Identifying Lower Mississippi Valley Protohistoric Water Spirit Cults

EDITED BY

Yumi Park Huntington,

Dean E. Arnold, and Johanna Minich

2

Ceramic Wares and Water Spirits

Identifying Religious Sodalities in the Lower Mississippi Valley

DAVID H. DYE

Water spirits as "Beneath World" transcendental beings were major Mis

sissippian deities, depicted in effigy form or engraved, incised, or painted

on distinctive ceramic bottles and bowls in the Lower Mississippi Val

ley (LMV), a region of ancestral Tunican speakers that also includes the

Lower Arkansas Valley (map 2.1). In this chapter, I identify six ceramic

sets that differ stylistically from one another, but conform in varying ways

to the artistic theme and representation of water spirits. My focus here is

to delineate unique groupings of water spirit vessels that date within the

Protohistoric Period (circa A.D. 1550-1650). I hypothesize that these ce

ramic effigy sets were crafted within the context of belief systems variously

known as medicine lodges, religious sodalities, or secret societies (Dorsey

1894: 361; Dye 2012; Fortune 1932; Johansen 2004). Eighteenth-century

French accounts of water spirit sodalities in the LMV (Dickinson 1982:

61-65; Swanton 1911: 288) provide important linkages between archaeo

logically documented early-17th-century protohistoric religious sodali

ties and ethnohistorically documented 18th-century dance and medicine

societies, which functioned as aristocratic and exclusive secret religious

institutions. In addition, 19th and early 20th-century ethnographic de

scriptions of Dhegiha Siouan secret societies (Fortune 1932) offer an im

portant interpretative potential for Mississippian belief systems and the

ways in which religious sodality paraphernalia, especially ceramics, were

deployed in ritual contexts.

------------------------

G UL F

OF

Map 2.1. Tunican Homeland in the Lower Mississippi Valley (drawing by David Dye).

Through a semiotic analysis of ritual wares, scholars can arrive at a more

nuanced understanding of belief systems (see Scher [chap. 6), this volume),

and gain deeper insights into the study of religious practice and ritual ac

tion. The way in which people engage with goods and objects may be mea

sured through archaeological context and what people do with these goods

and objects. By focusing on the material traces left on ceramic art produced

during the Protohistoric Period, this paper describes the Mississippian

conceptions of a specific transcendental being, the great underwater spirit,

and ideas about its cosmology, figural representations, and the religious

sodalities that supplicated and venerated it.

My approach to ceramic analysis owes much to William Henry Holmes,

whose work with Mississippi Valley pottery underpins many of the basic,

spatial taxonomic units still in use today (Holmes 1886, 1903). Holmes' em

phasis on whole ceramic vessels proved to be an insightful and ground

breaking approach, not only because he partitioned spatial style units based

on whole vessels, but also because he linked indigenous linguistic groups

with eastern North American ceramic assemblages and sought to align

Mississippian ceramic motifs with ethnographically documented religious

beliefs. He and Charles C. Willoughby (1897) noted that a high percentage

of Middle Mississippian culture vessels were crafted for ritual use and that

their design motifs could be interpreted based on the charter myths, origin

stories, and sacred narratives of Midwestern prairie Siouans who lived in

the Lower Missouri and Upper Mississippi Valleys at European contact.

Holmes concluded that ethnographic narratives aided in furthering an un

derstanding of the religious and social significance of LMV Mississippian

ceramics (Holmes 1903: 100 ). His association and contacts with leading

ethnographers of the time, especially J. Owen Dorsey, Alice C. Fletcher,

Francis La Flesche, Alanson B. Skinner, and John R. Swanton, helped ex

pand his interpretations and understanding of Mississippian vessel func

tion and the potential of ethnographic analogy for interpreting the rich

corpus of eastern North American ritual wares. Holmes and Willoughby

reasoned, based on cosmologically significant Mississippian motifs, that

Mississippi Valley pottery was crafted as a function of ritual practice, rather

than mundane concerns such as dietary needs, economic demands, or sub

sistence constraints, and that Mississippian religion could be understood

through ethnographically based interpretations of ceramic designs. Writ

ing at a time when indigenous religious beliefs were vital components of

Identifying Religious Sodalitles in the Lower Mississippi Valley 31

oral traditions, and religious beliefs were remembered and to some extent

still being practiced, Holmes noted, "Explanations must come from a study

of the present people and usages, and among Mississippi Valley tribes there

are no doubt many direct survivals of the ancient forms" (1903: 100-101).

Unfortunately, Holmes' research and interpretations became unfashion

able as the ethnography of Fletcher and La Flesche, among others, began

to be marginalized by later cultural anthropologists. Also, in the 1930s a

new generation of archaeologists turned against behavioral interpretations

based on the analysis of whole ceramics and ethnographic analogy, by

emphasizing finer spatial and temporal controls and chronological divi

sions that u~ilized ceramic seriation and stratigraphic analysis, procedures

that required large samples of temporally sensitive ceramics in the form

of sherds. Archaeologists placed increasing emphasis on precise context,

as well as concerns regarding not only the provenance, but also the prove

nience, of many whole vessels in museum and private collections. Thus, the

analytical unit shifted from the pot to the potsherd. In a return to Holmes'

emphasis on whole vessels, I argue that the iconography of Mississippian

bottles and bowls, coupled with ethnographic analogy, holds significant

research potential for understanding Mississippian cultural practices, es

pecially belief systems, political alignments, ritual habitude, and social or

ganization.

Mississippian religious sodalities may be recognized in the archaeologi

cal record through an approach not unlike that embraced by Holmes. I

suggest that religious sodalities are discernible in the various sets of siln

ilar ceramic vessels that may be identified through a study of iconogra

phy, motifs, and style. The differentiation of stylistically divergent ceramic

sets is important for delineating contemporary religious sodalities on the

Mississippian landscape, for interpreting the ways in which ritual wares

functioned as the accouterments of belief systems, and for understanding

religious beliefs and practices. Religious sodalities are defined here as par

ticular forms or sets of religious belief, ritual, and worship carried out by an

exclusive, social community of practitioners, often a close, secretive coterie

who may or may not be related, and who support and express devotion.to

a specific ancestor, culture hero, deity, idea, spirit, or transcendental being

or a melange of beings. Religious society members typically abide by and

share goals explicitly rationalized by related or siJnilar beliefs (Bertemes

and Biehl 2001; Malone et al. 2007: 2; Wallace 1966: 75). Crafting inalien-

32 David H. Dye

able goods generally takes place among an exclusive inner circle of sodality

members who may be commissioned to manufacture ritual items based on

their prestige and rank within the religious sodality (Bailey 1995; Fletcher

and La Flesche 1992; La Flesche 1939).

