Archaeology Magazine - September 1951 - 54

Key Marco: Cormorant-man mask ("God of Fish-Spearers" - Cushing)
on their wide ears with
the eye-design, which
also decorated the extended ends of their
canoes.
Three toy canoes
happily illustrated the
vessels of this sea-going people a roundbellied vessel, and two
slender canoes, apparently sometimes lashed
in pairs for safety in
outer waters. At least
two such skiffs were
found, which seemed
to have been bound together by accompanying cordage. For such
real canoes there were
low canoe-seats hewn
from a single block,
their stubby legs beveled to fit the curve of the bottom.
For use on land, there were even larger, fourpronged, sloping stools carved from mangrove wood.
The seat, long and very narrow, and sagging in the
middle, was little advanced from the original billetseat, though the treatment of the legs would suggest
that an animal form lurked in the mind of the maker,
as in the ancient West Indian duhos.
Much of the life of this maritime people must have
been spent on the sea, whether in hunting or on expeditions of peace or war. The bow and arrow were
not used. In their place, a light lance was propelled
by the spear-thrower, by which stone-age man contrived to lengthen his arm and increase the force of his
throw. Two types were used. One had holes for two
fingers; the other, with but a single finger-hole, had a
little rabbit carved on the distal end, its tail serving as
the propelling spur for the light cane hunting-spear,
found with it.
That the spear-thrower was also used in battle is evidenced by an unfinished weapon - a combined atlatlslasher. This 22^ -inch sabre-atlatl was provided
along its graceful length with sockets to be set with
sharks' tooth blades: its bifurcated distal end formed
two graceful scrolls, between which is the point against
which the spear-butt would rest. Several of these
sabres were found, either broken or unfinished, and

182

numerous associated blades for their setting. Besides
these, a war-pick-head of emery stone, a fairly heavy
ceremonial one of polished ebony or lignite, a well
polished deer-horn dagger, and a human femur,
cleaned and polished by handling, represent the
prowess of the tribe.
Ceremonial spear-batons of hard wood, and a long
and broad serrated war-club, finely fashioned of red
mangrove, added variety to the art of offense and defense; but the most significant was a war-club, cut from
a single piece of wood, but, in its tapering haft with
expanded head, topped by a knob, and with its blade,
represented as oval, passing through the handle to
present a semi-circular sharp-edged bit upon each side,
calling to mind the ceremonial clubs or batons wielded
by the dancing figures on the shell gorgets of the
Southern Mound Culture and the Etowah copper
plates. Nor was this posited relation to the ceremonial
life of the Etowah complex the only evidence among
the Pile Dwellers of Key Marco. At least two sets of
*
'slats" - thin, narrow boards - were found "lying side
by side, in which position relative to one another they
had been secured by fine threads woven over and under
the slats, precisely as seems to be indicated" on the
head- frontlet of the dancing figure on the Etowah
ancient copper plate.
A similar head-tablet, lined with the "four directions," is worn by a masked figure painted on the inner
surface of the
left valve of
a sun-shell,
found in the
central depths
of the court.
The
shell,
had
closed,
been bound
around with
strips of palmetto leaves,
that fell away
when exposed
to the air. This
masked
and
plumed figure
wears plaited
or beaded armand leg-bands
and appears to
be dancing.

Human mask of sunfish,
or other slant-faced fish

Archaeology Magazine - September 1951

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September 1951