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For thousands of years, the Indians of Florida created exquisite objects from the natural materials available to them--wood, bone, stone,clay, and shell. This stunning full-color book, the first devoted exclusively to the artistic achievements of the Florida aborigines, describes and pictures 116 of these masterpieces. A brief history of the consequences of European infiltration and later investigations by explorers and archaeologists set the stage for consideration of the works themselves. They date from the Paleoindian period (ca. 9500-8000 B.C.) to the mid-16th century and include utilitarian creations, instruments of personal adornment and magic, and objects indicating status, paying homage to ancestors, or aiding the dead in their journey into the next world. Because European explorers took little notice of the adornment of the Florida natives and the people themselves did not survive, no enduring artistic traditions prevail from this early period. This collection, a record of the quality and beauty of native Florida art, includes representative objects in all media used and from all cultural periods, geographic areas, and environmental settings in which the pieces functioned.
ISBN 0-8130-1462-X
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"Barbara A. Purdy has brought the history, color, art, and sophistication of Florida's missing aborigines to our consciousness. Purdy takes us from the pre-Paleoindian period before 9,500 BC through Paleoindian, Archaic, Ceramic, and Historic periods of Florida's early cultures. Each step of the way she documents the introduction of art, adornment, design in tools, cooking ware, hair ornaments, religious icons and burial urns. Photographs of decorated bone, shell, ceramic, wood carvings and paintings of animals, birds, fish and the human form are generously displayed in this book."--Florida Wildlife
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