534 PREHISTORIC VILLAGES IN TENNESSEE [ETH. ANN. 41 
The decorations on all three of these bowls were confined to the 
interior. The material and polish of these three fine vessels repre- 
sented the highest development of the potter’s art in the Middle 
South. They are hard and firm and have a fine polish. 
These equal-arm cross or four-world-quarter symbols with the 
inclosing sun circles are connected with the most sacred fundamental 
religious concepts of the people who once inhabited this town. They 
are shown on the hair of a figure representing Kicking Bear, a Sioux 
warrior, in one of the exhibition cases of the United States National 
Museum, and the modern Sioux use them at the present day. 
Fic, 148.—Castalian Springs bow] 
The significance of the V-shaped decorations on these bowls is 
unknown. It is certain they had a meaning and are not mere crea- 
tions of the artist’s fancy. The author unearthed a fine bowl with 
somewhat similar V-shaped decorations in the culturally related 
town at Castalian Springs, about 30 miles northeast of the Gordon 
town site. This Castalian Springs bowl is shown in Figure 148. 
A fragment of a water-bottle-shaped vase with the four world- 
quarter and sun symbols was found in circle No. 23. Similar deco- 
rated water-bottle vases were found at Castalian Springs and else- 
where in middle Tennessee. 
There is a bowl with somewhat similar V-shaped decorations illus- 
trated in Thruston’s ‘‘Antiquities of Tennessee,” Figure 41. It was 
