HISTORY PRESENTATION

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Running head: THE EARLY AMERICAN PLATES 1

AMERICAN EARLY PLATES 7

The Early American Plates

Chelsea Mattingly

UMUC

March 4, 2018

Introduction

Most of the early American plates are made of beaten copper plates crafted by aboriginal people that resided in the areas of Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin. All of the plates are believed to have been made between 800 and 1600 CE. These plates depict the cultures of the Indian communities living in those areas. They depict raptorial birds as well as avian themed dancing warriors. According to Griffin, (1961), elites of the community that held important political and religious positions at that time crafted ornaments and sacred materials out of copper into some representation that had its roots.

Examples

Arkansas Plate

Toul Creek Plate

Retrieved from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Toul_Creek_plate_HRoe_2012

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This plate has been found in a number of sites eastern of Arkansas. This resembles the culture of the Native Americans living in the region with the depiction of half hawk and half snake. This type of artifact is thought to have been designed by well-seasoned designers of the olden days. The tail feathers of the haw looks a rattle snake. It is blatant that this is an eagle with a forked eye motif (Deetz, 2010). They were found by a farmer who was ploughing his field. They were found stacked together with no other artifacts on them. What is amazing about is that there were not mound sites nearby. Many archeologist have tried to unwrap this puzzle, some came into conclusion that it represents a hawk swallowing a snake.

Rogan Plates

Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rogan_plate_1_birdman_HRoe_2012

They were discovered in stone box graves in the regions of Etowah. They are believed to be worn by dead people in their burial. They are made in classic Braden style and always came in pairs due to the fact that the people of the time loved to wear such ornaments in pairs. There are some handy holes on the plates indicting that they were used for hanging them around the neck region. Even though there were some other plates that were similar to this one, archeologists came to a conclusion that local artisans crafted plates on a colossal level and some might have been a little different in design due to the difference in their designers. Most of these artifacts have been recovered from buried bodies.

Florida Plates

Copper Solar Ogee Deity Plate Found At Lake Jackson Mounds, Florida

Retrieved from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lake_Jackson_Braden_Style_Birdman_Plate_HRoe_2016

Archeologists believe that these plates were deposited in the area due to the lucrative shell trade that predominant due to its use in rituals. This is what made the people live around Lake Jackson so that they could strategically position themselves for this trade. The Copper Solar Deity in the plate represents and winged figure dancing. This artifact measures 21 inches (53 cm) high is holding a ceremonial mace in the right hand and a chopped head on the other hand. Many think the extended nose of this figure is one indication that it was an Indian god due to the fact that it resembles the long-nosed god maskette (Griffin, 1967). The elaborate hairdressers depicted in the plate features an elaborate heiress coupled up with bi-lobed arrow motive at the top. A mother motif encompassing an ongee surrounded a chambered circle. Some historians and archeologists believe that this is actually the “birdwoman” due to the breasts that are protruding in the figure. On the other hand, other archeologists have argued that the figure represents a two-spirit tradition.

Wulfing Cache

Human Headed Avian Malden Plate A

Retrieved from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wulfing_plate_A_human_headed_avian_HRoe_2012

They are believed to be made in late Barden and are thought to be created in the late 13th or 14th century. The found plates were buried in a field, where there was no local mound or even traces of ancient villages. It is blatant from their looks that they have undergone some significant revamps that involved repairing of cracks and riveting. This human-headed avian plate measures 30 centimeters (12 in) in length by 13.5 centimeters (5.3 in) (Griffin, 1967). The Wulfing plates pack raptors and one-bird human hybrids. Sometimes, one might perceive some double headed raptors in bird’s bodies and claws on them. Similar plates have been discovered in the central United States and some states such as Illinois. Much of them show the same stylistic links to Etowah plates.

Conclusion

The American plates are artifacts used by the Native Americans in the olden times and have now been excavated recently as artifacts in various archeological sites in the American Midwest and southeast Griffin, (1961). Some of the notable fields where these artifacts have been excavated purposely and sometimes accidentally are predominantly found in Florida, Mississippi, Wisconsin and Illinois. However, there are other sites where these artifacts have been found in the United States but most of them have been excavated in the southeastern ceremonial complex. These artifacts represent the culture and ceremonies of the aboriginal people with many of them featuring gods, raptorial birds and avian themed warriors (Patterson, 1971).

References

Deetz, J. (2010). In small things forgotten: an archaeology of early American life. Anchor.

Griffin, J. B. (1967). Eastern North American archaeology: a summary. Science, 156(3772), 175-191.

Griffin, J. B. (Ed.). (1961). Lake Superior copper and the Indians: Miscellaneous studies of Great Lakes prehistory (Vol. 17). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.

Patterson, C. C. (1971). Native copper, silver, and gold accessible to early metallurgists. American Antiquity, 36(3), 286-321.