The Lord of Death on the Savannah River Adam King University of South Carolina - Columbia, [email protected]

The Lord of Death on the Savannah River Adam King University of South Carolina - Columbia, Aking000@Mailbox.Sc.Edu

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The Hollywood site is a Mississippian open, tooth-filled mouth (Fig. 1). Closer period (AD 900-1600) mound town located inspection of the image shows that the on the Savannah River near present-day eyes have a three-pointed surround and Augusta, Georgia. Excavations conducted a series of parallel lines extending from there by Henry Reynolds in 1889 have the nose to the edges of the plate. Enough become part of the lore and knowledge details of this image are present to connect of Southeastern archaeology since the it thematically to a fairly widespread set publication of Thomas’s Mound Builders of images dating to the Mississippian volume in 1894 (Thomas 1894). During period found from the caves of Missouri his investigation of Mound B, Reynolds and pottery of the Central Mississippi uncovered two distinct mound surfaces Valley eastward to northern Georgia and Fig. 2: Engraved Underwater Panther on a on which were laid human remains and the Hollywood site. The same theme ceramic bottle. (From Reilly 2004, Drawing elaborate objects now known to be part seems to have its roots in the Middle by Terry Childs) of a widespread set of ritual themes and Woodland period, and it has persisted into artistic styles called the Southeastern the present as it appears in current Native under the ground and under water. It is Ceremonial Complex. It is those objects— American art and belief. a realm of chaos and death, but is also the Fig. 2 presents place from which the powers of growth, an image engraved regeneration, and life come in the form of on a ceramic bottle water, souls, and the power to influence found at the Berry both. The Underwater Panther is one site in Arkansas. vision of the lord of this realm. At night, Note the eyes with this realm switches places with the Above trefoil eye surround, World and becomes the night sky. In bulbous nose, toothy that night sky is visible the Milky Way, mouth, and parallel conceived of as the Path of Souls by many markings. The same people throughout the Americas. The figure appears in the Lord of Death occupies a place along that round as the famous path, and when there has wings. limestone cat pipes There are many descriptions of Fig. 1: Copper Underwater Panther plate from Hollywood site. (Photo found at Moundville the Underwater Panther and even more by Adam King) and the Lower images of it in European written history, Native American oral history, and Native embossed copper, celts made of copper, Mississippi Valley. American art. Probably the most famous and foreign pottery that is engraved, Two other small copper plates very similar image and description came from Father painted, or shaped into effigies—that have to the Hollywood example were found Jacques Marquette. While traveling among captured the interest of archaeologists at Etowah (Fig. 3) and eastern Tennessee Native Americans of the Mississippi for over a century. Those objects and completing a set of three that likely were River in 1673, Marquette encountered and their dating more recently have shown made by the same hand. described two images of the Underwater that Hollywood, and in particular the George Lankford (2006) identifies Panther painted on a limestone bluff rituals conducted at Mound B, played this figure as the Underwater Panther, overlooking the Mississippi River near a foundational role in the formation of a supernatural inhabiting Native present-day Alton, Illinois in 1673. Below Mississippian societies of the middle American beliefs from the Prairie Plains is Marquette’s description of the painting: Savannah Valley of South Carolina and to Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean. From Georgia (King and Stephenson 2012). contemporary beliefs and ethnographic While Skirting some rocks, which by One of the most interesting objects accounts, we learn that the Underwater Their height and length inspired awe, We saw found in the Mound B deposit is a small Panther inhabits one of the three realms upon one of them two painted monsters which embossed copper plate cut into the of the Native American cosmos— the at first made Us afraid, and upon Which the shape of a face with wide eyes and an Underwater or Beneath World that lies

4 Legacy, Vol. 17, No. 1, May 2013 boldest savages dare not Long rest their eyes. They are as large As a calf; they have Horns on their heads Like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard Like a tiger’s, a face somewhat like a man’s, a body Covered with scales, and so Long A tail that it winds all around the Body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a Fish’s tail. Green, red, and black are the three Colors composing the Picture. Moreover, these 2 monsters are so well painted that we cannot believe that any savage is their author; for good painters in France would find it difficult to reach that place Conveniently to paint them.

In his master’s thesis recently completed at Texas State University, Alex Corsi (2012) discovered that the Hollywood Underwater Panther plate Fig. 4: Hollywood Underwater Panther headdress. (Reconstruction by Alexander Corsi) was part of an elaborate headdress that likely was constructed by covering a regalia—special dress often with emblems Texas State University, San Marcos, TX. leather cap and bone or wooden frame of a particular role or office—worn by with feathers. Around the base of the important people. Possession of such King, Adam, and Keith Stephenson headdress was placed a ring of small regalia might be an indicator of elevated 2012 Archival Research of the Hollywood ornaments made of copper in the shape social standing, but it is clear that this Mound Site. Early Georgia 40(1):87-101. of arrowheads. The Underwater Panther standing was derived from control of image was likely mounted on the forehead ritual. In other words, the regalia indicates Lankford, George E. in the center of the headdress as shown an important role in particular rituals. In 2006 The Great Serpent in Eastern North in Fig. 4. The Underwater Panther plate this case, those rituals likely dealt with America. In Ancient Objects and Sacred found at Etowah was mounted in a similar the realm of the dead. Remember that the Realms: Interpretations of Mississippian headdress, and it seems likely that the realm of the dead was not only the place Iconography, edited by F. K. Reilly and J. same can be assumed for the plate from where the souls of the deceased went, Garber: 107-135. University of Texas Press, eastern Tennessee. but it was a place that also contained Austin. You might wonder why a person the powers of growth, water, and even would want a headdress bearing the the return of souls to living bodies. For Reilly, F. Kent, III image of the Lord of Death. Keep in agriculturalists and people interested 2004 People of Earth, People of Sky: mind that these headdresses were part of in the continuation of their family line Visualizing the Sacred in Native American Art (through the return of souls), the of the Mississippian Period. In Hero, Hawk, realm of the dead was a place with and Open Hand: American Indian Art of very important powers. Native the Ancient Midwest and South, edited by American narratives are filled with R. F. Townsend and R. V. Sharp: 125-137. stories of people seeking out and Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University receiving gifts of power from the Press, New Haven. Underwater Panther and his avatar the Great Serpent (Lankford 2006). Thomas, C. 1894 Report of the Mound Exploration References Cited of the Bureau of Ethnology. Introduction Corsi, Alexander D. by B.D. Smith. Smithsonian Institution 2012 Reverence for the Dead: Press, Washington, D.C. 1985 Facsimile Identifying and Interpreting Patterns in ed. Originally published 1894, Annual Mortuary Objects within the Hollywood Report 12, Bureau of American Ethnology, Mound Site. Unpublished Master’s Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Fig. 3: Copper Underwater Panther plate from Etowah. thesis, Department of Anthropology, (Drawing by James Ducan)

5 Legacy, Vol. 17, No. 1, May 2013