Native American, Southeastern United States, Eastern Woodland, Mississippian, ca. 200 to 1000 CE. This is a beautiful and rare incised and openwork gorget made from a white shell featuring 2 stylized male figures. The discoidal piece is pierced at the top with two perforations for suspension to use as a pectoral pendant or gorget. The figures are overlapping, their bodies diagonally positioned crossing at the waists, the heads facing each other in profile. Both are dressed in ornate headdresses and jewelry, necklaces, bracelets, and waist cloths with beaded or woven patterns that are likely ceremonial attire. The areas of cut outs accentuate the figures and add symmetry to the nearly identical men. Mississippian shell gorgets are special items for adornment and burial that carried protective powers- the cross in a circle was a sacred cosmological symbol of regeneration and the intersections of the Underworld and Aboveworld. Size: 4.5" L x 0.25" W (11.4 cm x 0.6 cm); 5.5" H (14 cm) on included custom stand.

Provenance: private Hidden Valley Lake, California, USA collection

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#170089

Chips and nicks to peripheries, surface abrasions and pitting on figures. Natural ossification of shell, pitting and striations across verso. Light mineral and earthen deposits in recessed areas and openwork. Figure details are very clear, and the shell is thick and in overall excellent condition.