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Native American groups in southeastern North American including American Bottom Mississippians, used a number of other symbols and icons in their religious art. These include the open-eye and forked-eye motifs, and the so-called Long-Nosed God. Although the meaning of these symbols is often unclear, ethnohistorical accounts indicate that the eye represents some sort of portal to see or venture into other worlds, perhaps inhabited by souls.
Open-eye motif carved on chunkey stone,
Vogt site, Monroe County, Illinois.



Image of Long-Nosed God mask.

Ramey-incised pot exhibiting curvilinear swirls thought to be water imagery.


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