Comment

Comment by Ray Osborne on August 12, 2008 at 10:29am

Impression by native archaeologist.

"This appears to have been made from a Spanish Reale coin, as the cross is still visible. I have seen this same basic design used by tribes far to the North of Florida. This design mimics a game that was played by most of the tribes in North America, basically called crossing the river. It was sort of a board game, usually played on the ground for fun by children, and attended with gambling when played by adults. There were several die that resembled domino pieces, being rectanglar with several different designs on them that represented the moves the player could make that went with the game and controlled the movement of the pieces along the paths, and crossing four bodies of water to arrive back at their original starting point. The first one to arrive back at their starting point won the game. The cross can represent the four cardinal directions, and bodies of water, the four corners of the background square would represent paths. I would say that this would be a personal good luck piece that would signify always being able to find one's way back home safely. Thats just my own take on this artifact."