Shell Gorget- Clark County, AR
Archaeologists recovered two ceramic seed jars, an engraved bowl and this shell gorget from an ancestral Caddo Indian burial. Gorgets were fashionable pieces that cover the throat, slightly larger than a pendant. Most gorgets of this period were cut from whelk shell and engraved with a variety of decorative motifs.
Motifs on Caddo period gorgets vary between human, animal and abstract characteristics. Archaeologists argue that this variability reflects craft specialization rather than a unified system of beliefs. However, the central symbol is always the four cardinal directions.
Continue reading An Engraved Shell Gorget from the Shepherd Site by Arkansas Archeological Survey
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