Serpent Knot
18" in height X 10 " in diameter
This design on different pieces of pottery has placed 2nd in the non-traditional category at the 1998 Red Earth Festival, Chairman's Choice Award at the 1998 Creek Council House show in Okmulgee, OK, an Honorable Mention at the 1999 Tulsa Indian Art Festival and the pictured piece won a Merit Award at the 2003 Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City. This design, consisting of a pair of snakes with two heads each and no tails, was a popular theme in the late Southeastern Mississippian Period art. They are described as an amphisbaena, meaning fabled serpents with heads on each end of their bodies which can be moving in either direction at any time. Such designs have also been found in Peruvian archeological studies in South America. The knot portrayed by the snakes' twisted bodies is known as a double-carrack bend which also strongly resembles designs of Celtic origin. Snakes were an important spiritual and ceremonial symbol of the Southeastern Indian culture. The Serpent Knot design was found on engraved shell fragments from the Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma. Because of my Cherokee and Celtic background this particular design means a great deal to me.