A critical component of Mississippian religious sodality rituals includes

the manufacture of distinctive ceramic vessels for preparing, serving, and

consuming sacred "medicines" that were central to religious sodalities, re

quiring of its practitioners a state of ritual purification (Dye 2007, 2012). As

early as the 16th century, the "Black Drink" -a Native American caffeine

laced drink brewed from yaupon holly (!lex vomitoria)-was widely doc

umented as an important eastern North American ritual emetic, brewed

and served in pottery vessels for participants in religious practice (Hudson

1979). Organic residues of Ilex have been discovered in Mississippian bea

kers dating between A.D. 1050 and 1250 in and around Cahokia and used

within ritual contexts (Crown et al. 2012).

Religious sodalities, as secret societies, empowered aristocratic and ag

grandizing members of Mississippian polities, who, as governing elites,

authorized, promoted, and sponsored communal feasts, craft produc

tion, religious protocols, and ritual performances. Elites legitimized and

perpetuated positions of political authority through their investment and

involvement in religious institutions (Beck and Brown 2012; Knight 1989,

2011). Historic period religious sodality recruitment and survival rested on

a polity's continued line of descendants, a long life for its members, rebirth

through reincarnation, and success in warfare-powerful incentives and

rewards for membership and participation (Bailey 1995; Radin 1991: 70).

Among the Omaha, for example, religious sodality enrollment and privi

leges were restricted to an exclusive, hereditary aristocracy (Fortune 1932).

Finally, joining a religious society was predicated on the applicant experi

encing a vision of the society culture hero or deity, learning legerdemain

skills, memorizing esoteric knowledge, and paying onerous fees. Sleight

of-hand and other magical feats taught to the initiated, and demonstrated

before the uninitiated, showcased the society member's powers to defeat

death, to control and manipulate life forces, and to reinforce socioeco

nomic hierarchies. Conjuring or presencing the appearance or manifesta

tion of the religious sodality avatar, culture hero, deity, or transcendental

being also served to return to or derive powers from the world established

at its original, cosmic order at the dawn of time.

Identifying Religious Sodalities in the Lower Mississippi Valley 33

Water spirits are variously referred to throughout North America as

feathered serpents, great serpents, horned serpents, plumed serpents, un

derwater monsters, or winged serpents. The depiction of water spirits as

effigy wares, on engraved marine shell cups and gorgets, and in painted

cave walls and rock art suggests they were an important component of

Mississippian cosmology and religious practice. Archaeological evidence,

ethnographic descriptions, and ethnohistoric accounts of water spirits

among Mississippian polities and their descendant communities under

score the idea that a widely shared belief system existed throughout eastern

North America, and that these religious institutions embraced powerful

transcendental beings who occupied both the night sky and the watery

realm. Celestial bodies, including caves, natural vortexes such as torna

does and whirlpools, rivers, and springs, may have been the inspiration for

Mississippian cosmological motifs associated with water spirits. Centering

motifs, expressed as barred ovals, interlocking scrolls, ogees, swirl-crosses,

and terraces, provide supporting evidence for a belief system that accessed

otherworldly realms through portals and world centers (Lankford 2011).

Water spirit veneration had deep roots in the Mississippi Valley (Duncan

2016; Emerson 1989; Hall 1997; Knight 1989; Lankford 2007a; Reilly 2011).

Late Woodland depictions of Central Illinois Valley water spirits, typically

portrayed as feline- and serpentlike creatures, were rendered on the shoul

ders of jars as cord-impressed designs. These figural representations exhibit

long forked tails and segmented bodies (Sampson 1988). An Early Missis

sippian Period water spirit image was painted on a limestone cave wall at

the beginning of the nth century in Picture Cave, located near the Missouri

River in east-central Missouri (Diaz-Granados and Duncan 2000: pl. 15;

Diaz-Granados et al. 2015; Reilly 2015). Even at this early period, a feline

headed serpent is portrayed by what would later become iconic character

istics: antlers; sharp, pointed teeth, often honing canines; and round eyes

early iconographic signatures of Mississippian water spirits. A 12th-century

red, flint-day sculpture, which illustrated a feline-headed serpent, possesses

the characteristic forked tail, pointed teeth (honing canines), and round

eyes of the water spirit. This figurine was found near Cahokia and illustrates

the water spirit's religious importance in Mississippian belief systems (Em

erson 1989; Emerson et al. 2000; Prentice 1986). The direct association of

the water spirit with the Earth Mother also suggests the ways that religious

sodalities formed a collage or conjunction of cultic institutions (Dye 2012).

34 David H. Dye

By the mid-13th century, water spirit religious sodalities were expanding

out of the Midwest southward into the greater southeast and LMV (Dye

2009). As ritual goods, early, negative-painted effigy bottles were modeled

as four-legged beings variously referred to in the archaeological literature as

bears, cat-monsters, cat-serpents, dogs, pigs, and underwater monsters. Key

morphological attributes-coiled tail, canine or feline head, projecting or

swept-back antlers/horns/plumes, round eyes, pointed canines, and rattle

snake rattles-suggest the ceramic corpus represents the continuation of a

religious system that embraced beliefs from earlier Midwestern underwater

spirit conceptions of propitiation, supplication, and veneration. Widespread

religious society growth after A.D. 1250 is manifested in the numerous water

spirit ceramics found throughout the LMV-especially northeastern Ar

kansas and southeastern Missouri where water spirit imagery continued

being crafted in ceramic form until the early to mid-17th century.

Skilled crafting evident in the manufacture of water spirit effigy vessels,

coupled with the incorporation of cosmological motifs, suggests that wa

ter serpent bottles and bowls served functions associated with the belief

system, rather than being restricted to mortuary furniture. Nor were ce

ramic design motifs intended as decorative embellishments, but rather they

served important religious functions-active devices or mechanisms that

could attract, conjure, or snare life or spiritual forces when manipulated by

experienced religious society members. Capturing cosmic vital forces via

cosmological ceramic motifs may have had a function analogous to symbols

painted and tattooed on the bodies of prairie Siouans, which also attracted

and trapped life or spiritual forces (Dye 2013; Fletcher and La Flesche 1992).

