Engraved Shell
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1891
name: label: Donor Name
content: Mrs. Bessie D. Spencer
notes: label: Notes
content: The so-called Holly Oak shell or pendant. A shaped piece of marine whelk (Busycon sinistrum) shell with two holes drilled in one end that bears an incised depiction of an extinct proboscidean (woolly mammoth or mastodon.) From card: "From Peat and Fallen Forrest Layer, 1864. Part of the Spencer Collection. Proce., Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist., vol. 24, p. 469. Brief descrip. by T. Wilson in U.S.N.M. Rep. for 1896, p. 381. Pub. Science, May 21, 1976. Vol. 192 #4241. p. 756 - 761. See: American Antiquity, 53(3), 1988, pp. 578-582 where object is identified as a modern forgery [article includes photo and drawing of the shell and its decoration]. Additional info. in Lab Acc. file." [Includes a copy of the American Antiquity article.]
label: Record Last Modified
content: 15 Jul 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: New Castle County, Delaware, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Archaeology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 024695
label: USNM Number
content: A148313-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Shell Modified
physicalDescription: label: Width - Object
content: 12.4 cm
label: Height - Object
content: 6.99 cm