Late Copper Bells and Homol'ovi

Content Warning: Discussion of mortuary ritual and ancestral burial

This copper bell top platform was found at Homol'ovi II, a site that is reported as having only one copper bell fragment found in second story room 557 (Vargas 1995:79, 96). This appears to be the one Victoria Vargas typed as belonging to type IC6a, though she notes that it may be IC15a (Vargas 1995:79). I decline to type it, as Vargas' types are based on characteristics of appendicle ring, platform and resonator body (Vargas 1995:Table 4.1) and only the first two are preserved. In fact the major difference between types IC6a and IC15a involves the resonator body (Vargas 1995:23-24). There also appear to be two appendicle rings on this bell fragment which would suggest a slight morphological difference from those two types, which are defined as having a single appendicle ring.

At the time Homol'ovi II is occupied, copper metallurgy in West Mexico has shifted to involve alloys, as well as non-alloyed copper, though the latter is less common (Vargas 1995:19-20). The majority of metallurgy appears to take place in the Purépecha State at the capital of Tzintzuntzan and in the Purépecha State as a whole (Vargas 1995:19-20). Unfortunately without chemical testing of the bell it is difficult to state its exact provenience. Within the US Southwest/Northwest México at the time Homol'ovi II is occupied, trade nodes involved in the movement of finished copper objects are present at Paquimé and Gila Pueblo (Vargas 1995:54, 63-68). There is some evidence this is related to two separate trade networks, one in the west, centered around the Hohokam/Globe Highland Salado/Western Pueblos and a second centered around Paquimé and the Jornada Mogollon region (Vargas 1995:67-68). The existence of two networks, one likely run by Hohokam or Salado Horizon people and the other by Paquimé is also supported by the distribution of shell jewelry at this time (Bradley 1996).

Nodes closer to Homol'ovi II existed at Cherry Creek/Q Ranch in the White Mountains, which combined yielded 18 bells (Vargas 1995:91). 12 came from Cherry Creek and 6 from Q Ranch (Vargas 1995:91), a low amount, which led Vargas (1995:66) to conclude this site was a low level trade source in the area. Notably, Cherry Creek had a large diversity of bells, despite a low absolute number of bells (Vargas 1995:66), similar to the known multi-material trade node of Wupatki in earlier times (Vargas 1995:Table 5.1). Interstingly, in Vargas inventory, no Hohokam site had a large amount of copper bells, with Classic Period levels at Las Colinas yielding 10 bells (Vargas 1995:95), a greater number than Casa Grande at 9 (Vargas 1995:89), Pueblo Grande at 3 (Vargas 1995:90), La Ciudad and Los Morteros at 2 (Vargas 1995:95-96) and Los Hornos at 1 (Vargas 1995:90). Pueblo Grande has since leaped in total number of copper bells, as unpublished excavation associated with the SunAmerica project found 8 additional copper bells of this period, in a Late Classic infant inhumation, bringing the total to 12. None of these totals come close to the 40 bells at Gila Pueblo (Vargas 1995:65) or earlier caches from Snaketown, Gatlin and the Romo Cache (Vargas 1995:89). This suggests that by the Late Classic Period the Hohokam were not taking an active role in copper bell distribution. It seems most distribution at this time was through Gila Pueblo, a Salado Horizon village, and Paquimé, a likely city-state (Vargas 1995:70-71). Homol'ovi II overlapped with the Gila Pueblo network.

Bells are mostly found as mortuary offerings in this period and region (Vargas 1995:71), this is a less common example of a find from a room. At Paquimé this was not the case, most copper bells came from rooms or caches, and other types of copper artifacts were found (Vargas 1995:71). This suggests different social roles for copper bells in the two nerworks, which seem to result from differing ties to West Mexico (Vargas 1995:70-71). This may be reflected in each network having some bells styles unique to it (Vargas 1995:70) which suggest different source areas in West Mexico. However the single example from Homol'ovi II sheds no light on the exact use, only that Ancestral Hopi people were engaged in a far-flung exchange network.

References Cited

Bradley, Ronna J.
1996 The Role of Casas Grandes in Prehistoric Shell Exchange Networks within the Southwest. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe.

Vargas, Victoria D.
1995 Copper Bell Trade Patterns in the Prehispanic U.S. Southwest and Northwest Mexico. Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series 187. Arizona State Museum, Tucson.