Ceramic Shell Cup Effigies from Illinois and their Implications
Kozuch, Laura
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/91599
Description
Title
Ceramic Shell Cup Effigies from Illinois and their Implications
Author(s)
Kozuch, Laura
Issue Date
2013
Keyword(s)
Shell cup effigy
lightning whelk
Cahokia
ceramics
ideology
Geographic Coverage
North America
Abstract
Ceramic effigies ofmarine shell cups have long been known from
Mississippian sites in Illinois and elsewhere in the Southeast,
and have been included in studies of other ceramic effigies, such
as animal figures and head pots (Holmes 1886). This paper
focuses on 31 known Illinois specimens. I will show that, in
Illinois, the geographic range of these effigies is primarily
restricted to the American Bottom around Cahokia, and their
occurrence is largely limited to Late Mississippian Moorehead
and Sand Prairie phases (A.D. 1200 to 1400). I also explore
possible meanings of shell cups and, by extension, ceramic
effigies of shell cups. Ethnohistoric as well as archaeological
evidence show that lightning whelk cups and, by analogy, shell
cup effigies functioned in contexts of uncertainty and conflict,
consistent with their context in Illinois.
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