CHAPTER X. REMAINS OF ART FOUND IN THE MOUNDS.
The condition of the ordinary arts of life amongst a people capable of constructing the singular and imposing monuments which we have been contemplating, furnishes a prominent and interesting subject of inquiry. The vast amount of labor expended upon these works, and the regularity and design which they exhibit, taken in connection with the circumstances under which they are found, denote a people advanced from the nomadic or radically savage state,—in short, a numerous agricultural people, spread at one time, or slowly migrating, over a vast extent of country, and having established habits, customs, and modes of life. How far this conclusion, for the present hypothetically advanced, is sustained by the character of the minor vestiges of art, of which we shall now speak, remains to be seen.
It has already been remarked, that the mounds are the principal depositories of ancient art, and that in them we must seek for the only authentic remains of the builders. In the observance of a practice almost universal among barbarous or semi-civilized nations, the mound-builders deposited various articles of use and ornament with their dead. They also, under the prescriptions of their religion, or in accordance with customs unknown to us, and to which perhaps no direct analogy is afforded by those of any other people, placed upon their altars numerous ornaments and implements,—probably those most valued by their possessors,—which remain there to this day, attesting at once the religious zeal of the depositors, and their skill in the simpler arts. From these original sources, the illustrations which follow have been chiefly derived.
The necessity of a careful discrimination between the various remains found in the mounds, resulting from the fact that the races succeeding the builders in the occupation of the country often buried their dead in them, has probably been dwelt upon with sufficient force, in another connection. Attention to the conditions under which they are discovered, and to the simple rules which seem to have governed the mound-builders in making their deposits, can hardly fail to fix with great certainty their date and origin.
Thus in the case of the stratified mounds, we well know, if the strata are entire, that whatever deposits are found beneath them were placed there at the period of the construction of the mounds themselves. On the other hand, if they are broken up, it follows with equal certainty that the mound in which the disturbance is observed, has been invaded since its erection.
It will therefore be seen that we have some certain means of determining, aside from the distinctive features of the articles themselves, which of the relics discovered p187 in the mounds pertain to their builders, and which are of a later date. Hence results the importance of knowing the history of those relics which may fall under notice, and the circumstances attending their discovery, in order to feel authorized in drawing conclusions from them. Their true position satisfactorily ascertained, we proceed with confidence to comparisons and deductions, which otherwise, however ingenious and accurate they might appear, would necessarily be invested with painful uncertainty. From want of proper care in this respect, there is no doubt that articles of European origin, which, by a very natural train of events, found their way to the mounds, have been made the basis of speculations concerning the arts of the mound-builders. To this cause we may refer the existence of the popular errors, that the ancient people were acquainted with the uses of iron, and understood the arts of plating, gilding, etc.
Hence, too, the value of systematic investigations, conducted on the spot, if we would aim to throw any certain light upon this branch of inquiry, or do more than excite an ignorant wonder or gratify an idle curiosity.
The general character of this class of remains has already been indicated. They are such only as, from the nature of their material, have been able to resist the general course of decay:—articles of pottery, bone, ivory, shell, stone, and metal. We can, of course, expect to find no traces of instruments or utensils of wood, and but few and doubtful ones at best, of the materials which went to compose articles of dress. Such remains as are found, so far as their purposes are apparent, are classified; the remainder are so arranged as best to facilitate description.