The Cuddlywumps Cat Chronicles: The Story of the Key Marco Cat

Thursday, June 21, 2018

The Story of the Key Marco Cat

The Key Marco Cat.

Artifact Catalogue No. A240915, Department of Anthropology, NMNH, Smithsonian Institution.

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Have you ever heard of the Key Marco Cat? Chances are you may have seen an image of this famous Florida artifact, even if you didn’t know what it was. The Key Marco Cat is a human/feline figurine about six inches high. It was carved from buttonwood by an artisan of the Calusa culture. According to notes from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the figure is dated to AD 1400–1500 or AD 700–1500.

Where is Key Marco and who were the Calusa?

Key Marco is the name of an archaeological site near Marco Island, a city on Florida’s southwest coast. According to the city’s official website, the Calusa people arrived in Florida “at least 4,000 years ago” (or about 2,000 BC). Besides being a “tall, handsome people … known for their fierce and warlike nature,” they were skilled woodworkers, as evidenced by the artifacts that were found in an 1896 excavation.

The Calusa lived on shell mounds and in huts raised above the water. They weren’t welcoming toward European explorers, and in 1521, an expedition led by Ponce de Leon landed in the area and was attacked by Calusa warriors. Ponce de Leon was wounded in the thigh (by a spear or poison arrow—accounts vary) and later died in Cuba.

The Calusa themselves were wiped out by diseases brought by Europeans.

The area of Florida where the
Calusa lived.
By Bryan Strome (www.firstnationseeker.ca)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The Key Marco Cat

The 1896 excavation we mentioned was the Pepper-Hearst Expedition, led by an anthropologist named Frank Hamilton Cushing (the expedition was named for its sponsors, Dr. William Pepper and philanthropist Phoebe Hearst). Cushing excavated at a small muck pond he called the Court of the Pile Dwellers. There he found the remains of buildings, woven mats, pottery, utensils such as spoons, and carved masks and figures, including an alligator head, a deer head, and of course the now-famous cat. Many of the wooden objects had still-vivid paint colors when they were first brought out of the wet conditions that had preserved them. But this was before archaeologists had good conservation techniques for wooden objects, and the painted colors soon faded.

The Key Marco Cat is a kneeling figure that appears to be half-human and half-feline. The feline part has been called a cougar or mountain lion, but it seems more likely (to us at least) that it was based on the mountain lion subspecies known as the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi). It was carved with shell scrapers and a shark’s tooth and was then “rubbed with a protective layer of animal fat,” (Smithsonian NMNH).

Interestingly, some Native peoples of the North American Southeast have oral histories of underwater panthers who rule the lower world and thunderbirds who rule the upper world. Could the Key Marco Cat be a representation of one of these underwater panthers? That is a question that may never be answered for certain. The figure is believed to have had religious significance to the Calusa, though.

Where the cat is now and where it’s going

1989 US Airmail stamp of the Key Marco Cat

This 1989 US Airmail stamp featured
the Key Marco Cat.
Copyright United States Postal Service.
All rights reserved,

The Key Marco Cat is now at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. But later this year, the figure is expected to return to Marco Island along with several other artifacts for “an extended visit” (Naples Daily News) to the Marco Island Historical Museum. The cat will be featured at a grand opening in January 2019.

Meanwhile, in the absence of the actual artifact, the museum has displayed a reproduction by artist Peter Sottong. It will be nice to see the Key Marco Cat go home, even if only temporarily.