Explanations in Iconography

Carol Diaz-Granados is a professional archaeologist and Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St Louis, where she has lectured for 39 years. Her major research focus is American Indian rock art, symbolism, and iconography, and associated oral traditions. Carol has written, edited, or co-edited five books, including Transforming the Landscape: Rock Art and the Mississippian Cosmos (co-edited with Jan Simek, George Sabo, and Mark Wagner, Oxbow Books, 2018). Her 2004 volume, Rock-Art of Eastern North America (co-edited with James R. Duncan) won a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title award.

Contributors

Preface

1. I Thoughts and ideas on how iconography works – a basic primer on how to do iconography

Carol Diaz-Granados

2. SON OF THE SUN: Iconography in rock art and artifacts that reveals important associations between symbolism associated with Dhegiha religion, celestial bodies and Western Mississippian Ideology

James R. Duncan and Carol Diaz-Granados Vestiges of the Birdman at Etowah

Vestiges of the First Man Lineage at Etowah (Georgia)

Adam King

4. The House Between Life and Death: Interpretations About the Organization of Mound 3 at the Lake Jackson Site

J. Grant Stauffer

5. Effigy mounds and rock art of midcontinental North America: Shared iconography, shared stories

Bradley T. Lepper, Robert F. Boszhardt, James R. Duncan, and Carol Diaz-Granados (reprint from North American Archaeologist, with permission)

6. “Paired Figures Confronting a Forked Pole:” So What’s Up with the Forked Pole?

George Sabo III and Alex W. Barker

7. The Hero Twins in the Lower Mississippi Valley

David H. Dye

8. Arguments for the Age of Serpent Mound

Bradley T. Lepper, James R. Duncan, Carol Diaz-Granados, Tod Frolking (reprint from Cambridge Archaeological Journal, with permission)

9. Contextualizing Mississippian Statuary from the Mississippi/Ohio River Confluence

Steven L. Boles

10. The Great Importance of the Great Serpent

James R. Duncan

Index