Page 589 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

438
PLATE WITH WARRIOR'S HEAD

1000-1200
Cahokia culture?
repousse copper
24 x 17.4 (y /8 x 6 /s)
7
3
Ohio Historical Society, Columbus

This fragment of a larger copper plate is one of
several that were found together, presumably
from the great mortuary at the base of the Craig
Mound at the Spiro site in eastern Oklahoma.
This piece and most of the contents of the deposit
were objects retrieved from old graves and placed
in a massive ossuary around A.D. 1400. The
present fragment was originally part of a large
geometric copper tablet that was mounted as a
frontlet in a headdress, a small version of which is
sculpted in cat. 440 (Brown 1976). A burial at the
Etowah site indicates that some of these copper
headdresses achieved a length of 35 centimeters
3
(i3 /4 inches) (Larson 1971, 62). Sometime in its
history the central repousse image of this example
was cut free from its copper background, possibly
at the time of reburial in the great mortuary ossu-
ary. The details of dress and style of presentation
of the warrior place this piece in the thirteenth
century or earlier. j. A. B.

437
and engraved with the figure of a bird-man. The
ENGRAVED CUP style of engraving, which is indigenous to the
Caddoan area of eastern Oklahoma and Texas,
C. 1}00 dates the cup to around 1300 (Phillips and Brown
Caddo Mississippian culture
shell 1984, pi. 203).
l
2
approx. 13 x 30 x 18 ($ /s x ii /4 x jVs) The human figure is costumed as an imperson-
ator of the falcon or some other hawk. This ritual
National Museum of the American Indian, role was important in the early centuries of the
Smithsonian Institution Mississippian period (Detroit 1985). The spread-
eagle stance of the figure has more to do with the
Plain sea shells found their way by trade to the conventions of this artistic school than it has with
interior of the continent, where they were fabri- the actual appearance of the costume or the per-
cated and decorated in the style of their owners formance of any ritual. The figure's hawk parts
at the time. This cup was made by removing the are mainly the beak, the stylized wing feathers,
interior columella or whorl of the shell of the and the large hawk tail. The human elements of
lightning whelk (Busycon sinistrum). Two well- the costume include the gorget, columella pendant
preserved perforations, at the tip and at the back necklace, ear spool, beaded forelock, plume head-
of the spire, were made to attach a bail. It is one dress, and large heart-shaped apron. Brickwork
of hundreds of shell cups that were found in Craig bead bands that adorn the headdress, neck, bird-
Mound at the Spiro site in eastern Oklahoma arms, and legs are standard marks of wealth and
(Burnett 1945). The exterior has been smoothed indicate the elite status of the figure. j. A. B.

588 CIRCA 1492