Wulfing cache
File:Wulfing plate A human headed avian HRoe 2012.jpg
The Wulfing cache, or Malden plates, are eight Mississippian copper plates crafted by peoples of the Mississippian culture. They were discovered in Dunklin County, Missouri in 1906 by Ray Grooms, a farmer, while plowing a field south of Malden.Brose et al 213 The repousséd copper plates were instrumental to archaeologists' developing the concept known as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.
History
File:Mississippian culture repoussé plate making HRoe 2015.jpg
The eight plates are made in the Late Braden style associated with the Cahokia site in western Illinois, the major center of Mississippian culture. They are thought to date to the late 13th or early 14th century.{{Cite web|url=http://kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu/files/spotlightMar10_2.pdf|title=Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum-Spotlight Series March 2010|first=Matthew H.|last=Robb|publisher=Saint Louis Art Museum|access-date=2012-04-19|date=March 2010}} The remains of copper workshops discovered near Mound 34 at Cahokia are so far the only copper workshops found at a Mississippian culture archaeological site.{{ citation| last= Pawlaczyk| first= George| author-link=George Pawlaczyk |url= http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.archaeology/2010-02/msg00225.html|title=Copper men: Archaeologists uncover Stone Age copper workshop near Monk's Mound | date=Feb 16, 2010| access-date=2010-11-08 }} The Wulfing plates depict raptors and bird-human hybrids, with heads ranging from human heads to raptor's heads to double-headed raptors on stylized bird's bodies, with naturalistic bird's claws.Brose et al 164–6 The plates were found buried in a field with no known local platform mounds or village sites. They had been considerably used prior to their burial, as each plate shows multiple episodes of aboriginal repair work, including patch repairs and riveted cracks.{{cite book|title=The Wulfing Plates : Products of Prehistoric Americans|author=Watkins, Virginia D.|year=1950}}
Groomes found the plates while plowing his field a little deeper than normal. When he noticed something reflective glittering in the freshly plowed furrow, he found a few pieces of copper. On further inspection, he found the plates buried at a 45° angle with their tail ends up. The plates were stacked together, and Groomes later stated that there did not seem to be much dirt worked in between them. Groomes sold the plates and within a year they had been acquired by John Max Wulfing, for whom they are now named. Wulfing later gave the plates to Washington University in St. Louis. It in turn loaned them to the Saint Louis Art Museum, where they have been on display for many years.
Individual plates
File:Wulfing plate A head HRoe 01.jpg
File:Emmons mask HRoe 2012.jpg
File:Wulfing plate B HRoe 2013.jpg
File:Wulfing plate C HRoe 2012.jpg
File:Wulfing plate E HRoe 2012.jpg
The eight plates are designated Plates A–H. Except for Plate B, which has two heads, all of the figures face to the right. All of the plates are missing the majority of their tail sections due to being struck by Groomes' plow. Some of the plates show more expertise in artistic design and some of the plates show more proficiency in the production of the basic copper plates. These qualities do not correlate, as some of the more artistically refined designs are on inferior copper plates and some of the better plates have less sophisticated designs. This suggests that the production of the plates and the embossing of the designs was divided between a trained coppersmith, who turned the raw nuggets of copper into plates, and an artistic specialist who did the repoussé work. This division of labor in craftwork is unusual in aboriginal peoples.
=Plate A=
Plate A, the only anthropomorphic human-headed avian plate in the Wulfing cache, measures {{convert|30|cm|in}} in length by {{convert|13.5|cm|in}} in width and weighs {{convert|84|g|oz}}. The human head has the Forked Eye Surround motif, Beaded Forelock, ear-spool, Hand Over Mouth motif, and occipital hair knot associated with the "Birdman" of the Mississippian Art and Ceremonial Complex (M.A.C.C.).{{cite book|title=Sun Circles and Human Hands: The Southeastern Indians Art and Industries|author1=Fundaburk, Emma Lila |author2=Foreman, Mary Douglass Fundaburk |page=86|isbn=978-0817310776|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJpDL9QBcukC&q=Sun+Circles+and+Human+Hands:+The+Southeastern+Indians+Art+and+Industries+wulfing+cache&pg=PA86}} Among Mississippian copper plates, the naturalistic depiction of the human head of Plate A most closely matches the treatment of the human figures of the Etowah Rogan plates. It also has an elaborate headdress with what may be feathers and a smaller agnathous human face with a forked eye surround motif, ear spools, and a distinctive crenelated crown-like device. This face is similar to an artifact found in a burial in Fulton County, Illinois known as the Emmons mask, a copper covered cedar head with galena painted forked eye motifs and the distinctive crenelated device. This wooden head is thought to be an actual headdress piece worn similarly to how it is portrayed on plate A, and even has holes for attaching it to a headdress in this position.
