Category: Gorget

  • Red Horn (Hešucka) aka He Who Wears (Man) Faces on His Ears and Big Boy…and Werebirds

    Red Horn (Hešucka) aka He Who Wears (Man) Faces on His Ears and Big Boy…and Werebirds

    Red Horn is a culture hero in Siouan oral traditions, specifically of the Ioway and Hocąk (Winnebago) nations. He has different names. Only in Hocąk literature is he known as “Red Horn” (Hešucka), but among the Ioway and Hocągara both, he is known by one of his variant names, “He Who Wears (Man) Faces on His Ears”. This name derives from the living faces on…

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  • Gorget (bird)

    Gorget (bird)

    A gorget is a patch of colored feathers found on the throat or upper breast of some species of birds. It is a feature found on many male hummingbirds, particularly those found in North America; these gorgets are typically iridescent. Other species, such as the purple-throated fruitcrow and chukar partridge, also show the feature. The term is derived from the gorget used in military armor to protect the throat. Feather…

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  • Gorget patches are an insignia in the form of paired patches of cloth or metal on the collar of a uniform…just about everywhere

    Gorget patches are an insignia in the form of paired patches of cloth or metal on the collar of a uniform…just about everywhere

    Gorget patches (collar tabs, collar patches) are an insignia in the form of paired patches of cloth or metal on the collar of a uniform (gorget), used in the military and civil service in some countries. Collar tabs sign the military rank (group of ranks), the rank of civil service, the military unit, the office (department) or the branch of the armed forces and the arm of…

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  • Gorget, from the French gorge meaning throat

    Gorget, from the French gorge meaning throat

    A gorget, from the French gorge meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman’s neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the throat, a set of pieces of plate armour, or a single piece of plate armour hanging from the neck and covering the throat and chest. Later, particularly from…

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  • Long-nosed god maskettes are artifacts made from bone, copper and marine shells

    Long-nosed god maskettes are artifacts made from bone, copper and marine shells

    Long-nosed god maskettes are artifacts made from bone, copper and marine shells (Lightning whelk) associated with the Mississippian culture (800 to 1600 CE) and found in archaeological sites in the Midwestern United States and the Southeastern United States. They are small shield-shaped faces with squared-off foreheads, circular eyes, and large noses of various lengths. They are often shown on Southeastern Ceremonial Complex representations of falcon impersonators as ear ornaments. Long…

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  • Shell gorgets 

    Shell gorgets 

    Shell gorgets are a Native American art form of polished, carved shell pendants worn around the neck. The gorgets are frequently engraved, and are sometimes highlighted with pigments, or fenestrated (pierced with openings). Shell gorgets were most common in Eastern Woodlands of the United States, during the Hopewell tradition (200 BCE– 500 CE) and Mississippian cultural period (ca. 800–1500 CE); however, tribes from other regions and time periods…

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  • Castalian Spring

    Castalian Spring

    The Castalian Spring, in the ravine between the Phaedriades at Delphi, is where all visitors to Delphi — the contestants in the Pythian Games, and especially pilgrims who came to consult the Delphic Oracle — stopped to wash themselves and quench their thirst; it is also here that the Pythia and the priests cleansed themselves before the oracle-giving process. Finally Roman poets regarded it…

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