Trade Bell info

[lonnieb]

Howdy all! Hopefully some of you can educate me on a trade bell. I participated in a dig with an archaeology group on the upper Missouri squarely in Blackfoot country. The goal was to establish the location of an early trade post based on non-indian evidence exposed low in the bank of the river. During this dig we found the upper half of a copper or brass (bright green patina) jingle-type bell. Sorry, I don't have a pic, but the diameter of the half was approx 9/16". The bell appears to be stamped material and the eyelet basically looks like a cotter key in the hole with butterflied ends. If anyone can help me with ID or origin, I'd really appreciate it!!

 

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[Lucas]

Sounds right in there.

Check out the Voyageurs National Park study

http://www.nps.gov/voya/historyculture/the-fur-trade.htm

From Things Left Behind: A Study of Selected Fur Trade Sites and Artifacts, Voyageurs National Park and Environs

p. 87 for one example.

 

[lonnieb]

Thanks Lucas. Excellent reference. I'll have to extend an extra thanks to you. We also found an item that looks nearly identical to the flesh scraper made out of the leg-hold trap mainspring featured in that report. We were scratching our heads on that one.

 

[Lucas]

We also found an item that looks nearly identical to the flesh scraper made out of the leg-hold trap mainspring featured in that report. We were scratching our heads on that one.

Cool find! Gun barrel scrapers are more common, but the trap springs are well known, and definitely fur trade/Native.

 

[lonnieb]

My wife saw you are from Wisconsin and is bugging me to ask you to arrange a tractor-trailer load of juuso baked cheese sent to Virginia.

 

[Lucas]

OK we'll trade for Fresh Foods of Virginia (FFV) Pilot Biscuit.

 

[lonnieb]

No store in this area, but are you talking about hard tack biscuits? I'd take
juuso cheese over those any day!!!