Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

F. Kent Reilly III is a founding member of the Mississippian Iconography Workshop, who has worked tirelessly to organize these yearly symposia that are often held at the University of Texas at San Marcos. This also entailed convincing and cajoling Mississippian archaeologists with diverse perspectives into attending these conferences and working together. Additionally, Kent has been an extremely productive scholar that has published on various topics related to Olmec, Mississippian, and historic Native American iconographic motifs, themes, and beliefs. His iconographic analyses of prehistoric symbols from Mesoamerica and the southeastern United States have inspired several generations of students, colleagues, and other archaeologists. He has served, as well, as a mentor and advisor that has shepherded students into archaeology and onward into a variety of professional positions. In this symposium, we offer iconographic analyses in Kent’s honor inspired by his work and approach to the prehistoric symbols. Some of the topics that have guided his research include how prehistoric iconographic imagery relate to various ceremonies, dances, cults, bundles, cosmologies, and deities, as well as their relationship to the development/expression of power and difference. These topics serve as guideposts for the archaeologists participating in this symposium and our forays into iconographic imagery.

Other Keywords
Mississippian • Iconography and epigraphy • Iconography and Art • Ritual and Symbolism • Aztec • Maya • Migration • Mortuary Analysis • Landscape Archaeology • Landscape

Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) • United States of America (Country) • Kentucky (State / Territory) • USA (Country) • Delaware (State / Territory) • Georgia (State / Territory) • Mississippi (State / Territory) • Tennessee (State / Territory) • North Carolina (State / Territory) • West Virginia (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Cahokia’s Wandering Supernaturals: What Does It Mean When the Earth Mother Leaves Town (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Steve Boles.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A Cahokia female figurine recovered from Ohio in 1935 was recently brought to light. Although this example is made from limestone, it is identical in all other respects to the Cahokian flint clay suite. Additionally, the limestone was sourced to the St. Louis formation, leaving little doubt as to its...

  • Center Posts, Thunder Symbolism, and Community Organization at Cahokia Mounds, Illinois (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joy Mersmann. J. Grant Stauffer.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. North American and Mesoamerican material cultures exhibit similarities that were mistakenly seen by early diffusionists as evidence for northward migrations that catalyzed social complexity among Mississippian period (AD 1050–1500) cultures. Iconographically, assemblages from both geographic areas highlight...

  • Jade Faces: Heirlooms and Emulations in Olmec and Maya Art (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle Rich. Matthew Robb. David Freidel.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From the colossal heads of the Olmec to the severed head of the Maya Maize God in the Popol Vuh, the head and face have been of singular importance in Mesoamerican art and thought. If the human body is an axis mundi, the head and face give that axis a physical manifestation of individuality. A nexus of...

  • Living Symbols from a Mythic Landscape: An Exegesis of the Apalachee Ballgame Story and Placemaking in Northwest Florida (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jesse Nowak.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dr. Kent F. Reilly and many of the scholars associated with the Mississippian Iconography Workshop have used ethnography and folklore to support interpretations about ritual and cosmology. This talk discusses how ancient landscapes can, in turn, inform folklore, ritual communication, and iconography....

  • Mississippian and Oneota Entanglements: Iconography and Ritual in the Lower Mississippi Valley (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only David Dye.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mississippian and Oneota entanglements were often violent, typically resulting in intercommunity conflict, loss of life, and population displacement. However, Mississippians in the northern Lower Mississippi Valley may have comprised a sufficiently large territorial bloc to have successfully thwarted Oneota...

  • Modeling the Cosmos: Making Sense of "Rim Rider" Effigy Bowl Iconography in the Central Mississippi River Valley (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Madelaine Azar.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Symbolically charged ceramic rim-effigy bowls, characterized by figural head and tail adornments, are hallmarks of the Late Mississippian period in the central Mississippi River valley (CMV). Hundreds of whole rim-effigy bowls, most often depicting serpents, birds, or humans, have been collected at sites...

  • Of Snakes and Masks: A Contextual and Iconographic Study of Ancient Maya Greenstone Mosaic Masks (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Aquino. Juan Carlos Melendez.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We argue that ancient Maya portable mosaic masks, found in high-elite burials across the Maya Lowlands, could have, at some point during the Late Classic period (AD 550–800) and perhaps even earlier, been the ideal insignias of the Kaanul “snake” regime, which in ancient Maya writing is represented by the...

  • Production Matters: Organic Residue and Iconographic Evidence for Late Precolumbian Datura Making in the Central Arkansas River Valley (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Shawn Lambert. Timothy Perttula. Nilesh Gaikwad.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent absorbed residue studies have confirmed that ceramic and shell containers were used for consuming Datura in precolumbian times. Until now, no one has identified what tools precolumbian people used to produce a concentrated hallucinogenic concoction. In this study, we used mass spectrometry to...

  • Sacrifice and the Sun: The Aztec Calendar Stone and Its Origins (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Annabeth Headrick.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While many scholars have suggested that the Aztec sacrificed individuals on the Calendar Stone, this paper will not only explore this aspect but also the object’s affiliation with another form of sacrifice, auto-sacrifice. Using ethnohistoric records, connections between the imagery of the stone and acts of...

  • Symbolic and Iconographic Perspectives on the Burials from Mound 2 at the Hopewell Site (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bretton Giles. Brian Rowe. Ryan Parish.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation explores the significance of the Middle Woodland burials found on the lower floor under Mound 2 at the Hopewell Earthworks, including their grave goods, mortuary furniture, spatial patterning, and postmortem treatment. It investigates how certain aspects of these burials’ ceremonial...

  • Whirlwind of Power: Mississippian Tornado Iconography and Mythology (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Melinda Martin.

    This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mississippian cosmologies were inextricably entangled with the sacred environment and landscape, often materialized through iconographic imagery and motifs. One example of such interwoven relationships may be seen in the imagery of other-than human beings; that is, preternaturals who control and often...