The Cherokee have a legend about their encounters with a serpent that lived in the mountains. It goes as follows:  It was called Uktena, and was as large as a tree trunk. It had horns on its head and a bright blazing crest like a diamond on its forehead. It had rings or spots of color along its whole length, and could only be wounded in the seventh spot from its head, because under this spot was its heart and its life. This serpent was so deadly that even to see it asleep was death, not to the hunter himself, but to his family. This legend shows that the serpent was not a patron of the Cherokee, but an enemy to be overcome and destroyed. 

     The engraved shell gorget pictured above is from a site in Floyd Co. Georgia on the Coosa River. It is known by collectors and archaeologist as the "King" site.  It  took a large Whelk shell from the ocean to make this gorget.  It measures 5-1/2 inches across and is larger than the   average size of a gorget from this area. It must have been some accomplishment to have made one of these with  prehistoric tools of bone, stone , and shell. Ocean shell is hard and the tools used to cut and engrave these pieces of art had to be even harder. Some specimens, including this one, seem to have had a black pitch or stain put into the engraved lines. This highlighted the engraving and made it stand out. Most of the time this pitch, or stain, has deteriorated by the actions of minerals in the ground. The individual who wore this gorget had some kind of importance to his village. The rattlesnake emblem could have stood for a position in the village monarchy or was a status symbol. These gorgets were made and used all the way up to the historic period. They are predominately found in prehistoric context, but at least one example was found to also contain Neva Cadiz glass beads, which date to the early  1500's. As with most native manufactured items, the engraved rattlesnake gorget did not survive  the historic period. Pottery making, flint knapping, and the fine art of engraving shell was lost in the transition of the "new world".