Repeated handling reflected by the extensive use-wear evident on these

ritual wares is implicated by basal abrasions, overall wear patterns, and rim

nicking, testifying to their repetitive employment as religious society ritual

paraphernalia and long-term curation and use. In some instances handling

painted vessels resulted in distinctive wear patterns that reveal where the

hands were placed when using the vessel for ritual purposes. Extensive

use-wear argues against the suggestion that Mississippian ritual ware was

crafted specifically as funerary furniture because mortuary-specific ware

would exhibit slight to nonexistent wear patterns. However, it should be

noted that the last stage of indigenous vessel use was interment with spe

cific individuals. The mortuary context of the ceramics and their engraved

or painted cosmological motifs underscores their association with beliefs

Identifying Religious Sodalities in the Lower Mississippi Valley 3S

in an afterlife and a continued ritual function in the realm of the dead. That

sacred medicines accompanied the dead in their journey to the afterworld

may be seen in the regular occurrence of interior incrustations resulting

from the evaporation of liquids in Mississippian bowls and jars interred

with the dead. Based on the temporal depth and widespread occurrence

of water spirit figural representations in the LMV, the expression of water

spirit religious sodality institutions appears to have been deeply entrenched

and widely embraced.

Methodology

The present analysis was conducted by accumulating a large ceramic vessel

corpus that bears water spirit imagery as various combinations of engraving,

incising, modeling, or painting. Terminal Mississippian Period ceramics are

employed for this study-those vessels from sites with protohistoric tem

poral markers, bracketed on the one hand by the mid-16th-century Her

nando de Soto expedition, and on the other, by the late-17th-century French

voyages. The methodology follows guidelines and procedures proposed by

Knight (2013), who outlines an ordered approach to iconographic analysis

involving seven basic components. First, the largest possible corpus of con

temporary, related works is assembled based on genre-an artifact category

devoted to the same purpose (that is, shell gorgets, pottery bottles, repousse

copper plates, and so on). The present corpus consists of ritual bottles and

bowls recorded from museum collections and the archaeological literature.

Second, stylistic analysis is employed to search for cultural models that

govern the formal properties of images within the assembled genre. The

primary features of stylistic cultural models are worked out by establishing

common categories by which artistic canons may be described and orga

nized In the present case, water spirits were selected from the larger corpus

of LMV ceramic bottles and bowls based on the presence of key water spirit

characteristics-coiled tail; canine, feline, or serpentine head; pointed teeth;

projecting or swept-back antlers, horns, or plumes; rattlesnake rattles; and

round eyes-and then sorted into distinctive stylistic categories. Third, ar

chaeological field data (water spirit vessels found in archaeological contexts)

and natural history prototypes (resident canines, felines, and serpents) are

incorporated as external sources. These natural, referential prototypes are

based to some extent on local fauna, such as the eastern cougar (Puma

36 David H. Dye

concolor cougar), eastern wolf (Canis lupus lycaon), indigenous dog (Canis lupus familiaris), and timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). Fourth, this

analysis employs configurational analysis whereby images are separated into

formal features that are potentially significant; that is, they contribute to

the definition of themes as perceived by native ceramicists and ritual prac

titioners. Thus, the water serpent theme is thought to reflect an indigenous

(emic) concept or definition of water spirits. Fifth, ethnographic analogy is

applied in which a historical homology is based on descendant groups of

Upper Mississippian Valley/western Mississippians, in this case, Midwest

ern Dhegiha Siouans (Bailey 1995; J. Brown 2007; Dorsey 1894; Fletcher

1992; Fortune 1932; La Flesche 1939; Radin 1991). The sixth part embraces

the construction of iconographic models as propositions that describe the

subject matter of the images under consideration. Finally, the iconographic

model is expected to be tested to assess its potential for understanding data

sets beyond the original corpus of water spirit vessels.

Protohlstoric Water Spirit Ceramic Groups

Six pottery groups were selected from the much larger water spirit corpus

to demonstrate that differences in artistic canons, ceramic morphology,

iconographic analysis, and motif variability may be employed to identify

individual Mississippian religious sodalities. These six distinctive ceramic

groups (or style sets)-Berry, Campbell, Denton, Humber, Lee, and Phil

lips-are derived from protohistoric sites in the LMV. Additional water

spirit religious sodality style groups have been defined and identified within

the existing corpus, but space limitations preclude their presentation here.

Thus, the present discussion is not intended to be an exhaustive delineation

of protohistoric water spirit groups, but rather it serves as an example of

how religious sodalities represented by discrete ceramic vessel groups may

be identified in the archaeological record through iconographic analysis.

Berry Group

The Berry Group dates between approximately A.D. 1550 and 1650 (fig. 2.1,

table 2.1). Three of the four engraved Berry Group bottles were found at

the Berry site, a small protohistoric town located in the Pemiscot Bayou

area of southeastern Missouri (O'Brien 1994: 262-270). The close resem

blance and similarity in vessel form and engraving suggest these vessels


were crafted perhaps by the same individual within the context of a specific

water spirit religious sodality located at the Berry site. The one Berry Group

bottle found at the nearby Campbell site may represent the transfer of a

ritual vessel, as one component of the formation of a "daughter" or splinter

religious sodality to a neighboring town. The Campbell site bottle (table 2.1,

vessel 4) shares a number of features with vessel 2 from Berry (table 2.1),

including a coiled serpent annular base, a tri-forkeye surround on the face,

and a terrace motif on the vessel's neck.

The vessels are modeled on a protohistoric vessel form-a globular bottle

with a medium to tall flared neck. All examples have annular bases (Hath

cock 1988: vessel 145 and 146; Westbrook 1982: vessel 4), two of which have

quadripartite, intertwined water spirits with rattles and a bi-fork eye sur

round (table 2.1: vessels 2 and 4). Vessel necks have alternating terrace mo

tifs that generally enclose an open circle. The vessel body has an engraved

face with a snarling, toothy mouth filled with sharp teeth-the prominent

front teeth are depicted as honing canines. The round eyes are set off by

distinctive eye markings, either bi- or tri-fork eye surrounds. The two water

spirits on each bottle have long, flowing "hair" or plumes that connect the

opposed faces. Two curled proboscis-like tongues emerge from the mouth.

