Visualizing the Sacred: Cosmic Visions, Regionalism, and the Art of the Mississippian World

Chapter Seven. Iconography of the Thruston Tablet by Vincas P. Steponaitis, Vernon James Knight, Jr., George E. Lankford, Robert V. Sharp, and David H. Dye

iconography of the thruston tablet 137 chapter 7 Iconography of the Thruston Tablet Vincas P. Steponaitis, Vernon James Knight, Jr., George E. Lankford, Robert V. Sharp, and David H. Dye The Thruston Tablet—also known as the Rocky Creek Tablet—is among the most interesting and unusual artifacts ever found in the American South. It consists of an irregular limestone slab 19 inches long, 14 inches high, and 1 inch thick (about the size of a cafeteria tray). One side of the tablet (which we think of today as the obverse or front) is covered with engraved designs, consisting of many human forms arranged in multiple scenes. The tablet also has engraved images on the reverse, but these are faint and less distinct. The tablet is clearly Mississippian in age and probably dates to the late thirteenth or early fourteenth centuries ad. Here we present our recent studies of the tablet’s imagery. We begin by reviewing past research on this object and describing our own recent investigations . We then present our analysis of the tablet’s iconography, a possible interpretation of its meaning, and a discussion of the tablet’s thematic and stylistic relationships. Previous Studies In The Antiquities of Tennessee and the Adjacent States (1890) Gates P. Thruston announced the discovery of an intriguing petroglyphic tablet in Sumner County, Tennessee, reportedly found on Rocky Creek, “near the stone graves and mounds of Castalian Springs,” and published a rendering (Fig. 7.1). The location he described is actually now in Trousdale County, just across the Sumner County line.1 The tablet was even then in the holdings of the Tennessee Historical Society, having been presented “about twelve years ago” (ca. 1878), and it remains today part of the collection of the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville .2 A prosperous lawyer, Thruston himself had amassed a sizable collection of Native American objects, principally as supervising archaeologist for cumberland valley 138 the excavation in the late 1880s of some 4,000 stone-box graves on the Noel Farm site on Brown’s Creek just outside Nashville (Fletcher 1891; Kelly 1985). Although the tablet that has come to bear his name was neither his discovery nor even part of his collection, he devoted considerable attention to it in the study of prehistoric artifacts that he prepared at the request of the Historical Society. Thruston characterized the tablet as “an ideograph of significance, graven with a steady and skillful hand,” that “probably records or commemorates some important treaty or public or tribal event.” He described in general terms the principal figures and scenes depicted on it: “Indian chiefs, fully equipped with the insignia of office, . . . arrayed in fine apparel.” Yet anyone intrigued by this limestone slab must recognize that Thruston’s remarks nonetheless reveal a degree of prescience in his attention to particular elements inscribed on the stone surface: The dressing of the hair, the remarkable scalloped skirts, the implements used, the waist-bands, the wristlets, the garters, the Indian leggins and moccasins, the necklace and breast-plates, the two banners, the serpent emblem, the tattoo stripes, the ancient pipe—all invest this pictograph with unusual interest. (Thruston 1890:91) figure 7.1. The first published illustration of the Thruston Tablet (Thruston 1890:Pl. 2). iconography of the thruston tablet 139 His own interest sufficiently piqued, Thruston applied himself to providing some context for understanding it. For the style of dress, he recalled a reference by A. J. Conant to a vessel from southeast Missouri depicting figures “clad in flowing garments gathered by a belt at the waist and reaching to the knees” (Conant 1879:94, in Thruston 1890:91–92). Thruston regretted the absence of details in the depiction of several of the faces, the hair ornaments , and more, “partly lost by the disintegration of the stone, owing to its great age.” Despite its condition, however, he found other points of comparison : the depictions of waist-bands and garters were similar to those on the copper plates from Etowah, and the treatment of hair-knots reminded him not only of the Etowah plates but also of pottery heads and shell gorgets from Tennessee. The tattoo marks on the faces were also of interest, and Thruston compared them to a head-pot from the St. Francis River area of Arkansas that bears four “strongly marked” lines on its face and to images recorded on other Native American pictographs documented by Garrick...