Projects
Miami Circle - Artifacts - Galena
Two galena artifacts were recovered from excavations at the Miami Circle. Galena is a mineral of lead sulfide that forms in cube-like crystals, with major deposits known in Missouri and the upper Mississippi Valley and in Illinois and Kentucky. American Indians used galena as a source of white pigment and as a raw material for making beads, pendants and other ornaments. It was a rare and highly prized mineral exchanged extensively by Native peoples in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States. Florida State University geologist Stephen Kish and his students made a spectrographic analysis of the galena artifacts from the Miami Circle and found that like most other Florida galena artifacts, the Miami Circle specimens share a source in central Missouri.