In small crystals forgotten, or much ado about crystals,

In 1980 I first encountered quartz crystals.  This was on a dig for my Masters thesis in South Africa on a Late Iron Age (Bantu-speaking agruculturalist) site some 200 years old.  The crystal came from an ashy midden, closely associated with small and intricately carved rectangular pieces of soapstone and astragali bones of a small bovid-like animal.  At the time I thought nothing of the crystal, which was of clear transparent quartz, ignoring local laborers mumbling something about Nyangas (withcdoctors/diviners).  It was only five or so years later, while paging through some ethnographic literature, that I came to realize that the carved soapstone pieces, astragali, and quartz crystal were all divining dice, usually kept together by a diviner within a small cowhide pouch.  How the divination set ended up in the midden may never be known, but looking at the associated settlement layout (which is not much different from settlements in recent times), it is not inconceivable that a diviner lived nearby. Had I

My second encounter with quartz crystals was at a Late Woodland site in the Georgia Piedmont.  Here, in 1995, Chuck Cantley and his crew excavated a Middle to Late Swift Creek site (9Fy106) with numerous quartz crystals in a midden-like layer capped by a layer of clay. The origins of the clay layer is still open to question, as it could be redeposited subsoil from farther upslope or a deliberately packed surface.  Whatever the case, quartz crystals have been found within pits and other features dating to Woodland times.  Unfortunately, these have not always been collected or documetented.  One possible reason for this oversight is that such  quartz crystals seldom show signs of use (is should be remembered that quartz is a very hard mineral).  What is important to determine, however, is whether such crystals come from local sources (in which case their presence can be accredited to natural agents) or if hey were brought in from afar (human agency).

My crystal encounter of a third kind was at a small shelter on the Yellow River, east of Stone Mountain, in the heart of the Georgia Piedmont.  Here the New South data recovery crew found a few quartz crystals buried in a midden dating to between the Late Swift Creek to Late Lamar.

Other archaeological contexts with quartz crystals include rock-art sites in the American west where workers like Dave Whitley found crystals jammed into cracks within shelter walls and ceilings.  Ethnography in the far west explains such occurrences as part of vision quest ceremonies.  Ethnographic accounts among various Indians in the Southeast mention that each hunter had a quartz crystal, kept in a small pouch.  If for some reason the hunter parted with his crystal, such a crystal had to be buried, preferably away from places frequented by women and children.  In the Southeast crystals were believed to help with success in hunting and procreation, among other things.  In both the west and the southeast, Indians were intrigued by a strange light eminating from quartz crystals.

This light is not illusory and can be produced by anyone in possession of quartz crystals.  Here is what you gotta do. Take at least two crystals to your next party and be the center of attention (for at least while the experiment lasts).  Go to any dark location of your choice (with a friend of your choice) and vigorously rub together the two crystals (now-now, do not read too much in this sentence). Note the faint green glow from within the crystals. This phenonemon is known as trombulumiscence, or light emination due to pressure (also known as piezoelecricity).  The release of light is due to trapped electrons in crystal latticve defects being released by pressure (I guess rubbing helps one exert greater pressure - so it is not actually the friction that produces the light - although friction produces external sparks).  Being knowledgeable of Native American practices, at least in part, New Agers love this and other properties of crystals.  This association with the fringe should not scare archaeologists

Johannes Loubser.