Assuming the artifacts you have are the leftover scraps from cut-outs, if
the cut-out pieces were circular they could be decorative button covers in
which the scalloped edges were crimped over the back side of the button to
hold the facing onto the base piece (which probably would be attached to
the clothing with a hoop rather than with buttonholes). Do a Google Images
search for the strings 'navajo silver faced button' and 'navajo stamped
silver button' to see the kind I'm talking about. If the cut-out artifacts
were from tinned cans instead of silver, they could be kind of a poor
person's substitute for silver-faced buttons.

Alternatively, the cut-out disks could be the actual backing pieces for
composite buttons that were cloth-faced with padded interior, with the
scallops used to crimp toward the face of the button to hold the cloth
facing in place. See examples at http://designedtothenines.com/?p=352 or
in Google Images searches for 'cloth face button' and 'fabric button.'


al

Allen Dart, RPA, Executive Director
Old Pueblo Archaeology Center
PO Box 40577
Tucson AZ  85717-0577   USA
    520-798-1201 office, 520-798-1966 fax
    Email: [log in to unmask]
    URL: www.oldpueblo.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


On Thu, March 31, 2011 12:00 pm, JR Gomolak wrote:
[This is a NMAC-L posting. Use your reply function with care.]
*
*

So the pieces you have are actually pretty large, as you say the
scallops appear a half inch in diameter, in addition to a hollow
punch, they also could have been made by sharp-edged third-round or
half-round gouge.

Other random thoughts about the process,,,  I too suspect the pieces
you have appear to be the "negative" (dross, remnants,  "debitage")
from which one desired product was removed.  If the debitage included
small rounds or half rounds,... I'd agree with the normative
assumption of tinklers and reflective adornment.

Play with moving the pieces around, visualizing what was cut from the
"whole
sheet" they may have started with.

I like Bill and DeDe's thoughts, and can see a large circular result
with petal tips around the circumference, which can the be radially
creased inward and outward and compressed to produce a shape from
mildly dished cone (eg girasol)  to a tighter funnel shape.

Or, a curved strip with petal tips, that could be wound into a
compound flower of many overlapping petals... the aforementioned rose.

JR

On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 2:24 PM, Boyer, Jeffrey, DCA
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> [This is a NMAC-L posting, do not simply "Reply" to sender.] * *
>
> Colleagues,
>
> Attached is an image of four metal artifacts recovered from a Hispanic
> rancho near Cuyamungue in north-central New Mexico. The site dates
> between
> about 1830 and 1868. The artifacts, made of thin, sheet, ferrous metal
> (cans? no side seams observe), are representative of perhaps a dozen or
> so
> similar artifacts, all with scalloped edges. The scallops were created,
> as
> near as we can tell, with a circular stamp or punch 1/2-inch in
> diameter. We
> found no artifacts corresponding to the circular pieces that would
> result
> from stamping.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas as to the nature of the activity involved,
> why it
> was undertaken, and what function(s) was/were played by the resulting
> pieces?
>
> Gracias, with my apologies for cross-posting,
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
> Jeffrey L. Boyer, RPA
> Supervisory Archaeologist/Project Director
> Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico
>
> mail: P.O. Box 2087, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504
> physical: 407 Galisteo Street, Suite B-100, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
> tel: 505.827.6387 fax: 505.827.3904
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." -L.
> P.
> Hartley, The Go-Between, 1953