Copper on the Mississippi coast: Assessing provenance of a copper bead at the Claiborne site (22HA501) through LA-ICP-MS compositional analysis

Abstract

The Claiborne site (22HA501) is located at the mouth of the Pearl River in southern Mississippi and was occupied sometime between 3990-3340 BP. In this we article, we source a copper bead from Claiborne using employed laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) compositional analysis to assess the provenance of the copper bead to understand the extent, direction, and intensity of trade networks integrated into this site and its connection to both Poverty Point and other copper-holding Archaic-era sites in the region. Specifically, we attempt to determine whether the Claiborne copper object originated from the Great Lakes region, or the Appalachian Mountains/Canadian Maritimes. The compositional results show a significant elemental relationship to copper from the Great Lakes region.