TOMBAC BUTTONS

The Oxbow Archaeologists have recovered two "tombac" buttons during the course of excavations. Tombac was a brass alloy with a high percentages of zinc and sometimes arsenic. This alloy can range from yellow to aluminum in color. It is often still shiny when excavated and was commonly used for buttons in the eighteenth century, particularly 1770-1800 (see Warren K. Tice, Uniform Buttons of the United States 1776-1865, page 2). These buttons are common on Revolutionary War period sites and have also been found at the Battle of Fallen Timbers battlefield in Ohio (see www.heidelberg/FallenTimbers/FTFinal18.html).

The two tombac buttons recovered at CNC were found at Site 20MD534 and the Ponton site. Both are gray in color and somewhat shiny. The 20MD534 specimen is a flat 1-piece button that measures 14.7 mm in diameter and it's brass shank is broken away. The Ponton specimen is a convex (exterior with concave interior) 1-piece button that measures 24.5 mm in diameter and it's brass shank is present. The Ponton specimen also has some corrosion present.

These buttons are generally considered to date to a period earlier than our occupations. The Ponton site settler cabin dates to the 1830's. It's tombac button is likely intrusive in Feature 4 (we also recovered a fragment of a filagree/cartouche trade knife handle and a stone pipe bowl fragment from this feature that can be associated with a Chippewa occupation). Site 20MD534 is a Chippewa occupation that we have been dating to the 1810's and 1820's based on it's similarity to the Cater site and the gunflints, earthenware and white clay pipe fragments present at it. These buttons might indicate the presence of late eighteenth century sites in the area!

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