S
erpent Mound (FIG. 14-29) is one of the largest and best known
of the Woodlands effigy mounds, but it is the subject of con-
siderable controversy. The mound was first excavated in the 1880s
and represents one of the first efforts at preserving a Native Ameri-
can site from destruction at the hands of pot hunters and farmers.
For a long time after its exploration, archaeologists attributed its
construction to the Adena culture, which flourished in the Ohio area
during the last several centuries BCE. Radiocarbon dates taken from
the mound, however, indicate that the people known as Mississippi-
ans built it much later. Unlike most other ancient mounds, Serpent
Mound contained no evidence of burials or temples. Serpents, how-
ever, were important in Mississippian iconography, appearing, for
example, etched on shell gorgets similar to the one illustrated in FIG.
14-30.These Native Americans strongly associated snakes with theearth and the fertility of crops. A stone figurine found at one Missis-
sippian site, for example, depicts a woman digging her hoe into the
back of a large serpentine creature whose tail turns into a vine of
gourds.
Some researchers have proposed another possible meaning for
the construction of Serpent Mound. The date suggested for it is
1070, not long after the brightest appearance in recorded history of
Halley’s Comet in 1066. Could Serpent Mound have been built in re-
sponse to this important astronomical event? Scholars have even
suggested that the serpentine form of the mound replicates the
comet itself streaking across the night sky. Whatever its meaning,
such a large and elaborate earthwork could have been built only by a
large labor force under the firm direction of powerful elites eager to
leave their mark on the landscape forever.Serpent Mound
ART AND SOCIETY14-29Serpent Mound, Mississippian, Ohio,
ca. 1070 CE. 1,200long, 20wide, 5high.
The Mississippians constructed effigy mounds
in the form of animals and birds. This well-
preserved example seems to depict a serpent.
Some scholars, however, think it replicates the
path of Halley’s Comet in 1066.Southwest
In the Southwest, Native Americans have been producing pottery
since the late first millennium BCE, but the most impressive examples
of decorated pottery date after 1000 CE.
MIMBRES The Mimbres culture of southwestern New Mexico,
which flourished between approximately 1000 and 1250 CE, is re-
nowned for its black-on-white painted bowls. Mimbres bowls have
been found in burials under house floors, inverted over the head of the
deceased and ritually “killed”by puncturing a small hole at the base,
perhaps to allow the spirits of the deceased to join their ancestors in the
sky (which contemporary Southwestern peoples view as a dome). The14-30Incised gorget with running warrior, Mississippian, from Sumner
County, Tennessee, ca. 1250–1300 CE.Shell,4wide. National Museum of
the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
This neck pendant was probably a gift to the dead to ensure safe
passage to the afterlife. It represents a Mississippian warrior running.
He holds a mace in one hand and a severed human head in the other.1 in.
North America 389