No other engraved bottles resembling these four are known from the LMV,

suggesting that the Berry site potter produced a limited number of vessels

restricted to two neighboring sites: Berry and Campbell.

Forked eye surrounds are significant culture hero or deity identifiers

and locatives. Based on the stylistic analysis of a large corpus of eye sur

rounds, Reilly (2004) and Sampson (1988) argue that the bi-fork eye sur

round places the water spirit in the night sky realm, while the tri-fork eye

surround locates the water spirit in the Beneath World watery realm. Thus,

two distinct cosmological locales are identified in the present Berry Group

ceramic corpus as some water spirits possess bi-fork eye surrounds, while

others exhibit tri-fork eye surrounds. Each Berry Group bottle has two op

posing faces that seem to represent varying aspects or locales of the same

water spirit personae. Interestingly, one vessel (vessel 2) has two faces with

tri-fork eye surrounds, but it also has an intertwined snake with a bi-fork

eye surround modeled as the pedestal base, reinforcing the idea that the

different eye surrounds represent conceptually similar water spirits that

occupy different locales and perhaps manifest varying behaviors, powers,

and qualities. The Berry Group assemblage provides a good example of

38 David H. Dye

the expression of a water spirit religious sociality, where bottles and bowls,

and perhaps cooking jars without religious motifs, were crafted as ritual

ceramic sets for brewing, transforming, serving, and consuming sacred

medicines within the context of religious practice. Profane liquids would

have been brewed within jars, poured into bottles where the farrago was

transformed into a sacred medicine, and then served from a bowl to the

religious sociality imbiber.

Two bowls from the Berry site also appear to belong to the Berry Group,

but rather than being engraved with the facial features of a water spirit, they

are modeled as three-dimensional water spirit effigies. One bowl, vessel s

(table 2.1; O'Brien 1994: fig. 1.1), has a terrace motif that substitutes for the

typical swept-back, curled plume located atop the head, suggesting an im

portant substitution set. The Berry Group potter seemingly distinguished

their religious sodality from other water spirit religious sodality cerami

cists by appropriating the terrace motif as an identifying mark.er or symbol

that provided a specific function or engendered a unique power. Lankford

(2006) has argued that terrace motifs actualized weather powers. The Berry

Group therefore appears to have functioned to propitiate, solicit, and vener

ate one manifestation of water spirits as weather controllers, whose abode

was the underworld's watery realm. Such beliefs may have been especially

popular during times of extended droughts or floods, events well docu

mented for the protohistoric LMV (Fisher-Carroll 2001; Stahle et al. 1985,

2000). Vessels 3 ands (table 2.1) also have a red slip that remains caked

within the engraved lines, further suggesting the association of water spirits

with the color red, the underworld, and weather powers. Color symbolism,

as a component of the terrace motif, was an important component of Mis

sissippian rituals, and black, red, and white colors were used in water spirit

ritual wares. Red, the color of blood, social divisiveness, and warfare, were

attributes associated with the underworld and its primary transcendent be

ing, the great water spirit (Hudson 1979; Lankford 2008). Caking the vessel's

engraving by rubbing red ochre into the lines would have imbued the ves

sel with underworld attributes, including powers that could be summoned

from the underwater spirit. It should be noted that vessel 6 (table 2.1; Hath

cock 1988: vessel 403), has a macelike adorno rim "tail," which might sug

gest an additional association with warfare, but the adorno rim is a modern

addition and does not belong with the original vessel (Aid 2013).

The four or five engraved lines on the water spirit bottles form an inter-

Identifying Religious Sodalities in the lower Mississippi Valley 39

locked swirl that defines a centering swirl-cross or volute. The interlock

ing scroll motif engraved on Berry Group bottles may actualize a portal,

volute, or vortex metaphor (Lankford 2011). Such swirl-cross symbols may

have been perceived as snares that attracted and trapped life or spiritual

forces. Omaha, Osage, and Ponca body and face painting and tattooing, for

example, were employed as capturing or extraction devices for life forces or

spirits that could be deployed and manipulated by the appropriator (Dye

2013). These painted and tattooed parallel lines further defined pathways

that converged on the snare or volute, channeling life forces to the painted

or tattooed cosmological motif. Based on prairie Siouan cosmology, the

parallel lines therefore would have acted as pathways, converging on the

swirl-cross and channeling life forces or sacred power into the vessel. Thus,

the channeling motifs and swirl-cross volutes may have been important

symbols employed in rituals to transfer sacred underworld attributes and

powers to the ceramic vessel in much the same ways that life forces were

appropriated and snared by human bodies.

The Berry Group depictions of water spirits are "connected with the

cycle of death and rebirth" based on Osage ethnography (Diaz-Granados

et al. 2015: 52). The rite of reincarnation quotes the "great serpent" in the

following propitiatory prayer and ritual recitation (La Flesche 1921: 104),

"The Hon'-ga U-ta-non-dsi [Priest of the Sky moiety, Isolated Earth phratry]

continued, saying:

The little ones [the Osage people] shall use as a [life] symbol

The great snake (the rattlesnake).

From amidst the bunches of tall grass

The snake caused itself to be heard by making a buzzing sound.

That snake also spake, saying:

Even though the little ones pass into the realm of spirits,

They shall, by clinging to me and using my strength, recover

consciousness [to become reincarnated] .

The great snake,

Making a sound like the blowing of the wind,

Close to the feet (of the sick),

He repeatedly sounded his rattle as he stood.

Close to the head (of the sick)

He repeatedly sounded his rattle.

40 David H. Dye

Toward the east winds

He repeatedly sounded his rattle. Toward the west winds

He repeatedly sounded his rattle Toward the winds from the cedars (the north)

He repeatedly sounded his rattle.

Then spake, saying: Even though the little ones pass into the realm of spirits,

They shall always with my aid bring themselves back to

consciousness. When the little ones make of me their bodies,

The four great divisions of the days They shall reach successfully,

And then into the days of peace and beauty

They shall always make their entrance.

This prayer and recitation associated the great serpent with the cardinal directions, healing, reincarnation, weather, and the four winds. The ser

pent, while identified as a rattlesnake, is a transcendental being that pos

sessed the human capacity of speaking and standing. The great serpent as a life symbol for the Osage was supplicated in order to "sustain and prolong

life" (Bailey i995: 35).

