PREHISTORIC COMMERCE IN DAUPHIN ISLAND SHELLS, ESPECIALLY THE LIGHTNING WHELK(BUSYCON perversum)

The use of marine shells by the prehistoric Indians who lived on and visited Dauphin Island is part of a much broader widespread pattern of indigenous trade along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

Images of engraved lightning whelk and gorgets are found on the Internet by searching for "engraved conch shells". The shells are not conchs. They are lightning whelks. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22engraved+conch+shells%22+%22spiro,+oklahoma%22&biw=1024&bih=499&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjLl4LxvbHMAhUI5yYKHcB9CREQ_AUICCgC




"Lightning whelk (Busycon perversum), common rangia (Rangia cuneata), sunray venus (Macrocallista nimbosa), and oyster (Crassostrea virginica) were the species most commonly worked.  These, and occasionally a few other species of bivalves and gastropods, were fashioned into many essential tools:  scrapers, knives, projectile points, net weights, gouges, adzes, hoes, vessels, scoops, containers, fish hooks, barbs, and weaving tools."

"The most useful marine shell of all was the gastropod Busycon perversum [lightning whelk], the largest, most complexly structured, and densest shell.  Tools were fashioned from either the detached outer whorl or the columella (central column) section of the shell.  In some cases, portions of the entire shell are used, such as for containers, bowls, or drinking vessel.

Columella tools include hammers, picks, gouges, chisels, perforators, awls and projectile points.  In most cases the columella and spire are completely removed from the whorl body.  Hammers appear worn on both ends, and are grasped in the middle, while gouges, or chisels, have one steeply beveled edge at the anterior or canal end."

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/coast/nature/images/shell-tools.html


Lightning Whelk is the main raw material for making shell gorgets.

"Lightning whelk (Busycon contrarium) is the most common shell used for gorgets. Other shells, such as the true conch or Strombus, as well as freshwater mussels, are also carved into gorgets.^[3] Today, due to environmental causes, harvested lightning whelks are significantly smaller than in precontact times. These earlier shells typically ranged from 6 to 12 inches in length.^[3]

Harvested off the coasts of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, the shells were traded through the Eastern Woodlands.^[4] This native trade continued into the 16th century.^[5]

Gorgets are carved from the penultimate whorl of the shell.^[6] A blank is cut or broken out, then ground smooth. Holes for suspension and decoration are drilled, sometimes with a bow drills or chert drills.^[3] The gorget forms a concave shape and, when engraved, the interior is polished and decorated.

While most gorgets are circular, some are shaped as rectangles with rounded corners, maskettes, or other novel shapes. An extremely elaborate pendant from Spiro Mounds is shaped as two hands connected by a common beaded bracelet"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_gorget

Indians wanted the lightning whelk as the cup from which to drink their BLACK DRINK.


"In historic accounts from the 16th and 17th century, black drink is usually imbibed in rituals using a cup made of marine shell. Three main species of marine shells have been identified as being used as cups for the black drink, lightning whelk, emperor helmet, and the horse conch. The most common was the lightning whelk, which has a left-handed or sinistral spiral. The left-handed spiral may have held religious significance because of its association with dance and ritual. The center columnella, which runs longitudinally down the shell, would be removed, and the rough edges sanded down to make a dipper like cup. The columnella would then be used as a pendant, a motif that shows up frequently in Southeastern Ceremonial Complexdesigns. In the archaeological record columnella pendants are usually found in conjunction with bi-lobed arrows, stone maces, earspools, and necklace beads(all of which are motifs identified with the falcon dancer/warrior/chunkey player mythological figure).^[12] Artifacts made from these marine shells have been found as far north as Wisconsin and as far west as Oklahoma. Several examples of cups from Moundville and Spiro have been found to have rings of black residue in the bottoms, suggesting they were used for black drink rituals. Many examples of shell cups found in Mississippian culture mounds are engraved with S.E.C.C. imagery. A few examples portray what is theorized to be black drink rituals, including what some anthropologists have interpreted as vomit issuing from the mouths of mythological beings"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_drink