#turquoiseinlay
LightNews LightNews
patrickkapty.bsky.social
Shell Frog
shell, turquoise inlay, red stone
c. 1100-1300 CE
Hohokam culture
Arizona

#handmade #shell #frogdesign #frog #turquoiseinlay #redstone #water #moisture #ocean #crops #fertility #food #religion #culture #ancientart #art #carving #ritual #traderoutes #prehispanic #precolumbian #shaman
This artifact is a Hohokam shell ornament featuring a turquoise mosaic inlay with a central red stone, typically created between 1100 and 1300 AD. It is a classic example of Prehispanic Southwest artistry, showcasing intricate trade networks that brought Pacific marine shells to Arizona. These items are believed to have served as symbolic references to moisture and water, prized by ancient Hohokam and Mogollon cultures. Trade networks provided both unworked and finished shell artifacts to prehispanic populations in the U.S. Southwest. The Hohokam (c. 500–1400 CE) of southern Arizona were the principal suppliers of shell to other ancient peoples of the region, with the inhabitants of Paquimé—a very large and complex late prehispanic community in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico—later taking over some of this role (after c. 1200 CE). Indigenous peoples in the U.S. Southwest had four distinct sources of shell available to them. Three of these were marine sources: the Pacific Ocean (off the California coast), the Gulf of California, and the Gulf of Mexico. The fourth source consisted of freshwater mollusks found in the region. By far, most of the shell employed in the manufacture of ornaments and other objects came from the sea. There are different patterns of shell-species procurement and shell-artifact manufacture and use associated with other prehispanic groups, such as those referred to as Mogollon (the ancient people of the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico and the Chihuahuan Desert) and Ancestral Pueblo (the ancient people of the Four Corners region of the Colorado Plateau). Archaeologists infer, however, that all marine-shell raw material and most finished objects of shell jewelry made their way to early Mogollon and Ancestral Pueblo communities through exchange networks linked to the Hohokam. Archaeologists believe that late Mogollon and Ancestral Pueblo communities obtained these goods as a result of trade involving the Hohokam and/or the residents of Paquimé.
July 25, 2026 at 4:06 PM