Table 2.1 . Berry Group (Missouri) (A.O. 1550-1650)

Vessel Site Name Site Number Reference

BOTTLES

Vessel 1 Berry 23PM59 Hathcock 1988: vessel 145


Vessel 3 Berry 23PM59 Westbrook 1982: vessel 4

Vessel 4 Campbell 23PMS University of Memphis Cat. No. 609.29

BOWLS

Vessels Berry 23PM59 O'Brien 1994: fig. 1.1



Figure 2.1. Berry Group water spirit ceramic (photo by David Dye).

Campbell Group

The second set of water spirit vessels, the Campbell Group, forms a tight

geographic cluster in northern Mississippi County, Arkansas, and south

ern Pemiscot County, Missouri. The Campbell Group dates between about

A.D 1550 and 1650 (fig. 2 .2, table 2.2) and is composed of four bowls and

one bottle that bear a remarkable similarity to one another. The vessels are

modeled on a slightly flattened bowl form with notched rims and almost

vertical sides. The modeled effigy heads are placed on short necks that trend

upward, terminating in a forward-pitched head with swept-back plumes

and a prominent, curled snout. The eyes are simple, round appliques, em

bellished with a bi-fork eye surround. The tail is a simple loop or curl end

ing in a slightly extended tip. The snarling mouths are open, with sharp

pointed, honing canines. Four lines descend from the nose, across the face,

and down the neck. As noted above for the Berry Group, the four lines may

represent the cardinal directions and pathways commonly engraved, in

cised, or painted on LMV bottles and bowls. Half the bowls have four inter

locking scrolls, a swirl-cross motif that defines vortexes. Such rotations are

often identified with tornadoes and whirlpools-natural referents for axes

42 David H. Dye

Figure 2.2. Campbell Group water spirit ceram ic (photo by David Dye).

Table 2.2. Campbell Group (Arkansas and Missouri) (A.D. 1550- 1650)


BOTTLE

Vessel 1 Berry 23PMS9 Hathcock 1988: vessel 407

BOWLS

Vessel 2 Campbell 23PMS Lankford 2004: Fig. 1

Vessel 3 Campbell 23PMS9 University of Memphis Cat. No. 2012.6875

Vessel 4 Chickasawba 3MSS University of Memphis Cat. No. 101 .6875

Vessels Crosskno 3MS18 Hathcock 1988: vessel 406

mundi that connect the celestial realm with the underworld-reinforcing

the idea that cross-swirls or vortexes served as powerful spiritual snares in

Mississippian cosmology and ritual.

Denton Group

The Denton Group represents the third set of pottery vessels that define a

local water spirit religious sodality in the Pemiscot Bayou area of south-


eastern Missouri. The six water spirit bottles are from four sites that date

between approximately A.D. 1550 and 1650 (fig. 2.3, table 2.3). Hathcock

(1988: 150) notes the close similarity among these vessels and suggests they

may have been crafted by the same potter. These vessels are modeled on a

Late Mississippi/protohistoric bottle form-a globular vessel with a short

neck. Half the vessels have notched rims, a late temporal marker. Five

vessels are compound bottles with the necks being punctated and hav

ing appliqued handles, a distinctive horizon marker for the Protohistoric

Period in the LMV (McNutt et al. 2015; O'Brien 1994). The simple heads,

lacking ears or antlers/horns, are placed on short necks that trend upward

at about 45°. The eyes are simple round punctations and the lips are bared,

revealing threatening, sharp-pointed canines typical of water spirit imag

ery. The forehead is generally sloping and the tail is curled or looped with

a slightly extended tail tip. The feet are expanded at the end of the stubby,

columnlike legs. The bodies are generally plain with the exception of two

bottles with engraved interlocking scrolls that suggest vortexes were im

portant religious sodality motifs that served ritual functions. The Denton

Figure 2.3. Denton Group water spirit ceramic (photo by David Dye).

44 David H. Dye

Table 2.3. Denton Group (Missouri) (A.D. 1550-1650)

Site Site Vessel Name Number Reference

Vessel 1 Bradley 3CT7 University of Arkansas Museum, cat no. 32-74-90a

Vessel 2 Denton Mounds 23PM549 Hathcock 1988: vessel 396;0'Brien 1994: fig. 7.21a

Vessel 3 Denton Mounds 23PM549 Hathcock 1988: vessel 395; O'Brien 1994: fig. 7.21 b

Vessel 4 Parkin 3CS29 Hathcock 1988: vessel 392

Vessel 5 Stateline 23PM71 Hathcock 1988: vessel 393

Vessel 6 Stateline 23PM71 Hathcock 1988: vessel 394

Group set itself apart from neighboring contemporary religious sodalities

by emphasizing feline features over the serpent features.

Humber Group

The Humber Group, representing the fourth vessel set that defines a LMV

water spirit religious sodality, dates between approximately A.O. 1500 and

1600. The group forms a geographic cluster in the Coahoma County, Mis

sissippi, and Lee and Phillips Counties, Arkansas, area (fig. 2.4, table 2.4).

The Humber water spirit religious sodality may have been located at the

Humber-McWilliams site where three Humber Group vessels have been

documented. The twelve vessels are modeled as a four-legged, canine-like

creature with "teapot" tails and threatening visages. The modeled effigy

head rises from a neckless bottle and faces either forward or is turned 90°

to the bottle rim. The head is flat on top, with two ear- or hornlike projec

tions and round applique eyes embellished with tri-fork eye surrounds.

The open mouth has four large canines set in a canine-like muzzle that

terminates in a pug nose. The stout legs end in four toes, further distin

guishing the Humber Group's distinctive caninelike aspects of the water

spirit vessel, rather than feline or serpentine features.

The wide, interlocked red and white swirls, with a black inner band,

wrap around the head, run along the body, and terminate at the tail. The

color symbolism of the Humber Group further underscores the cos-

Identifying Religious Sodalities in the lower Mississippi Valley 45

Figure 2.4. Humber Group water spirit ceramic (photo by David Dye).

mological function of the vessels, especially the idea that a permanent

tension exists in the levels of the cosmos that must be kept in balance

(Lankford 2008). _Here, white symbolizes the upper world, as the color

of harmony, social cohesion, stasis, and peace, while red is the color of

the underworld, a visual metaphor of disharmony, social divisiveness,

change, and warfare. Among Dheghian Siouans, black symbolizes death,

so here the black band, bound between the red and white bands, serves

as a metaphor of the continuing cycle of death and rebirth (Duncan 2011;

Dye 2013).

