STARR A SHELL GORGET FROM MEXICO. I 73 



A SHELL GORGET FROM MEXICO. 



BY FREDERICK STARR, PH. D. 



No CLASS of objects from our southern mounds are more beautiful 

 and interesting than the engraved shell gorgets. They were first seri- 

 ously discussed and adequately illustrated by W. H. Holmes in his 

 paper — Art in Shell of the Ancient Af?iericans. * These objects 

 are thin, nearly circular, concavo-convex plates of shell, carefully 

 smoothed on both surfaces and engraved upon the concave side. 

 The shell which usually supplied the material was Busycon pcrversuvi, 

 which is common along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Massachu- 

 setts to Mexico. The form of the shell and the quality of its material 

 are such as to make the securing of flat plates of any size quite impos- 

 sible; hence the concavo-convex form of the sides is a result inherent 

 in the material itself. The designs engraved upon the concave surface 

 are surprisingly well done. While they are clearly ornamental they 

 are no less clearly symbolical as well. The types are comparatively 

 few and the treatment is notably conventional. Holmes grouped 

 these designs into a few classes — the cross, scalloped disk, birds' head 

 and coil, serpent, spider, human face and human figure. These 

 gorgets, which measure from a^^o to 5 inches in diameter, were worn 

 as ornaments, probably suspended from the neck and hanging down 

 upon the breast. Two holes for suspension are usually found near the 

 upper edge, and, not infrequently, show marks of wearing due to the 

 suspension cord. The specimens have come from stone graves and 

 mounds in Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Georgia, and other southern 

 states. Everywhere in art and function they embody one well-defined 

 conception and are plainly related. 



The most interesting are certainly those upon which is represented 

 the human figure. Of such Mr. Holmes describes four. After his 

 paper was printed, fragments of two others were found in one of the 

 Etowah group of mounds in Georgia, by Mr. Rogan. These were 

 illustrated in Cyrus Thomas' paper. Burial Afounds of the Northern 

 Sections of the United States, j Still later Gates P. Thruston, in his 

 Antiquities of Tennessee, reproduced all these figures, and added a 



* Sec. An. Kept. Bureau of Ethnol., pp. 179-305. 

 t Fifth An. Rept. Bureau of Ethnol., pp. 103-104. 



■ [Pboo. D. a. N. S., VoL VI.] 22 [.June 13, 189(3 ] 



