STONE DISC PALETTE
CAHOKIA MOUNDS SITE

MADISON / ST. CLAIR COUNTIES, ILLINOIS
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COPYRIGHT OCTOBER 31, 2011 PETER A. BOSTROM

   This large stone disc palette was excavated by Bill Fecht somewhere on the Cahokia Mounds site in 1960. He notes that he discovered it with a burial but gave no more specific information than that. This palette may be unique as being one of the only complete examples found at Cahokia. Unlike the discoveries of large stone disc palettes on Mississippian sites farther to the south  and east they are almost unknown as far north as The Cahokia Mounds site.
    This stone disc is made of fine grain sandstone. There seems to be no doubt that it was used as a palette to grind and process mineral pigments. The upper surface indicates heavy use wear from grinding and it is deeply stained from a mineral pigment. It was apparently being used to process red ochre from hematite iron ore.
    This palette is generally round in shape but it's not symmetrical. The longer side measures 9 3/8 inches (23.8 cm) long and the narrower side 8 5/8 inches (21.9 cm) wide. Both sides have concave surfaces. What appears to have been the bottom side is very smooth across the entire surface. The red stained side exhibits uneven wear that indicates it was used for the heaviest grinding processes. The cavity depth of the underside measures 5/32 inch (4 mm) deep and the cavity depth of the top side measures 3/8 inch (1 cm) deep. The edge thickness varies from 15/16 inch (2.5 cm) thick to about 5/8 inch (1.6 cm) thick. The two cuts on the edge of the upper side of this palette were done in recent times by Bill Fecht's excavating tools in 1960.

Stone disc palette from the Cahokia Mounds site.

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