46 David H. Dye

Table 2.4. Humber Group (Mississippi and Arkansas) (A.O. 1500-1650)

Site Vessel Site Name Number Reference

Vessel 1 Hudnall 3LE Hathcock 1983: vessel 301

Vessel 2 Unknown 3LE Hathcock 1983: vessel 294

Vessel 3 Young 3CT10 26-59AC642

Vessel 4 Old Town 3PH20 Hathcock 1983: vessel 293, 7-43

Vessel 5 McClusky 3PH Hathcock 1983: vessel 300; Westbrook 1982: 122

Vessel 6 McClusky 3PH Hathcock 1983:vessel 148; Westbrook 1982: 1 18

Vessel 7 Conner 3LE18 Hathcock 1988: vessel 288

Vessel 8 Humber 22C0601 7-281

Vessel 9 Humber 22C0601 Hathcock 1983: vessel 299; 1988: vessel 5

Vessel 10 Humber 22C0601 Hathcock 1983: vessel 291

Vessel 11 Unknown 30U Hathcock 1983: vessel 66; 1988: vessel 258

Vessel 12 Grant Satellite 3LE Hathcock 1983: vessel 302

Lee Group

The fifth water spirit religious sodality is located in Lee County, Arkan

sas, and western Coahoma County, Mississippi, and dates between ap

proximately A.O. 1550 and 1600 (fig. 2.5, table 2.5). As a group the virtually

identical vessels are modeled on a red-painted bowl form with a rim tab

placed opposite the adorno head. Interestingly, none of the vessels have

rim notches or body decorations such as scrolls or other motifs, typical of

more northern water spirit religious sodalities. The heads are all similar,

being placed on short necks on which the head is turned perpendicular to

the bowl rim. The eyes are simple appliques lacking surrounds. The distinc

tive mouth is formed as a wide toothy expression, but exhibiting honing

incisors rather than canines. Adherence to correct anatomy may not have

been important, as what is being represented are the sharp teeth of a tran

scendental being. Some forms have slight tabs in place of the usual antlers,

horns, or plumes on the head. The red paint further associates the vessel

with the underworld.

Identifying Religious Sodalitles in the lower Mississippi Valley 47

Figure 2.5. Lee Group water spirit ceramic (photo by David Dye).

Table 2.5. Lee Group (Arkansas and Mississippi) (A.O. 1550- 1600)


Vessel 1 Byrd 3CS Hathcock 1988: vessel 97

Vessel 2 Humber 22(0601 University of Memphis Cat. No. 352.13

Vessel 3 Humber 22(0601 Hathcock 1983: vessel 8

Vessel 4 Site Unknown 3LE Hathcock 1988: vessel 93

Vessel 5 Site Unknown 3LE Hathcock 1988: vessel 3 and 92

Vessel 6 Site Unknown 3LE Hathcock 1988: vessel 91

Phillips Group

The Phillips Group, the sixth LMV water spirit religious sodality, forms

a tight temporal span between approximately A.D. 1550 and 1600, and a

geographic cluster in Coahoma County, Mississippi, and adjacent Phillips

County, Arkansas (fig. 2.6, table 2.6). The close resemblance in vessel form

is based on the distinctive painting style. As a group these vessels are mod

eled on a protohistoric bottle form typical of the area-a globular bottle

with a carafe-shaped neck. One of the vessels is a "tea pot" form with the

48 David H. Dye

Figure 2.6. Phillips Group water spirit ceramic (photo by David Dye).

Table 2.6. Phillips Group (Mississippi and Arkansas) (A.O. 1550- 1600)


Vessel 1 Site Unnamed 3PH Hathcock 1983: vessel 202

Vessel 2 Site Unknown 3PH Hathcock 1983: vessel 203

Vessel 3 Humber 22(0601 Hathcock 1983: vessel 211

Vessel 4 Humber 22(0601 University of Memphis Cat. No. 266.11

Vessel 5 Scroggins Place 3CN Hathcock 1983: vessel 201

Vessel 6 Scroggins Place 3CN Hathcock 1983: vessel 206

compound bottle's neck being punctated-a significant protohistoric hori

zon marker. The faces are similar, being outlined in a broad red band, with

a red mouth and white ellipsoidal-shaped eye surrounds. The oval-shaped

mouth is bared, revealing four, six, and sometimes eight white, blocky

teeth. The remainder of the vessel is black, with the exception of the neck,

which is painted red.

These six water spirit groups illustrate three important points. First, ritual

wares, especially bottles and bowls, identify and reflect Mississippian belief

systems, termed here religious sodalities, which enjoyed widespread popu

larity in the LMV: These clusters of ceramic groups are based on the con

gruence of distinctive ceramic attributes, including design motifs, overall

morphology, and vessel color. At these protohistoric sites, a limited number

of vessels are assumed to have been commissioned for religious sodalities

that venerated the water spirit through crafting distinctive forms of ceramic

vessels. Ethnohistoric accounts document priests commissioning sacra for

ritual events (Bailey 1995; Fletcher and La Flesche 1992; La Flesche 1939).

Second, water spirit religious sodalities appear to have been short-lived

perhaps representing religious sodality cycling among regionally competing

religious institutions (Howard 1964: 113). Religious sodalities, centered on

charismatic individuals who attracted a following, may have died out or lost

favor upon the religious sodality leader's demise. Third, religious sodali

ties and their iconography were powerful political instruments employed

by aggrandizing elites to enhance and garner authority through religious

sodality leadership, which controlled esoteric knowledge, and manipulated,

mystified, and obscured representational imagery. Elites may have concen

trated and retained power through hereditary succession of religious sodal

ity names, offices, and titles, by maintaining levels of exclusivity based on

egregious fees and a narrowly defined membership that perhaps required

war honors of males and aristocratic descent lines for females.

