Challenges for microwear analysis of figurative shell ornaments from pre-Colonial Venezuela

Abstract

Figurative ornaments displaying biomorphic and geometric designs have often been recovered from pre-Colonial sites in the Caribbean and northern South America. Such artefacts are held in museum and private collections, but often have not been the focus of systematic research. On the other hand, recent research into ornaments worldwide has focused on simple beads and automorphic shell ornaments. In this article, microwear analysis is used to assess technologies of production and use-wear of figurative shell ornaments from north-central Venezuela. It is our goal to reflect on the challenges posed by such collections, in terms of reproducibility of traces through experiments, post-depositional and curatorial modifications, and the complexity of past attachment configurations. The underlying question is how to deal with the limitations posed by the very nature of the studied collection in terms of preservation and of the high skill required in the reproduction of figurative artefacts.