There are two species of quadruped animal of the deserts of the world called "camel", both of which have implications for archaeology.

• On the Domestication of Camels
• Bactrian Camels
• Dromedaries

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Spoon/perforator with incised Quincunx design, Early-Middle Preclassic periods, 1500-300 BC, Guerrero Olmec culture, incised and drilled greenstone. Photo by Madman2001.

A bloodletting spoon is a type of artifact discovered on many Olmec archaeological sites. Although there is some variety, the spoons generally have a flattened 'tail' or blade, with a thickened end. The thick part has a shallow off-center bowl on one side and a second, smaller bowl on the other side. Spoons usually have a small hole pierced through them, and in Olmec art are often depicted as hanging from people's clothing or ears.

Bloodletting spoons have been recovered from Chalcatzingo, Chacsinkin, and Chichén Itzá; the images are found carved in murals and on stone sculptures at San Lorenzo, Cascajal and Loma del Zapote.

Olmec Spoon Functions

The real function of the Olmec spoon has long been debated. They're called 'bloodletting spoons' because originally scholars believed them to have been for holding blood from auto-sacrifice, the ritual of personal bloodletting. Some scholars still prefer that interpretation, but others have suggested spoons were for holding paints, or for use as snuffing platforms for taking hallucinogens, or even that they were effigies of the Big Dipper constellation. In a recent article in Ancient Mesoamerica, Billie J. A. Follensbee suggests Olmec spoons were part of a hitherto unrecognized tool kit for textile production.

Her argument is in part based on the shape of the tool, which approximates bone weaving battens recognized in several Central American cultures, including some from Olmec sites. Follensbee also identifies several other tools made of elite greenstone or obsidian, such as spindle whorls, picks and plaques, that could have been used in weaving or cord-making techniques.

The answer, if you're looking for one, is that Olmec spoons were probably used for a variety of reasons---but Follensbee's paper makes a compelling argument for weaving to be one of them. It's an interesting paper. Take a look.

Sources and More Information

• Bloodletting, more on the black art
• Where do you wear your paint pot? FAMSI
• Olmec spoons, a bunch of photographs from the Latin American Studies site.
• Textiles
• Cascajal Block
• Olmec Civilization Timeline and Description
• Chichén Itzá
• Follensbee, Billie J. A. 2008 Fiber technology and weaving in formative-period Gulf Coast culture. Ancient Mesoamerica 19:87–110. Added: It turns out that this entire issue from Ancient Mesoamerica is free at the moment, and it contains many articles on weaving and textiles. Yippee!

A new article on the origins of vanilla inspires me to add it to the Plant Domestication Table, despite the fact that it really wasn't domesticated.

Vanilla is a spice painstakingly cured from pods of the vanilla orchid, the only edible orchid known (and isn't it a beauty!). Found today only in French Polynesia, its origins have long been recognized in Central America, where the Maya and Aztec civilizations used the vanilla bean for a variety of incense, flavoring and healing purposes.

New Research

The new article, published in the American Journal of Botany, is open source (wahoo!), and the authors used genetics to identify the progenitors of the French Polynesian orchid Vanilla tahitensis as two Central American orchids, V. odorata and V. planiform.

• Origins of Vanilla, more on vanilla origins
• Lubinsky, Pesach, et al. 2008 Neotropical roots of a Polynesian spice: the hybrid origin of Tahitian vanilla, Vanilla tahitensis (Orchidaceae). American Journal of Botany 95:1040-1047. Free download

News broke yesterday about a new mass spectrometry inspection of the clothing belonging to Oetzi. You'll recall, no doubt that Oetzi, also known as the Iceman or Simalaun Man, was discovered in the Alps near the Italian/Swiss border in 1991, and discovered to be a Bronze Age man. Lots of little snippets of news have come out over the years, summarized in the Iceman's glossary entry. The latest bit reports on the use of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometery to identify of the kinds of animals used to make up his clothing (sheep and cattle), which supports the argument that the poor old fellow came from a herding village.

Latest News

• Oetzi the Iceman, the glossary entry here at About.com
• Oetzi the Iceman dressed like a herdsman, Eureka Alert 20 August 2008
• Mummified Iceman's Ancient Job Determined, LiveScience
• Cracking Ice Age dress code a shot-in-the-arm for fashionistas, SAWF News
• Oetzi The Neolithic Iceman Had Some Pretty Good Clothing
• MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry Of Ötzi/Oetzi The Iceman’s Clothing, Kambiz on Anthropology.net

Need a giggle? Read what T.R. Talbott submitted as an entry to the Bulwer-Lytton contest in 1997: Death of an Iceman

Added:: the article referred to in the above reports is Hollemeyer, Klaus et al. 2008. Species identification of Oetzi's clothing with MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry based on peptide pattern similarities of hair digests. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 22(18):2751-2767. That will take you to the abstract, although you'll have to pay to read it.