Fig 1.
Example of historic turtle shell legging/shackle rattle.
Four Eastern box turtle rattles tied to leather legging with leather string with stone flakes inside of the shells. Courtesy McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee (Catalog number 2011.27.26.1). Photo by Andrew Gillreath-Brown.
Fig 2.
Illustration showing basic elements of a turtle carapace (left) and plastron (right). (A) Marginals, (B) Neurals, (C) Costals, (D) Entoplastron, (E) Hyoplastron, (F) Hinge, (G) Hypoplastron, and (H) Xiphiplastron.
Fig 3.
Archaeological sites mentioned in the text.
Circles indicate modern cities and triangles indicate archaeological sites.
Fig 4.
Four archaeological turtle shell rattle specimens used as design templates for the experimental rattle and Drill Holes.
(A-B) Hiwassee Island [32] (Lewis and Kneberg 1970:126), (C) Apple Creek [34] (Parmalee et al. 1972:29), (D) Ensworth [31], and (E) Zebree [37–38] sites.
Fig 5.
Tools and samples used in experimental study.
Items include bow and chert drill, the drilled carapace (Drill Holes 5 and 6), river pebbles, and river cane.
Fig 6.
Experimental plastron (Drill Holes 7–10) showing the four drilling locations.
(A) Drill Hole 7, (B) Drill Hole 8, (C) Drill Hole 9, and (D) Drill Hole 10.
Fig 7.
SEM micrograph showing the circular to oval shape on Drill Hole 2.
Micro-striations are also visible in and around the hole. Image was captured on a Tescan Vega 3 SEM at 27x magnification. Bar = 2mm.
Fig 8.
Holes drilled into turtle carapace (Drill Holes 5 and 6).
The darker (browner) part of the shell are the scutes and the whiter (or lighter) areas on the shell (on the right) are the marginal bony plates. Also see S1 3D Model.
Table 1.
Measurements of drill openings of the experimental drill holes.
The left-right axis refers to the horizontal when the turtle shells are oriented with the head of the shell at the top of the image, such as Figs 2 and 8. The anteroposterior is along the vertical axis.
Table 2.
Summary of turtle remains from Fewkes and Castalian Springs.
Table 3.
Fewkes associated rattle modifications (features only).
Table 4.
Fewkes associated rattle modifications (including features).
Table 5.
Castalian Springs associated rattle modifications.
Fig 9.
Partially drilled box turtle marginal recovered from Feature 55 at Fewkes.
The exterior portion of the shell is shown on the left and the interior is shown on the right. The arrow shows a potential second drilled hole. Image on right is courtesy of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Nashville.
Table 6.
Presence/Absence of the five turtle shell rattle characteristics (object trait list) that occur at Fewkes and Castalian Springs, with residue staining added as a sixth trait [9].
Fig 10.
Turtle shell exhibiting sharp angles from Feature 549 at Fewkes.
The fragment also has some smoothing on the sharply broken sides. Images courtesy of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Nashville.
Fig 11.
Turtle shell fragment showing possible evidence of drilling from Feature 702 at Fewkes.
The hole does not reflect chert drilling characteristics. Images courtesy of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Nashville.
Fig 12.
Drilled Eastern box turtle fragment recovered from Feature 817 at Fewkes.
The hole is on a costal fragment, likely towards the neurals, and exhibits a mostly circular shape. Images courtesy of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Nashville.
Fig 13.
Rounded indentations in Eastern box turtle fragment recovered from Test Unit 145 at Fewkes.
Images courtesy of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Nashville.
Fig 14.
Hole in turtle fragment that shows signs of possible modification recovered from Lot 233/235 at Fewkes.
The interior smoothing of the partial hole suggests possible modification. Images courtesy of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Nashville.
Fig 15.
Drilled pond slider turtle recovered from Feature 4 at Castalian Springs.
The interior side of the shell is shown at the top and the exterior of the shell is shown on the bottom.