Kindle Notes & Highlights
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December 9 - December 22, 2020
For present purposes we recognize at least three layers on the tablet’s front.
These serve as the starting point for our description. For convenience, we call these layers the Foreground, the Background, and the Leg.
The boldness of the lines in the Foreground layer, particularly in comparison to the Background, suggests that the former was applied on top of the latter, as if the artist was making sure that the designs were visible against the “noise” of the lines already there.
The details of form and execution argue strongly that all the figures comprising this layer were engraved by a single artist.
The Foreground consists of three distinct scenes, each involving two different characters. In fact, the characters in each scene may be the same, but appearing in different guises.
One character we call Line Face, because of the multiple lines that run from the nose to the back of the jaw, presumably either a tattoo or face paint
This character thus has six diagnostic traits: horizontal facial marking, light moccasins, a fringed garment with irregular hemline, a necklace, concentric circles on the torso, and an asterisk motif.
The second character we call Star Eye (Fig. 7.9). He usually has a rayed eye-surround, although in one case this device seems to be replaced by a rayed gorget worn on the chest.
These three motifs—rayed eye, dark shoes, and roundel border—appear to be the diagnostic traits identifying this character.
We recognize the possibility that the figure with the gorget instead of the eye surround may be yet a third character
most previous commentators have assumed that this figure is female, presumabl...
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Given the absence of definitive female characteristics and the similarities to the other figures (including shell beads at the knees and ankles), we lean toward seeing this figure as being male and another manifestation of Star Eye.
The other motifs present with the two characters are not consistent, and their variability suggests that they are thus part of the story rather than identifiers of the individuals.
Every figure wears a headdress of some kind.
Such variability suggests that the headdresses indicate social roles rather than identity, and they are thus probably part of the story.
The Background layer shows much less thematic consistency than the Foreground
we cannot be certain the scenes comprising the background were drawn at the same time or that they are thematically related.
Moreover, the three scenes do not overlap in a way that would suggest temporal discontinuity. So for now we will treat them as a set, while readily admitting the possibility that they might not be.
Background Group 1. This is the scene we call the “Gallery” (Fig. 7.12a). It depicts a row of people, viewed from the side, with only their upper bodies and heads visible.
This scene has previously been interpreted as a Viking longboat
an idea that we may safely set aside as being historically implausible.
As an alternative, we would suggest that this may be a depiction of a medicine lodge.
Background Group 2. The most identifiable elements in this composition are a headless torso and a disembodied head, both apparently human
Background Group 3. This is a roughly drawn group of three human heads, a fish, and a small headless human body, connected with a band of lines
it has numerous parallels in Mississippian art. The meaning of this design is unknown.
This incongruous feature seemingly sits alone, out of scale and out of place relative to the other images on the panel
Be that as it may, we agree with Holmes that this element does not fit comfortably with either the Foreground or the Background and should be treated as a distinct layer.
The scene on the reverse panel portrays an unidentifiable figure on the left with a bow, possibly shooting an arrow above a roundel border containing a second figure
In the upper right, where Parker (1949:16) saw the “man in the moon” and Keeler and Verrill (1962:32) discerned the “head of a dead, ray-eyed ‘Viking,’” we also see the possibility of a disembodied head, facing left
Perhaps this image is a counterpart to the disembodied leg on the obverse, but it is so crudely incised and surrounded by so many other lines that it is difficult to be sure what it represents.
the reverse panel should be considered a continuation of the three Foreground scenes on the obverse face. The peculiar ways in which the heads, arms, and feet are depicted (as detailed previously) argue for a common artist of the Foreground and reverse scenes.
the storyboard narrative may be continued on the reverse side is probably significant,
previous authors saw the Thruston Tablet as a record of historical events: an “important treaty … or tribal event” (Thruston 1890:91), a “war between the prehistoric Indians at Castalian Springs and some other band” (Myer 1928:100), a “historical event of considerable importance” (Parker 1949:16), and last, but not least, a battle between local Indians and marauding Vikings (Verrill and Keeler 1961).
we believe that much of the representational art from this period relates not to historical events but rather to beliefs about the cosmos and the beings that inhabited otherworldly realms.
“snapshots” of mythic narratives that were widely known throughout eastern North America, some of which survived, perhaps in altered form, into recent times.
Each of the scenes is composed of two males in relation to each other, which immediately suggests a mythic category: the widespread narratives of the Twins.
They seem best read in this sequence: Foreground Group 2—Foreground Group 3(—Reverse Panel?)—Foreground Group 1.
the rayed headdress is interpreted as a solar sign, then Line Face on the right may be identified as closely related to the Sun. The figure on the left may also be related to the Sun, as indicated by the rayed ornament on his chest. If the peculiar multiple arm movements (?) can be taken as greeting or caressing activity (Lankford 1984, 1988), then the scene is one of a meeting between the brothers.
Foreground Group 2 appears to capture at least the spirit of the contrast of the Twins as well as the amity between them.
Foreground Group 3. In order to determine the truth of the boys’ claim that he is their father, the Sun subjects them to some tests. One of the tests is smoking a pipe, a process that will be lethal if they do not possess adequate power.
On the left side Star Eye sits in an enclosure smoking, while on the right Line Face stands arrayed in a peculiar headdress and holds a broken or forked spear, signs that he has already received symbols of his power.
Reverse Panel. Although difficult to read in detail, the roles of Foreground Group 3 appear reversed in this scene. Line Face is now in the enclosure for testing, while his brother stands outside with bow and arrow.
the reverse panel suggests a possible episode coded in these two scenes: the resuscitation of one deceased brother...
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Foreground Group 1. Having survived the tests, the boys have been acknowledged as the Children of the Sun and given weapons befitting their station.
there are enough parallels from other locations to raise the possibility that the Thruston Tablet is a portrayal of stories, characters, and concepts sufficiently well known to have produced multiple attempts at graphic depiction.
An engraved shell from Spiro—the Lightner Cup (Fig. 7.18)—shows a scene that is strikingly parallel to the Thruston Tablet’s Foreground
Foreground Group 3 is composed of a figure in an enclosure on the left separated from a figure on the right by a petaloid staff. That same composition, in a quite different style, is found on a shell engraving from Spiro
The humanlike figure holding a rayed spiral seen in Background Group 2 brings to mind comparable scenes in Hightower-style gorgets from northern Georgia and adjacent parts of Tennessee
The interlace of heads, torso, and fish in Background Group 3 also has parallels elsewhere (Fig. 7.21). Similar bands of heads occur on Braden B shells at Spiro
Another Braden-like band of heads is engraved on a monolithic axe from the Wilbanks site in Georgia
