University of Illinois CONTENTdm Collection : Item Viewer

add to favorites : reference url

back to results : previous : next

Native American Spider Gorget

Native American Spider Gorget


Title	Native American Spider Gorget
Coverage / Year	Fulton County, Southern Illinois
Description	Round marine shells with spider designs carved onto them. The shells are about 3" in diameter.
Interpretation	Gorgets are pendants worn at the neck like jewelry or as throat armor. Spiders figured in at least two Native American mythologies. In one they were the first creature on earth, symbolizing life; in another, the spider carried fire on its back to the earth. The spiders carved into these shells are rendered so accurately that they can be identified as Orb Weavers. Only about twenty gorgets decorated with spiders are known to exist, and these are two of the three found at the Crable Site in Southern Illinois. The shells themselves probably came from the Gulf of Mexico and would have been traded from one native culture to another as rare objects.
Lesson Plans / Themes	How we learn about communities; American communities in history; Native American Stories
Learning Standards	16 History; 18 Social Systems; 15 Economics;
Author or Creator	Native Americans
Source	Donated to the Lakeview Museum by William Rutherford
Subject / Keywords	Jewelry; Body Armor; Shells; Native American; Southern Illinois; Archaeology; Gorgets; Indians of North America
Collection Publisher	Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences
Further Information	For any further information related to this record, please contact the Collection Publisher. See http://images.library.uiuc.edu/projects/tdc for more information about this project.
Rights Management Statement	http://images.library.uiuc.edu/projects/tdc/conditions.htm
Resource Identifier	LVM1965.074.001; LVM1965.074.002
CONTENTdm file name	6094182162002_NatAmerspidgorg2.jpg

powered by CONTENTdm ® | University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Homepage