Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans: Second annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-81, pages 179-306Holmes, William Henry
History
Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans: Second annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-81, pages 179-306
Holmes, William Henry
Indian art; Indians -- Antiquities
The handsome gorget illustrated in Fig. 3 was obtained from a mound in
Saint Clair County, Illinois, seven miles from the city of Saint Louis.
It was found upon the breast of a skeleton, and was very much discolored
and quite fragile from decay, but no part of the design, which is
engraved upon the concave side, has been obliterated. Near the margin
and parallel with it three lines have been engraved. The spider is drawn
with considerable fidelity to nature and covers nearly the entire disk,
the legs, mandibles, and abdomen reaching to the outer marginal line. As
in the specimen described above, the thorax is placed in the center of
the disk, and is represented by a circle; within this a cross has been
engraved, the ends of which have been enlarged on one side, producing a
form much used in heraldry, but one very rarely met with in aboriginal
American art. The head is somewhat heart-shaped and is armed with palpi
and mandibles, the latter being ornamented with a zigzag line and
prolonged to the marginal lines of the disk. The eyes are represented by
two small circles with central dots. The legs are correctly placed in
four pairs upon the thorax, and are very graphically drawn. The abdomen
is large and heart-shaped, and is ornamented with a number of lines and
dots, which represent the natural markings of the spider. The
perforations for suspension are placed near the posterior extremity of
the abdomen. It will be observed that this is also the case with the
three other specimens. Having described this specimen somewhat
carefully, it will be unnecessary to give a detailed description of the
very similar specimen shown in Fig. 2. The latter was found in a stone
grave in Saint Clair County, Illinois, and does not differ in any
essential feature from either of the other specimens, one of which was
found near by, and the other about one hundred miles farther south.
In reference to the cross it has been suggested that it may have been
derived from the well-defined cross found upon the backs of some species
of the genus _Atta_, but there appears to be good reason for believing
otherwise. The cross here shown has a very highly conventionalized
character, quite out of keeping with the realistic drawing of the
insect, and, what is still more decisive, it is identical with forms
found upon many other objects. The conclusion is that the cross here, as
elsewhere, has a purely symbolic character. Spider gorgets are also
mentioned by A. J. Conant in the Kansas City Review, Vol. I, page 400,
and in his work on the Commonwealth of Missouri, page 96, but no details
are given. It is probable that the objects referred to by Mr. Conant are
the same as those more definitely placed by Prof. Hilder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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