THE CAT AND THE SERPENT
The pottery makers in the Mississippi River Valley, during the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (circa AD 1000 – 1700), exercised a great deal of artistic expression in their products. Simple utilitarian pots and dishes were made in abundance for cooking and eating but it is the effigy vessels that are so intriguing for today’s contemporary collectors. One style that is very high on the collectible list is the rare Cat Serpent Bowl.
This pottery style is normally a round to elongated bowl with rim appliqués in the form of a puma or panther head and the tail of a snake. The body of this mythical creature is the usually tall sided bowl but it is the rim effigy head and tail that grab one’s attention. The cat head can be a reasonable replication of a wild feline but often seems to be some type of composite being that is part cat and part reptile. It usually incorporates facial incising that was cut into the green or un-fired clay before the vessel was fire hardened. These carvings can portray the weeping eye motif, cat whiskers, teeth or fangs and other esoteric designs. The feline head normally has modeled eyes, nose and ears and teeth that can be simple incised lines or well modeled and sculpted incisors which may be in the style of snake fangs. The top of the head often has pointed ear-like extensions or plumes that probably relate to the Great Plumed Serpent who was master of the Beneath World according to Mississippian Culture ethnographical mythology. The recognizable serpent portion of these vessels is the long and usually coiled replica of a snake tail that is attached to the bowl rim opposite the cat head and it may or may not have modeled or engraved rattlesnake rattles. This information describes the form of most Cat Serpent Bowls but there have been a few found that are in the tetrapodal (having four legs) bottle shape. These vessels are almost always well made and highly burnished in the ceramic finish that is called Bell Plain Greyware. Some, though, have a paint slip applied before the vessels were fired, in single overall red color or in straight or curved red and white stripes. The bowl bodies are normally without any embellishments but some exhibit surface treatments such as Walls Engraving or Rhodes Incising and some of the bowls have plain rims while others show stick or fingernail punctuating in the pie crust mode. Rare examples have tiny pebbles inside hollow cat heads for the rattle-head effect and even more rare examples have miniature animal effigy tail riders in place of the coiled snake tail. The above information covers the basics of the style of these vessels but exactly why were these unusual pottery monsters made?
Based on recovered artifacts, the American Indians made items that were effigies of the plant and animal world especially during the Late Woodland through the Historic Periods (circa AD 300 to AD 1700). The Hopewell Culture artisans, in the mid-west, were true masters at depicting everyday objects such as birds and animals in their art and almost all these are easily recognizable fauna. A few centuries later during the Mississippian Period, the natives still made art objects that are also easily detectable as replicas of fish, birds, animals and humans. But in addition they began to combine various human, animal and god-like forms into single and often unrecognizable units. There could be numerous reasons for this strange art from drug induced craftsmanship to the belief in anthropomorphic beings to simply as a way for the society leaders to exercise control of the ordinary men and women.
Imagine how easily the cultural elite could direct the daily existence of the common populace by regulating economic goods and services but they could really control the lives of the average citizens by creating awe of the supernatural. Even today, in the twenty-first century, we enlightened people are both transfixed by and fear the unknown. Do ghosts really exist? Have UFO’s visited our planet? Is there a Loch Ness monster? And is Bigfoot real? Imagine how the people reacted to the unknown four or five hundred years ago. If the rulers concocted some mythical monstrous beings, that could have gone a long way to subjugating the general population. (Does this sound like our government today? We certainly have monstrous beings in Congress, but unfortunately they are not mythical.) The Cat Serpent legend could certainly have worked for this control by convincing the people that a half panther – half reptile did exist and the rulers could exercise authority over the beast for the betterment of the society. So were the Cat Serpent Bowls created as an amalgamation of feared animals for the purpose of establishing absolute control? (Again does this sound like our Congress creating lies and myths so as to control “we the people”? Perhaps history does repeat itself.) Or were the cat monster vessels iconographic forms of their arcane religious beliefs? Or did the ceramists of the lower Mississippi River Valley simply partake of hallucinogens prior to making this pottery? These are most likely never to be answered queries. But these questions should only make us want to study and learn more about these people and their unique creations such as the vessels exhibiting the Cat and the Serpent.
REFERENCES:
Dickens, Roy S.
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Galloway, Patricia, Editor
THE SOUTHEASTERN CEREMONIAL COMPLEX: ARTIFACTS AND ANALYSIS
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Hathcock, Roy
ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY
1976
Hudson, Charles
THE SOUTHEASTERN INDIANS
1976
Maus, James E.
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CENTRAL STATES ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL, Vol. 52, No. 3
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O’Brien, Michael J.
CAT MONSTERS AND HEAD POTS
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Townsend, Richard F., Editor
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