Adena Mounds of Kentucky
Stone Tablet. The Gaitskill stone tablet
recovered from the Gaitskill mound in Montgomery County, Kentucky is one of
the best known iconographically elaborated artifacts from an Adena site.
This tablet, the Gaitskill clay tablet, and the Wright tablet were all
recovered from this one area of Kentucky. The Gaitskill stone tablet is
about 9.2 cm on one side by 8.1 cm along the longest side, and 1.6 cm
thick. The carefully made image is carved on one side only, with the
obverse possibly being used as grindstone or sharpening stone. The image is
interpreted to represent a spider, although as is common in Adena
iconography, there also appears to be a visual pun, in that the back of the
spider is also a human face. Such visual puns, and plays on shapes to
produce different or complex readings of the same image occur on all the
carved Adena tablets. This specimen was retrieved in the 1920s from a mound
in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, which is otherwise undocumented. The image is
carved intaglio, that is, excess material is removed to leave the shape as a
raised area on the tablet. Although commonly interpreted as a spider, it is
not anatomically correct, having three sets of paired "legs" on either side
of the central body. An alternative interpretation of the image is that the
"face" on the spider body may represent a death's head, as the eyes lack
pupils, and are represented by wide, empty circles, and the mouth is
indicated by pointed (filed?) teeth. An extension from the forehead or
forelock to form a nasal opening is also represented. The image may
represented a decorated skull, with some or all of the "legs" representing
copper or mica crescents attached as a headdress. However, the tablet is
clearly not intended as a representational image.
By James Fenton and
Richard Jefferies.
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