A Tree Frog Effigy Bottle
There are some 550 members of the tree frog family Hylidae worldwide, of which several species live in the southern part of our country. These are small aboreal amphibians normally being one and a half to three inches in length and who usually live near ponds, lakes, creeks and rivers. They do climb trees with their strong legs and webbed suction cup feet but often hang out in vegetation closer to the ground and water where their food sources, small insects and worms, are more common and they are voracious predators of their potential meals. And they are fairly plentiful even though many contemporary people have never seen them since these frogs are basically nocturnal. They can often be found hanging on house walls at night while hunting for food near lighted porch lamps. The prehistoric natives living near the Mississippi River made many pottery effigies of frogs but normally these were the bullfrog. In fact the bullfrog effigy vessels are second to fish effigies in the quantities produced and are believed to have been ceremonially associated with summer and rain. But with the large number of tree frogs that would have been living near the “Big Muddy”, the Indians certainly should have made effigies of this creature. Apparently, though, they made very few – one of which is this rare tree frog effigy waterbottle.
The vessels called waterbottles are given that name because it is believed they were used to hold water. There is speculation today, however, that the effigy forms of bottles were actually used to hold ceremonial liquids including the beverage called “black drink” that was made from the yaupon holly and used to purge the imbiber’s system during cleansing festivities. Effigy bottles in general were most likely used in some form of ceremony since making a complicated bottle in any animal form just to hold water would have been overkill on the potter’s workload.
This tree frog effigy vessel was found in Mississippi County, Arkansas. It measures six and three-eighths inches high by five and five-eighths inches in diameter and is made of well polished and fire cloud marked Bell Plain greyware. It is a highly stylized replica of a tree frog with an atypical pointed head, the usual large protruding eyes and a ridged olfactory organ centered in the front of the face. Typically frog eyes are large and bulging which gives them a wide field of view and compensates for the creature’s inability to turn its head. The bottle orifice is reminiscent of the open mouth of a frog. The vessel does not, though, have the usual frog body and legs since the unadorned and rounded bottle serves as the animal’s torso representation. It was pictured in volume XIX (1985) issue of PREHISTORIC ARTIFACTS OF NORTH AMERICA while in the collection of Ben Thompson and would have been made in the AD 1400-1700 time period during the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. While researching this article, the writer could find no references to any other North American tree frog effigy vessel in existence but it seems unlikely that this is the only one since the tree frogs are common today and probably would have been common a few hundred years ago. Whether it is the one and only or if many others exist, the writer is simply happy to be able enjoy and study this rare tree frog effigy bottle.
REFERENCES:
Griffin, James B.
ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES
1952
Hathcock, Roy
ANCIENT INDIAN POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY
1976
Hathcock, Roy
THE QUAPAW AND THEIR POTTERY
1983
Milner, George
THE MOUNDBUILDERS: ANCIENT PEOPLE OF THE EASTERN NORTH AMERICA
2004
Morse, Dan F. & Phyllis A. Morse
ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
1983
Phillips, Phillip, James Ford & James Griffin
ARCHAEOLIGICAL SURVEY OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI ALLUVIAL
VALLEY, 1940-47
1951