=Plate B=
Plate B is the only two-headed avian of the group, with the heads joined at the neck and looking in opposite directions, one to the right and the other to the left. It measures {{convert|25.1|cm|in}} in length by {{convert|16.1|cm|in}} in width and weighs {{convert|112.3|g|oz}}. Plate B is the only one of the Wulfing cache to have three centrally located ventral spots and two semi-circular spots on either side of the abdomen. Among Mississippian copper plates this double-headed avian most closely resembles the composition of the {{convert|10.5|in|cm}} in length “fighting birds” plate found by Warren K. Moorehead in a burial in Mound C at Etowah.{{cite book|title=Sun Circles and Human Hands: The Southeastern Indians Art and Industries|author1=Fundaburk, Emma Lila |author2=Foreman, Mary Douglass Fundaburk |page=71|isbn=978-0817310776|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJpDL9QBcukC&q=sun+circles+and+human+hands%2Bfighting+eagles&pg=PA71}}
=Plate C=
=Plate D=
Plate D is the only one of the plates to have only one centrally located ventral spot. This may not have been the case when it was originally produced, as a repaired break in the center of the plate seems to have been fixed by omitting the middle section of the plate. The plate measures {{convert|31.2|cm|in}} in length by {{convert|13|cm|in}} in width and weighs {{convert|94.5|g|oz}}.
=Plate E=
=Plate F=
=Plate G=
=Plate H=
Malden style plates
Many similar plates found in other states are now believed to have come from the same workshop, if not the same artist, as the Wulfing cache. The sites of the discovery of these other plates span the midwestern US. They include the Upper Bluff Lake falcon plate from southern Illinois, the Edwards plate from northern Illinois, the Toul Creek plate from Arkansas, the Reed Mound plate from Oklahoma{{Cite journal|journal=Illinois Archaeology|url=http://www.esarey.us/duane/files/SampsonEsar1993MissCopp.pdf|title=A Survey of Elaborate Mississippian Copper Artifacts from Illinois|first1=Kelvin|last1=Sampson|first2=Duane|last2=Esarey|date=1993|volume=5|publisher= Illinois Archaeological Survey}} and the Wilcox plate from west central Florida.{{cite journal|journal=Expedition Magazine|url=http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/43-2/Research%20Notes.pdf|title=The Wilcox copper plate from Florida|author=Mitchem, Jeffrey M.|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology}} They have been grouped together as the "Malden style" for Mississippian copper repoussé avians. Archaeologists speculate that the missing tails of the Malden plates probably looked like the tail of the Upper Bluff Lake plate, whose lower half is mostly intact. The plates also show stylistic links to plates found in burials at Etowah Mounds in Georgia (Etowah plates) and Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma.
File:Wulfing plate F HRoe 2012.jpg|Malden F
File:Reed Mound plate HRoe 2012.jpg|Reed Mound plate from eastern Oklahoma
File:Toul Creek plate HRoe 2012.jpg|Toul Creek plate from northern Arkansas
File:Upper Bluff Lake plate HRoe 2012.jpg|Upper Bluff Lake falcon plate from southern Illinois
File:Wilcox plate HRoe 2012.jpg|Wilcox plate from western Florida
File:Spiro Wulfing and Etowah repousse plates HRoe 2012.jpg|Plates from Malden, Etowah, and Spiro, left hand figure is Malden A
See also
References
;Notes
{{reflist|colwidth=33em}}
;Bibliography
- {{cite book|title=Ancient Art of the American Woodlands Indians|author1=Brose, David S.|author2= James A. Brown|author3=David W. Penney|location=New York|publisher=Harry N. Abrams|year=1985|isbn=0-89558-105-1}}
- {{cite book|title=The Wulfing Plates : Products of Prehistoric Americans|author=Watkins, Virginia D.|year=2010|orig-year=1950|publisher=Gustavs Library|asin=B004618COA}}
External links
- [http://www.museum.state.il.us/RiverWeb/landings/Ambot/prehistory/mississippian/art/nature-wet4.html Mississippian Falcon art]
{{Commons category|Malden style plates}}
{{Mississippian and related cultures}}
{{Pre-Columbian North America}}
Category:Mississippian culture
Category:Native American relics
Category:Native American sculpture