Discussion

The great water spirit was a major Mississippian transcendental being

known in historic times by many names: cat serpent, great horned water

panther, great panther, horned water serpent, great serpent, master of the

underworld, plumed serpent, protector of the realm of the dead, underwa

ter monster, underwater panther, underwater spirit, and winged serpent.

so David H. Dye

While some of these names derive from nonindigenous scholars-for ex

ample, cat serpent, plumed serpent, and winged serpent-most are transla

tions that broadly conform to indigenous beliefs of Beneath World beings

and their numinous powers. In addition to the plethora of names, Mis

sissippian water spirit images were crafted in various forms or manifesta

tions ranging from caninelike to felinelike to serpentlike, in some instances

amalgamating and incorporating all three attributes. In addition, antlers,

horns, plumes, and wings were often integral components of water spirit

portrayals and representations.

Evidence of religious sodalities and religious orthodoxy surrounding

water spirit veneration is seen in the numerous "cat serpent" vessels found

in the LMV, especially northeastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri,

between approximately A.O. 1550 and 1650. Heightened religious activity

during the Protohistoric Period may have resulted from natural and social

disruptions that placed increased stresses on Mississippian political lead

ership and socioeconomic hierarchies (Dye 2015). Four major events have

been proposed that possibly precipitated social disruptions in the late-

16th and early-17th century. First, an initial stress is seen in the De Soto

expedition, which traversed the alluvial valley in the summer of 154i. The

expedition, based on the narratives, brought about widespread political

and social instability and transformations through population displace

ment, enslavement, and intercommunity conflict (Young and Hoffman

1993). Second, a megadrought plagued the Mid-South between A.O. 1549

and 1577 (Stahle et al. 1985, 2000 ). The human population is estimated to

have been reduced by some So percent based on widespread abandonment

of early protohistoric towns (Fisher-Carroll 2001; Mainfort 2001). Much of

the regional ecosystem may have been devastated during the epic drought

(Mainfort 2004: 7), perhaps precipitating depopulation and population

displacement throughout the valley by A.O. 1600 (I. Brown 2008; House

1993). Third, populations appear to have rebounded or returned to the

drought-stricken area with the resumption of mesic conditions in the early

17th century, only to experience frequent and perhaps massive flooding

(Stahle et al. 2007). Finally, the introduction of European diseases has

been cited for the final, catastrophic depopulation of the LMV in the mid

seventeenth century (Dye 2015; Mainfort 2001). Additional stressors may

have included localized earthquakes (Penick 1981; Van Arsdale 1997) and

intercommunity conflict due to competition over access to European trade


networks and Western manufactures (Ferguson 1990; Ferguson and White

head 2000). Water spirit veneration may have escalated due to various

combinations of these environmental and socioeconomic stresses based

on increased frequency of cosmologically charged motifs, an expanded

emphasis on crafting skill, and the large number of vessels crafted during

the Protohistoric Period.

While there may have been a number of different water spirits recog

nized by Mississippian people, three fundamental figural images are evi

dent in the corpus of LMV ceramics based on distinctive motifs, especially

eye surrounds, and effigy morphology: canine- , feline- , and serpentine

like. They appear to represent three Beneath World realms associated with

distinctive water spirit agentive behaviors, powers, or roles.

A caninelike being, associated with the Milky Way as the path of souls,

bears an ellipsoidal eye surround on "doglike" effigies. The ellipsoidal eye

motif is also seen on one of the paired serpents engraved on a ceramic

bottle from Chucalissa (40SY1) (Phillips and Brown 1978: fig. 261) . Another

example is the depiction of the Hero Twins who emerge from a serpent

vortex, presumably the Beneath World, holding the head of the culture

hero Morning Star, which has an ellipsoidal eye surround (Dye 2017; Phil

lips and Brown 1978: pl. 7). The retrieval of Morning Star's decapitated head

is a basic and foundational Mississippian charter myth (Diaz-Granados et

al. 2015; Lankford et al. 2011; Reilly and Garber 2007; Sharp 2004), which

chartered religious sodalities and reincarnation of the "soul" through ritual

society membership. One goal of the "soul's" journey along the Path of

Souls was to arrive safely at the Realm of the Dead, which lies at the south

ern terminus of the Milky Way (Lankford 2007a: 183-184; 2007c: 208-214).

Difficulties in traveling along the path of souls are often attributed to one

or two "dogs" that guard the path and make the passage perilous (Lankford

2007c: 214). The "dogs" are often identified as the stars Sirius and Antares,

who guard "opposite points of the sky, where the Milky Way touches the

horizon" (Hagar 1906: 362). If one of the "dogs" is not fed, the soul will not

be permitted to continue its journey along the path of souls and reincarna

tion will be terminated.

A felinelike creature, master of the watery realm (such as lakes, rivers,

and swamps) is marked by a tri-fork eye surround. Watery realm spirits

were considered masters of the waters and all its creatures and powers.

Often referred to as the great lynx, great serpent, underwater lion, or water

S2 David H. Dye

monster, the simulacrum was a potent and powerful chief of the under

world. Religious sodality members would have appealed to watery realm

spirits for underworld/water-related problems, such as quelling earth

quakes and floods and ending droughts. For LMV people, the abode of

watery realm spirits included meandering rivers and their back swamps

and oxbow lakes, but especially the Mississippi River with its massive ed

dies, powerful whirlpools, turbulent currents, and violent boils. Watery

realm spirits would have been especially revered during times of earth

quakes and floods. Earthquakes are frequent in the Mississippi Valley New

Madrid seismic zone (Penick 1981; Van Arsdale 1997), as were devastating

yearly spring floods, especially after 1600 when climate became increas

ingly mesic. Placating menacing and obstreperous Beneath World spirits

that precipitated earthquakes and floods would have been crucial for Mis

sissippian people, who believed that venturing out on rivers and lakes in the

LMV placed them at great risk of being harmed by the underwater panther.

Earthquakes in particular would have dispelled any lingering doubts about

the power and presence of Beneath World beings. Appeasing such spirits

and perhaps capturing their latent powers would have assumed a central

role in Mississippian apotropaic rituals.

A serpentlike being, ruler of the realm of the dead in the night sky, is

indicated by a bi-fork eye surround. Here the water spirit was incarnated as

the bright constellation Scorpius, which appears only during the summer

months close to the southern horizon in the northern hemisphere. As Lord

of the Realm of the Dead, the water spirit regulated the passage of souls into

the Realm of the Dead and would have been appealed to, supplicated, or

perhaps conjured in matters concerning death (Lankford 2007a, b ).

