Nine Lives of Florida's Famous Key Marco Cat
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A01=Austin J. Bell
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archaeological artifact
Author_Austin J. Bell
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Calusa
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBG
Category=HD
Category=JHMC
Category=NHB
Category=NK
cats in art
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
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eq_history
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eq_non-fiction
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Florida History
Frank Hamilton Cushing
Key Marco Cat
Language_English
Marco Island
material culture
Microhistory
Native American Art
Native American Studies
PA=Available
Panther
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
softlaunch
wetsite archaeology
Product details
- ISBN 9780813066998
- Weight: 509g
- Dimensions: 149 x 231mm
- Publication Date: 21 Sep 2021
- Publisher: University Press of Florida
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Secrets of an iconic artifact
Excavated from a waterlogged archaeological site on the shores of subtropical Florida by legendary anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing in 1896, the Key Marco Cat has become a modern icon of heritage, history, and local identity. This book takes readers into the deep past of the artifact and the Native American society in which it was created.
Austin Bell explores nine periods in the life of the six-inch-high wooden carving, beginning with how it was sculpted with shell and shark-tooth tools and what it may have represented to the ancient Calusa—perhaps a human-panther god. Preserved in the muck for centuries on Marco Island and discovered in pristine condition due to its oxygen-free environment, the Cat has since traveled more than 12,000 miles and has been viewed by millions of people. It is one of the Smithsonian Institution's most irreplaceable items. In this fascinating account, Bell traces the clues to the Cat's mysterious origins that have emerged in its later lives.
Captivating readers with the miracle and beauty of this rare example of pre-Columbian art, Bell marvels at how an object originally understood to hold cosmological power has indeed transformed the people and places around it. The Nine Lives of Florida's Famous Key Marco Cat is the story of a timeless masterpiece of staggering simplicity that has prevailed over impossibly long odds.
Excavated from a waterlogged archaeological site on the shores of subtropical Florida by legendary anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing in 1896, the Key Marco Cat has become a modern icon of heritage, history, and local identity. This book takes readers into the deep past of the artifact and the Native American society in which it was created.
Austin Bell explores nine periods in the life of the six-inch-high wooden carving, beginning with how it was sculpted with shell and shark-tooth tools and what it may have represented to the ancient Calusa—perhaps a human-panther god. Preserved in the muck for centuries on Marco Island and discovered in pristine condition due to its oxygen-free environment, the Cat has since traveled more than 12,000 miles and has been viewed by millions of people. It is one of the Smithsonian Institution's most irreplaceable items. In this fascinating account, Bell traces the clues to the Cat's mysterious origins that have emerged in its later lives.
Captivating readers with the miracle and beauty of this rare example of pre-Columbian art, Bell marvels at how an object originally understood to hold cosmological power has indeed transformed the people and places around it. The Nine Lives of Florida's Famous Key Marco Cat is the story of a timeless masterpiece of staggering simplicity that has prevailed over impossibly long odds.
Austin J. Bell is curator of collections for the Marco Island Historical Society and a consulting scholar at the Penn Museum. He is the author of Marco Island.
