- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Cast of statuette of panther or lion, kneeling and resting front paws on knees. [IL [OPS Move] 29/6/2017]
- Long description
- Cast of statuette of panther or lion, kneeling and resting front paws on knees. Incised with swirling lines and facial features, including lenticular shaped eyes with large circular irises or pupils and jagged designs around the eyes and nose. Fragments of white paint visible on the surface. [IL [OPS Move] 29/6/2017]
- Geographical reference
- Southern USA Florida Collier County Marco Island Key Marco
- Person
- Field collector Barbara A. Purdy
- Field collector Frank Hamilton Cushing
- PRM source Kenneth Page Oakley
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1975 Archaeological period: Southeast
- Date collected
- 1975
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1976
- Dimensions
- Depth: max 64 mm, Height: max 147 mm, Width: max 45 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1976.3.3
- Research and responses
Cushing (1896: 387) described the original object as "found near the southernmost shell-bench along the western side of the court, in Section 15". [Dan Hicks 01/08/2012].
He described the object as "A superbly carved and finished statuette in dark-colored, close-grained wood, of a mountain-lion or panther-god".
Cushing continued, "Nothing thus far found in America so vividly calls to mind the best art of the ancient Egyptians or Assyrians, as does this little statuette of the Lion-God, in which it was evidently intended to represent a manlike being in the guise of a panther. Although it is barely six inches in height, its dignity of pose may fairly be termed "heroic," and its conventional lines are to the last degree masterly. While the head and features - ears, eyes,nostrils and mouth - are most realistically treated, it is observable that not only the legs and feet,but also even the paws, which rest so stoutly upon the thighs or knees of the sitting or squatting figure, are cut off, unfinished; bereft, as it were, of their talons And this, I would note, is quite in accordance with the spirit of primitive sacerdotal art generally - in which it was ever sought to fashion the form of a God or Powerful Being in such wise that while its aspect or spirit might be startlingly shown forth,the powers associated with its living form might be so far curtailed, by the incompletion of some of its more harmful or destructive members, as to render its use for the ceremonial incarnation of the God at times, safe, no matter what his mood might chance, at such times, to be." (Cushing 1896: 387). [Dan Hicks 01/08/2012]
Later in the same paper (ibid: 429), Cushing described the drawing of the figure as follows:
"The first figure here given, represents the statuette of a panther or mountain lion-god. It is six inches in height by two and a half inches in length of base, from heel to knee-bend. It is carved from an exceedingly hard knot, or gnarled block of fine, dark-brown wood, and had either been saturated with some kind of varnish, or more probably had been frequently anointed with the fat of slain animals or victims. To this, doubtless, its remarkable preservation is due ; for it is still relatively heavier, harder,and less shrunken by drying, than any other specimen of like material in the collection.
"This extraordinary object of art is generally described on p. 387,and is referred to elsewhere in the text ; but I would again call attention to the fact that while the head and body are not only delicately fashioned and finished,even to the extent of polishing, the legs and the ends of the paws, although smoothed outside, are simply shaped, and, - as though purposely- left unfinished; and the spaces below the tail - which is conventionally laid along the back after the manner of Zuñi carvings of the same sort of animal-god - and the spaces between the legs, still show the characteristic marks of the fine-edged shark-tooth-blade with which the figure was carved.
"I found this gem of our art collections - on a happy day - at a depth of not more than twenty inches, just between the overlying muck and the middle stratum of peat-marl, near the edge of the shell-bench - in section 15. Not far away were found, a large stool, a decayed mask, portions
of a short wooden stave, and of symbolic ear-buttons ; a sheaf of about two dozen throwing arrows, and other remains of warrior-and hunter- paraphernalia and accoutrements. This affords convincing evidence that the statuette was a fetish or god of war or the hunt, like its clumsier stone analogues in Zuñi land." [Dan Hicks 01/08/2012]
- Associated publications
- Cushing illustrated this object in his 1896 paper (Figure 1, Plate XXXV). Cushing, F.H. 1896. Exploration of Ancient Key Dwellers' Remains on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 35: 329-448. http://www.jstor.org/stable/983594 [Dan Hicks 01/08/2012]
Search terms: Reproduction, Figure, Religion, Animal Figure, Cast