These three thematic variations reflect basic Mississippian beliefs associ

ated with the Path of Souls, the Above World night sky, and the Beneath

World watery realm, in addition to the cardinal directions, death and life,

female and male, red and white, summer and winter, and weather powers.

The Omaha identified the cardinal directions, or the four winds, as psycho

pomps, that is, spirit guides, that escorted souls to the Realm of the Dead

(Hultkrantz 1953: 184). The association of the great water spirit with the four

winds, as paths along which soul guides escort the spirit, may explain the

consistent use of four lines that descend from the mouth, trail down the

neck, and form a volute or vortex on the water spirit's body, defining the

movement of life forces in the cycle of rebirth.


Protohistoric water spirit vessels reveal evidence of sustained use, includ

ing lip or rim nicking, as a result of pouring liquids from jars (brewing/

cooking/preparation) to bottles (transformation) to bowls (serving/con

sumption). Abrasion of the vessel base, along with damage such as broken

tails and snapped heads, is also indicative of repeated handling and use.

Wear patterns on vessel sides are common, especially painted forms where

the thin slip is easily abraded This line of evidence alerts us to long-term

curation and use throughout the vessel's lifespan. However, cosmological

motifs do not point to a secular purpose, but rather suggest the vessels were

manufactured as ritual wares associated with the preparation of medicines

for purification (Dye 2007). Effigy vessel use as religious sodality statuary

may also have been a significant component of their religious function in

conjuring forth the water spirit or used as oracular devices for ascertaining

or envisaging future events. The repeated ritual use of the vessels strongly

suggests they were important in the daily lives and practices of Mississippian

people and their religious beliefs. As such, religious sodalities embraced the

propitiation, supplication, and veneration of the water spirit for a long life

and personal power, provided its members with the ability to control death,

and promoted rebirth and reincarnation for the initiated. A major attrac

tion of the Mide Society was that it assured and promised its practitioners

that they would learn how to avoid the evils and perils besetting the soul as

it trekked along the dangerous path to the realm of the dead, and how to

ensure their eventual reincarnation (Lankford 2007c: 215).

Water spirit religious sodality institutions empowered aristocratic elites

by legitimizing and validating the transfer of names, statuses, and titles in

the context of public feasting and gift exchange. Magical acts-sleights-of

hand and death-defying feats-would have been not only an important re

cruitment device, but also established a social barrier between the washed

and the unwashed Members would have been both feared and respected for

their otherworldly sources of power, routinely demonstrating that religious

sodality members could defeat and overcome death through "magical" ef

ficacy. Such demonstrations of control over death-and-life powers through

legerdemain would be bestowed upon ritually purified members by the

religious sodality's powerful benefactor, culture hero, and deity, in this case

the Beneath World water spirit. Based on ethnographically documented

secret societies among 19th-century indigenous eastern North Americans,

religious sodalities were competitive, exclusive, and secretive; they demon-

S4 David H. Dye

strated their efficacy through personal visions and ritual performance that

ordained the ownership and use of dances, songs, and sacred bundles (Dye

2016). Specific religious sodality expressions of the water spirit may have

been short-lived, surviving for no more than a generation or two, before

dying out with the loss of charismatic leaders or perhaps as a result of the

polity's demise.

Conclusion

The Protohistoric Period in the LMV witnessed a fluorescence of well

crafted ceramics, especially engraved, incised, modeled, and painted bot

tles and bowls. Often interpreted as funerary ware, such vessels served the

living as ritual pottery manufactured as one component of Mississippian

religious sodality paraphernalia. One specific subset of these ceramic forms

are the numerous water spirit vessels found throughout the LMV. Three ba

sic water spirits and their representative religious sodalities are identified: a

caninelike spirit, marked by ellipsoidal eye surrounds, associated with the

Milky Way; a watery realm spirit, marked by a tri-fork eye surround; and

a night sky spirit, noted by a bi-fork eye surround. This trinity of transcen

dent beings was recognized as resident in various celestial realms: Antares,

Scorpius, Sirius, and the Milky Way, in addition to the watery realm and

the cardinal directions.

Conjuring, supplicating, and venerating these powerful underworld

forces became particularly significant during the Protohistoric Period when

increased stresses resulted from natural phenomena such as droughts,

earthquakes, and floods, as well as socioeconomic practices, including po

litical competition and succession of office by an aggrandizing and privi

leged aristocracy and nobility. European presence in the Mississippi Valley

in the mid-16th century and again in the mid-17th century brought about

additional stresses through competition over European trade goods and

nodes, disease, the fur trade, slaving, and warfare.

The flowering of water spirit religious sodalities and their associated rit

ual wares resulted in a brief renaissance of ceramic production during the

Protohistoric Period in the LMV. In the face of elevated death rates during

the Protohistoric Period, stressed Mississippian populations had elevated

levels of religious propitiation and veneration of powerful deities, especially

Beneath World powers associated with the cycle of life and death, rebirth,

Identifying Religious Sodalities in the Lower Mississippi Valley ss

and reincarnation. Water spirits, as antagonists along the Path of Souls,

as guardians of the Realm of the Dead in the night sky, and as masters of

the underworld watery realm, would have been important agents to sup

plicate during times of increased stress. Elite control of esoteric knowledge

through religious sodality participation would have ensured hereditary

lines of aristocratic descent, promised a long life for privileged members,

and provided the mechanisms for reincarnation to take place.

Acknowledgments

My gratitude is extended to Yumi Park Huntington, Johanna Minich, and

Dean E. Arnold for their invitation to contribute to Ceramics of Ancient America: Multidisciplinary Approaches and for their editorial suggestions.

Kent Reilly and members of the Texas Iconographic Workshop were in

strumental in developing the overall perspective employed in this chapter

and to them I owe a debt of gratitude. The editorial comments of Chris

topher Pool and an anonymous reviewer were helpful in improving the

manuscript. My appreciation also to Toney Aid, Ron Bogg, Rick Fitzger

ald, Kevin Jerome, Joe Kinker, George Lankford, Charles McNutt, Mike

O'Brien, and Roy Van Arsdale for their helpful advice and suggestions.

As always, Ruth McWhirter's management of the University of Memphis

photo archives is much appreciated. Finally, I dedicate this chapter to the

memory of Roy Hathcock, an early pioneer in documenting, illustrating,

and interpreting Mississippian ceramics.

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Identifying Lower Mississippi Valley Protohistoric Water Spirit Cults

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