hey everybody my name is laura crawford
and i'm an archaeological technician at
hopewell culture
national historical park i am working
from home to help stop the spread of
covet 19
and as you can see i'm here in front of
my tent
because i really want to go camping
today i have a really special artifact
and it's one of my favorite types of
artifacts because it's so rare
and so fragile that you don't see them
very often
here it is this is hocu4048
and it's a tiny textile fragment made of
woven
plant fibers and textiles like these are
hardly ever preserved because they're
made of these organic materials
that decay really quickly this one was
preserved because it was in touch
with a copper item and you can tell
because of these
green flecks and stains that are on top
of the
the golden colored fibers and
plain plant fiber textiles like this one
would have been used in burial context
sometimes as mats under the body of the
deceased
sometimes as shrouds over the body or
sometimes to wrap
copper items sacred copper items and the
burials and among many other
functions but we're not sure what this
textile was used for
because the early hopewell
archaeologists who found it
didn't do a good job of recording its
context
these are early archaeologists were
really more interested in
flashier artifacts and not so much these
plain textiles
however even these early hopewell
archaeologists were
fascinated by the colorful textiles made
from
rabbit fox and even bear hair
and just as an aside i really wouldn't
want to be in charge
of collecting bear hair it sounds like a
tough job no thanks
but even while hocu 4048 isn't dyed
the fanciest hopewell regalia was
brightly colored
in these sweeping curvilinear designs
and they were sometimes even adored with
thousands of pearl and shell beads
copper buttons
mica discs and much much more these
textiles would have taken
many thousands of hours for skilled
crafts people
to produce and these elaborate garments
they weren't for everyday
where instead they were really symbolic
and
and had a spiritual meaning and were
sacred even
and they were likely worn at important
ceremonial functions
in part to convey the social role of the
wearer
and they were probably worn in death for
similar reasons
and when you imagine these sorts of
vestments
i want you to think about the pope but
fancier
and really textiles were probably the
most valuable items the hopewell
possessed
and they remain precious to
archaeologists today
and even plain textiles like this one
are
amazing finds but ask that fancy regalia
the queen of england's got nothing on
the hope well