Length: 4 1/4"

Grade: 10

Description:

🔥 Shell Plummet – Twisted Masterwork of the Early Coastal Peoples 🔥

This extraordinary large Shell Plummet (Pendant) is a true masterpiece of the Woodland era, carved with remarkable precision and exhibiting the rare spiraling, twisted body. Fashioned from a naturally patinated marine shell, its sculpted ridges sweep gracefully from end to end, creating a fluid, helical motion that almost seems alive in the hand.

The symmetry is outstanding—both terminal knobs are clean, balanced, and intentionally shaped, while the mid-body twist displays masterful workmanship characteristic of high-status ornaments or ritual objects. Shell plummets of this form were treasured across the Gulf Coast and inland trade routes, worn as elite pendants or used in ceremonial contexts. The nearby Crystal River’s burial mounds had many similar examples of exotic items from as far away as Michigan. These were traded for shell and were associated with the Adena (1000 BP) and later the Hopewell Culture, natives from the Ohio region and dated from around 80 BC – 125 AD.

Provenance: Found on private property with permission. Hernando Co. Florida.