Pearls from the Caribbean

[joshuaream]

Before the Spanish found gold, and set up the silver mines, the first treasure that Columbus and his soldiers found were pearls. Before the Japanese figured out how to make cultured/farmed pearls, natural pearls were among the rarest treasures.

Here are some pearls that I sifted from the ruins of one of the oldest Spanish cities in the Caribbean, Nueva Cadiz. We were mostly going for bottles, bullets, beads and buckles, but these turned out to be the best finds. The first settlement was around 1501, it was one of the largest cities in the Americas in 1535, and in 1541 a Hurricane, Earthquake & Tsunami combined with the overfished pearl beds resulted in the city being abandoned. The Spanish never re established the city, but would periodically send slaves to dive the pearl beds for the next 100 years or so.

All of these pearls were taken from the throw piles of previous archaeologists who dug the site in the 50's & 60's. They apparently didn't know about screening their finds (and it was dry, fluffy sand, the only thing easier to sift is water.)

My finds, the pieces on the right are undrilled and were probably found by Native American Slaves. The ones on the left are biconically drilled and were probably trade pieces (glass beads from the Spanish, pearls and gold from the natives.) The Arawak (Taino) liked pearls, as did the Caddoans at Spiro Mounds.



They aren't that big, I think the shovel blister under my ring finger was bigger. (I forgot to leave my wedding ring at the house, and my wife told me I wasn't getting any more replacements for lost rings... So I dug with the ring on.)


I dug a couple of weekends a year for several years, I ended up buying the collection of my digging partner who went nearly every weekend for many years.

He ended up finding the area of the site where the natives lived and found many more drilled beads.







These are some of the beads that the early Spanish traded, this particular style was used through 1510 or so. I dug an urn in St. Lucia several years back that had this type of bead and native shell beads, probably dating from 1502 expedition. The St. Lucia beads were published one of Lar Hothem's last books, Rare & Unusual Indian Artifacts.



After one of the groups working one of the wrecks Mel Fisher discovered, I figured I might be a millionaire... But I'm not, I still have to work for a living. They've managed to sell some pearls for surprisingly high figures, but mostly because of the connection to the Atocha. 480 years of lying in dry sand is not the best environment for pearls, but it's better than 400+ years in salt water.

Story of the Santa Margarita Pearls of the Santa Margarita

Another good thing is that I've managed to restore a couple of the pearls in my drilled hopewell teeth, it makes them look pretty cool.

[Rick Hicks]

Very interesting history and a very desirable collection. Thanks for the lesson and pictures.

[Palmwood]

Fantastic story, and collection, nice blister, I get that same one on my ring finger pad but nothing that nice to show for it.

Were the Hopewell using freshwater pearls or saltwater? Or can you tell the difference?
What about the Spiro pearls, do you know their origin?

I have heard of Red Snapper bones found on a 2,000 year old site in NE LA. Their was apparent trade from the Gulf up the MS River.

[neralich]

Awesome post, Joshua,,
I agree with the others,,, Awesome collection and great story with alot of info,,
Thanks for sharing it all.

With all them fancy treasures,, Kinda reminds me of the movie GOONIES

[joshuaream]

I am not an expert in pearls, but I did a lot of research when I started finding them. The Spiro pearls have always been identified as fresh water pearls, but both they and the Hopewell traded for conch and whelk shells so they could have gotten oysters as well. And from the size of the shell middens along the coast their potential trading partners were using a lot of oysters.

Here are a couple of Hopewell teeth, those pearls look too big to be wild fresh water pearls to me but I don't know that people have really studied it.

[joshuaream]

Originally Posted by neralich

Awesome post, Joshua,,
I agree with the others,,, Awesome collection and great story with alot of info,,
Thanks for sharing it all.

With all them fancy treasures,, Kinda reminds me of the movie GOONIES

Goonies and the Indiana Jones movies were awesome.

[Buckeye]

Wow Josh, very cool pics story and information...Love hearing about the Taino...Do you have any Carib artifacts?

[lillyput]

Darn it, I was going to bed but PEARLS AND BEADS. WOW, LOVE THEM.
The colors, shapes...... I'll look again in the morning so glad you put up the pictures and history.

[Mud Hawk]

Joshua, those are beautiful finds. They have so much more character than typical cultured pearls. Thank you for sharing...

[silver lake]

Very enjoyable, thank you.