Currently not on view
Great Serpent/Panther vessel,
1400–1550
Horseshoe Lake Phase, Middle-Late Mississippian
2013-44
The creature portrayed on this vessel is a combination of a feline and a horned serpent. As attested in the ethnographic record of many southeastern and plains cultures, both a horned serpent and a panther served as symbols of the sacred Beneath World, from which religious practitioners gained visionary insight and power. In some examples of such “cat-serpents,” an additional motif, similar in form to a swastika—and incised atop the head of this ceramic creature—marks a focal conduit through which the powers of the Beneath World can be accessed by humans. This was probably a powerful ritual object, but its precise use remains unclear.
Information
Title
Great Serpent/Panther vessel
Dates
1400–1550
Medium
Ceramic
Dimensions
h. 21.5 cm., w. 20.7 cm., l. 26.8 cm. (8 7/16 x 8 1/8 x 10 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Mary Trumbull Adams Art Fund
Object Number
2013-44
Place Made
North America, United States, Arkansas, said to have been found at the Rhoads Site
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
- Roy Hathcock, Ancient Indian Pottery of the Mississippi River Valley (Camden: Hurley Press, 1976)., p. 31
- Genuine Indian Relic Society, The Redskin (1979): 143., p. 143
- David H. Dye and Camille Wharey, "Exhibition Catalogue," in The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex: Artifacts and Analysis: The Cottonlandia Conference, ed. Patricia Galloway (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989): 319-382., p. 352 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2013," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 73 (2014): p. 37-64., p. 38
