanation put forth before, but they never seem to match up. Maybe we've found a style unique to CA that's never been written about? I dunno. This is why we think they were trinkets worn and traded to the indians. I mean, it's no secret the indians were fond of "tinklers" (hanging doohickeys off their aprons, like a tassle or whatever), so the ID seemed to fit.

A friend of mine who first started hunting mission era sites back when you could waltz right into sensitive sites and no one cared (1970s) related how he and his hunting partners found a bunch of the bellclapper style pendants. At first, they reasoned that they were "bell clappers". But they began to notice that while they found THESE, they never found bells in commensurate amounts. Ie.: bells without the clapper were non-existent. They also noticed that some of the clapper style ones had a final appendage below what would have been the actual clapper. See that type in my last pix, verses the clapper style in my first pix (top) which has no final doo-hickey. For this reason, we dismissed the "bell-clapper" idea (although we continued to call the small ones by that name for reference sakes). It's entirely possible that the ornate longer one and the short bell-clapper style ones are an entirely different item. I dunno.