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

Chapter Fourteen. Raptor Imagery at Etowah: The Raptor Is the Path to Power by Adam King and F. Kent Reilly III

raptor imagery at etowah 313 chapter 14 Raptor Imagery at Etowah The Raptor Is the Path to Power Adam King and F. Kent Reilly III Raptors, Raptor parts, and human/Raptor composite figures are some of the most enduring elements of Mississippian imagery. In fact, as Lankford acknowledges in Chapter 10, they also are some of the most widespread motifs and themes in Southeastern iconography. Lankford explores the place of the Raptor in the iconography of Moundville and in the narratives of the western Muskogean speakers of the historic period. In this chapter we examine the role of the Raptor in the imagery recovered from the Etowah site. Ultimately, what we find is that the Raptor figures quite differently in the history of Etowah and crafting in the region than at Moundville. Additionally, we speculate that the difference in the way the Raptor is used actually reflects aspects of the relationship between Etowah and Moundville. The Raptor at Etowah Unlike Moundville, where the Raptor is quite rare, at Etowah the Raptor in its various forms dominates figural imagery. It appears as full representations of Raptors, either as individuals or paired, on embossed copper plates. Raptor imagery (for example, as talons or wings) also seems to be present in the socalled copper cutouts or ornaments found decorating headdresses buried in Mound C. Most famous are the embossed copper plates depicting a human with Raptor elements, including wings and tail, hooked beak, and forked eyesurround (Fig. 14.1a, b). This same figure appears in various poses on the Hightower-style gorgets of the anthropomorphic theme (Fig. 14.1c). Brown (Brown 2004, 2007b; Brown and Kelly 2000) has called this figure the Birdman, and it is distributed widely across the Southeast and Midwest. We think it is possible, at least at Etowah, to make the case that this Birdman and the images of Raptors and Raptor body parts are elements of a larger Raptor or Birdman theme. The case for this is best made through the imagery etowah and upper tennessee valley 314 present on the Malden Plates, a series of embossed copper plates depicting Raptors. In one of these images, the Raptor has a human head but a body that matches all the other Raptor images in the cache. Brown (2004, 2007b) has argued that the Birdman was likely a supernatural figure with thematic associations like those of the historically recorded Morning Star of the Osage or Red Horn of the Winnebago. These individuals were great warriors who fought on behalf of humanity in wars of the supernatural . They were beings of the Above World and often were associated with the Thunderers (birdlike supernaturals) and the falcon. Thematically, these individuals were linked to the triumph of life over death and day over night as well as fertility and the recycling of the souls of the dead into the souls of the newly born. The most famous images of the Birdman at Etowah are found on the embossed copper plates excavated by Rogan in 1884 (Thomas 1894). Brown (Brown 2004; Brown and Kelly 2000) has argued that the Birdman was a central theme in the Classic Braden style that developed at Cahokia in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In fact, based on stylistic grounds and crafting techniques, it is clear that the Rogan Plates actually were decorated in the Classic Braden style. This means that the plates functioned as heirloomed objects of power and that the images they carried were foreign to Etowah as well as being at least a century old by the time they were interred in the Early Wilbanks phase (ad 1250–1325) stages at Etowah’s Mound C. Undoubtedly , as heirloomed items, the Rogan Plates functioned as significant objects of power that helped to visualize and validate the elite position of Etowah’s ruling lineage. a b c figure 14.1. (a, b) the Rogan Plates; (c) Hightower anthropomorphic gorget. raptor imagery at etowah 315 As King discusses in Chapter 12, those Classic Braden images appear at an interesting and critical time in the history of Etowah. The Early Wilbanks phase is a time when Etowah was reoccupied after a short abandonment. Just as the abandonment represented an end to the ranked social form at Etowah, the reoccupation of the site involved the reestablishment of a ranked social order. It appears that this new social order, complete with a new definition and materialization of eliteness, was chartered...