Arkansas plates A number of plates have been found in various sites in eastern
Arkansas. At least three of the Arkansas examples (Rose Mound, Scott Place, and Clay Hill) and two others (a found in a
Dallas phase burial at the
Henry Farm Site (40 LO 53) in
Loudon County, Tennessee in 1975 and a specimen unexamined by archaeologists thought to come either from the
Neeley's Ferry (3 CS 24) or Rose Mound sites in Cross County) have stylistic similarities that indicate they may have all been made by the same artist. Four of the five were found in the
St. Francis River Valley area of Arkansas. Researchers think the five plates may represent a composite creature that is part snake and part hawk as the shape of the tail feathers resemble a rattlesnakes' rattle or that the design may represent a hawk in the act of swallowing a snake. A copper plate found at the
Clay Hill Site (3 LE 11) in
Lee County, Arkansas has the same chest region design and long narrow shape and distinctive tail feathers as the Scott Site and Rose Mound examples. Although fragmented it is approximately in length. It was recorded to be in a private collection in 1978 but has not been seen since. The plate was found in an
Armorel Phase burial that also contained a
Clarksdale bell, an item of European manufacture that is a hallmark of the 1541
Hernando de Soto excursion through the southeast. This does not date the era for the production of the plate though as such items were often kept as heirlooms for long periods, even many generations, before they ended up becoming
grave goods. Other plates were found by
Warren K. Moorehead at the Etowah site in excavations during the mid-1920s. The other plates are in a slightly different style and indicate that local artisans had begun production of their own copper plates in emulation of the Braden style. These plates, along with artifacts from Spiro and
Moundville were instrumental in the development of the archaeological concept of the S.E.C.C.
Florida plates Although at the periphery of the Mississippian world, Florida has been the site of the discovery of many S.E.C.C. associated copper artworks. Archaeologists believe that this is because of the
busycon shell trade, the shells being a valuable ritual and high status trade good to Mississippian elites. It has even been proposed that the
Fort Walton culture founders of the
Lake Jackson Mounds site moved east and founded the settlement in approximately 1100 CE to strategically position themselves in this trade network. Lake Jackson trade for copper pieces seems to have taken place almost exclusively with the Etowah polity of north central Georgia. When Mound 3 at the site was excavated it yielded fourteen copper plates, deposited in the burial mound sometime between 1300—1500 CE. The so-called "Copper Solar Ogee Deity," a high repoussé copper plate, depicts the profile of a dancing winged figure, wielding a ceremonial mace in its right hand and a severed head in the left. The extended, curling nose resembles a
proboscis and resembles another S.E.C.C. motif, the long-nosed god maskette. The figures elaborate headdress includes a bi-lobed arrow motif and, at the top of the plate, an ogee motif surrounded by a chambered circle. Some art historians have argued that this plate and one of the Rogan plates may represent a female or "Birdwoman" because the breast on the figure protrudes slightly more than it does on other examples, while others have argued that the plate may represent a
third gender or "
two-spirit" tradition. After the collapse of the Etowah polity in approximately 1375, trade continued for the Lake Jackson peoples, albeit now with peoples located in the northern Georgia and eastern Tennessee area. No longer able to get the elaborate copper plates from Etowah, a local style developed, producing a new style of such as that depicted on the "Elder Birdman" plate, thought to represent the merger of the Birdman corpus with a local solar deity. wearing embossed metal gorgets ca. 1562 A little further down the Atlantic coast was the
Mount Royal Mound (8 PU 35), a site occupied on and off since 4000 BCE, and during the historic period a
Timucua settlement. Construction of the mound at Mount Royal, began in approximately 1050 CE. In 1893 and 1894,
Clarence Bloomfield Moore excavated the mound. Among the copper ornaments he disinterred, Moore discovered a copper breast-place with a "forked eye and blade image", and another plate with concentric circles and lines. The first plate was almost square and the second plate was square. Located in central Florida, the
Old Okahumpka Site (8 LA 57) is a now destroyed burial mound in
Lake County, Florida near the modern town of
Okahumpka. The site was excavated by Clarence B. Moore in the 1890s. During his excavation he found a burial associated plate measuring wide by in length and depicting the lower portion of a dancing figure wearing a sash, kilt, cuffed
moccasins, and holding a knife. The design is almost identical to two examples known from Spiro and a site in
Jackson County, Alabama, although of the three it is the only one to show a figure wielding a knife. Archaeologists estimate the plate was deposited in the mound sometime between 1100 and 1300 CE. The plate is now part of the collection of the
National Museum of the American Indian. From an unknown location on the west coast of central Florida comes the Wilcox plate, a partial avian themed copper plate showing the middle section details of scalloped wings, tail feathers and a raptors leg and claw in the Malden style very similar to the Wulfing plates. It was discovered somewhere near
Waldo, Florida in
Levy County in the 1880s, where it was purchased from a local doctor by
Joseph Wilcox for the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. It has been part of the collection of the
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology since the mid-1930s.
Illinois plates Outside of Cahokia, Illinois has seen the discovery of many Mississippian culture copper items including copper maces, ear spools, several avian plates, a wooden copper covered mask (known as the
Emmons mask), and headdress pieces. Three copper plates have been found, one of them been identified as being from the same workshop as the Wulfing plates and others as having stylistic similarities with the Wulfing, Spiro and Etowah plates. on the shore of
Peoria Lake. It is a by copper plate depicting a naturalistic
peregrine falcon. It is part of the collection of the
National Museum of Natural History, but it is on long-term loan to the
Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences in
Peoria, Illinois where it is on display. The Upper Bluff Lake plates are two plates found at the
Saddle Site (11U284) in
Union County, Illinois in the 1880s, in the same stone box grave. One of the plates is avian themed and the other a unique double birdman design, but still within the corpus of the S.E.C.C. The Upper Bluff Lake falcon plate is a by avian themed Wulfing style plate. It has a mostly intact tail, which the Malden plates do not, and has helped archaeologists understand what the tails of the other pieces would have looked like. Both the plates date from 1100 to 1300 CE. Both of the Upper Bluff Lake plates are now in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History. The eight plates, made in the Late Braden style associated with Cahokia, are thought to date to the late 13th or early 14th century. The plates were found buried in a field with no known local mounds or village sites. They had been considerably used prior to their burial, as each plates shows multiple episodes of aboriginal repair work including patch repairs and riveted cracks. The plate measures by . Another of the plates is the avian themed "naturalistic hawk cutout", which measures in width. The plate shows stylistic similarities with the Wulfing plates. Some of the other repoussé copper pieces found include eight examples of copper "feathers" that were worn as hair ornaments.
Other locations Besides the Spiro site, four other plates have been found during excavations at Caddoan Mississippian sites. The
Reed Mound in Oklahoma produced a fragmentary Malden style plate thought to be from the same workshop as the Wulfing set. and are similar to the Mount Royal plates from Florida. A matching pair of large thin sheet copper cutout human hands were also found at Gahagan. Two plates were found in a
Plaquemine culture site in Mississippi. Three fragments of a repoussé plate with an avian design were found in a burial in the
Mangum Mound Site in
Claiborne County, Mississippi in 1936 by a farmer who owned the site. When pieced together the plate was about in width and weighed a total of . The plate had been reinforced and riveted in several places to protect weak spots in the metal. The Mangum plates stylistically resemble the Rogan plates from Etowah. ==Other copper items==