Bluffs near Cahokia
Crable Site
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Notes:
Both internal temporal differences and evidence suggesting real heirlooms are minimized in Brain's interpretation that there were many late, contemporary styles.
If one examines these two illustrations, it can be seen --if one knows what to look for --that the small gorget from the Crable site in the Illinois River Valley started out as a complete "spider" gorget in the Eddyville style. It has, however, been worn down to the point that its engraved lines are nearly obliterated. The entire gorget has been cut down, perhaps because of breakage, so that only the center part of the spider-like design is preserved, and that portion is cut in an unsymmetrical and haphazard manner without reference to the complete original design.
The shell from which the gorgets were made is extremely hard in its original state, and we have no reason to believe that the material was softened in any way before being engraved. The simple fact is that unless the gorgets at Crable were purposely abraded, it would have taken very long use to create the sort of wear seen on many of the Crable specimens. Crable is thought to date to the late 14th and early 15th century both on ceramic associations and radiocarbon dates, while it would be hard to find any regional specialist who would argue that the Eddyville/Braden A associations at Cahokia could possibly date much after the end of the 13th century, at the latest.
As we shall see, however, the heirloom explanation is not so crucial to dating the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex in the narrow sense to the 13th century as Brain would have us believe. Nonetheless, heirlooms do exist and can normally be identified by such classic markers as differential preservation.