Red pigment in the Central Plains: A Pawnee case at Kitkahahki Town

James Murie, early twentieth century ethnographer and member of the Pawnee Nation, once wrote that the “things that are most acceptable to the Pawnee gods are smoke, fat, paint, and flesh” (Murie 1981:466). Here we describe red paint at Kitkahahki Town, a late eighteenth–early nineteenth-century Kitkahahki Pawnee village in north-central Kansas. Using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy, we compare archaeological paint and pigment samples to three pigment materials – pipestone powder, vermilion, and ochre – all documented in the Great Plains after European colonization. We ultimately find no evidence of pipestone powder or vermilion as pigment at Kitkahahki Town and conclude that ochre (some of which may be from the Lower Cretaceous Dakota formation) is the most likely pigment material at the site. Ochre may have been especially significant because of links between this earth pigment and Pawnee sacred geography.

二十世纪早期民族志学者、波尼族（Pawnee Nation）成员詹姆斯·缪里（James Murie）曾写道：“波尼神祇最乐于接纳的供品是烟雾、油脂、颜料与血肉”（Murie 1981:466）。本文聚焦堪萨斯州中北部一处18世纪末至19世纪初的波尼族基特卡哈基村（Kitkahahki Town）遗址，对其中出土的红色颜料展开分析研究。本研究采用激光烧蚀电感耦合等离子体质谱法（laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy）与拉曼光谱法（Raman spectroscopy），将考古出土的颜料样本与三类颜料材料——烟斗石粉、朱砂、赭石——进行比对分析；上述三类材料均在欧洲殖民时期后的大平原（Great Plains）地区有明确记录。最终研究结果显示，基特卡哈基村遗址中未发现将烟斗石粉或朱砂用作颜料的痕迹，据此推断赭石（其中部分可能源自下白垩统达科他组）是该遗址最可能使用的颜料原料。鉴于该土基颜料与波尼族神圣地理空间之间的内在关联，赭石或许具备特殊的文化意义。