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Five Thousand Years of Shell Symbolism in the Southeast (13 pages)
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Page: of 13
178 Aaron Deter-Wolf and Tanya M. Peres
a Od Gn en Oh mF
Figure 7.9. Marine shell columella pendant (A) and a similar pendant shown in Mississippian shell art worn by Morning Star, or the Birdman (B, after Phillips and Brown
1984: plate 203).
axis mundi is depicted as a spiraling double helix shape (figures 7.8B,C),
representing the transmission of supernatural force between the levels of
the cosmos.
The spiraling motion of the columella as it emerges from the center of
a marine gastropod invokes the cosmic geometry of the wrapped central
pole (figure 7.9A). As such, it was analogous to the sacred pole, functioned as a celestial conduit, and was connected to the male aspect of the
male/female duality. This association is reiterated in the artistic record of
the Mississippian period, in which columella pendants are worn excl
sively by males and male other-than-human-persons. ‘These ritual ems
often appear around the neck of the character of Morning Star, or the
Birdman, as he appears on shell and copper media (figure 7.9B). The association of columella pendants with the Birdman character is = strong that
it prompted Dye (2004: 195) to identify this artifact type as “the quintessential emblem of the warrior hero’
‘The male and female principles represented by different parts of marine
gastropods reveal that the symbolic nature of shells was highly nuanced
Five Thousand Years of Shell Symbolism in the Southeast 179
among late prehistoric peoples of the Mid-South. Marine gastropods,
with their cave-like opening (female) and spiraling columella (male), presented the principles of unified dualism within a single creature and thus
were particularly significant to Mississippian peoples.
It is also likely that specific marine and freshwater shell species held
unique importance in the Mississippian realm. This may explain in part
the apparently differential selection of lightning whelk for use in the construction of high-value shell artifacts as pendants, beads, gorgets, masks,
and cups dating back through the Archaic. At present we do not have an
in-depth understanding of Mississippian native taxonomy, and explicit
identifications of species importance must await future research.
Conclusions
During the Mississippianization of the interior Southeast, marine shells
became embedded with multiple layers of symbolism, yet they remained
tied to the legitimization of power through the invocation of semimythical marine geography and coastal ancestry. As the new ruling class
spread from Cahokia into the hinterland, they encountered the shell midden cemeteries and ancestral monuments of the region’s inhabitants. As
Claassen (2008: 235) states, “These early shell heaps became power points
on the landscape symbolic of later peoples’ origins from the beginning of
time.’ The transplanted Mississippian elites did not formally bury their
dead within the shell middens of the Mid-South, nor did they directly appropriate the shell midden phenomenon. Instead, they asserted their own
ancestral ties and rights to govern this territory through a combination of
conspicuous displays of marine shell jewelry and paraphernalia, extensive
mortuary associations, and in some cases the construction of their own
monuments and ceremonial spaces on top of the existing Archaic shell
deposits.
Throughout human history, those seeking a higher status in society
made blatant use of ancient or ancestral symbols to legitimize their power
and prestige. The Mississippian groups that carried Cahokia’s culture
throughout the Southeast were no different. They appropriated existing
symbolic materials and spaces to invoke a mythical ancestral homeland
in the great waters of the Southeast and promote their legitimacy to control territory and resources, The creation of sacred landscapes and ancestral significance of marine shell that began in the Southeast during the