NOTE.
The following specimen of Iroquois picture writing should have been placed under the article “Onondagas,” where the omission is supplied, by a head from an ancient pipe, hereafter described under the class of relics named Opoaguna. It represents the first Iroquois ruler, under their confederacy, named Atotarho.
VI. RELICS OF ABORIGINAL ART IN WESTERN NEW-YORK.
[Antique insignia, amulets, implements and ornaments.]
It will tend to render the work of antiquarian examination exact, and facilitate comparison, if names descriptive of the general classes and species of each object of archæological inquiry be introduced. No science can advance if the terms and definitions of it be left vague. The mere inception of this design is here announced; it is not proposed, at present, to do more than submit a few specimens from a large number of antiquarian articles, the result of many years’ accumulation. The figures and descriptions introduced are confined exclusively to the geographical area under examination.
To establish the classes of articles, names are introduced from the Indian vocabulary. These are qualified by specific terms, adjective or substantive, from the same class of languages, or from the English; rarely from other sources. A nomenclature derived from such sources, appeared preferable for these simple objects of savage art, to one taken from the ancient languages, whose prerogative it has so long been to furnish terms for science and art.
American Antiquities—Plate I.
Class First. NABIKOAGUNA.[70]
[70] From the Algic, denoting a medal, a breast-plate or collar.
Objects of this kind were worn as marks of honor or rank. So far as known, they were constructed from the most solid and massy parts of the larger sea shells. Few instances of their having been made from other materials, are known, in our latitudes. The ruins and tombs of Central and South America have not been explored, so far as is known, with this view. Nor have any insignia of this character been found of stone.
Nabikoáguna Antique. Fig. 1., [Plate I]. This article is generally found in the form of an exact circle, rarely, a little ovate. It has been ground down and re-polished, apparently, from the sea conch. Its diameter varies from three-fourths of an inch to two inches. Thickness, two-tenths in the centre, thinning out a little towards the edges. It is doubly perforated. It is figured on the face and its reverse, with two parallel latitudinal, and two longitudinal lines crossing in its centre, and dividing the area into four equal parts. Its circumference is marked with an inner circle, corresponding in width to the cardinal parallels. Each division of the circle thus quartered, has five circles with a central dot. The latitudinal and longitudinal bands or fillets, have each four similar circles and dots, and one in its centre, making thirty-seven. The number of these circles varies, however, on various specimens. In the one figured, they are fifty-two. The partial decomposition of the surface renders exactitude in this particular sometimes impossible. This article was first detected, many years ago, in a medal, one and a half inches diameter, found in an ancient grave on the Scioto, in Ohio, and was supposed to be a kind of altered enamel or earthen ware. The structure of the shell is, however, present in all cases, in its centre. Its occurrence, the present year, in the ancient fort grounds and cemeteries of Onondaga, identifies the epochs of the ancient Indian settlements of Ohio and western New-York, and furnishes a hint of the value of these investigations. A medium specimen was examined, in the possession of I. Keeler, jr., Jamesville, very much obliterated; another, of the minimum size, at James Gould’s, Lafayette. The largest specimen seen, is one sent by I. V. V. Clarke, from Pompey and Manlius. The Indians have no traditions of the wearing of this species of shell medal, so far as known. It must be referred to the era preceding the discovery.
Nabikoáguna Iroquois. Fig. 2, annexed. This article consists of a metal, which is apparently an alloy. It is slightly ovate, and is perforated in the rim, so as to have been hung transversely. Its greatest diameter is two and four-tenth inches. There are no traces of European art about it, unless the apparent alloy be such. Locality, valley of Genesee river.
American Antiquities—Plate II.
Nabikoáguna Cameo, Fig. 3, 4. [Plate III]. This well sculptured article, was discovered in the valley of the Kasonda creek, Onondaga county. The material is a compact piece of sea shell. It still possesses, in a considerable degree, the smoothness and lustre of its original finish. Fig. 4 shews the prominence of the features in profile. At the angles of the temples are two small orifices, for suspending it around the neck. The entire article is finished with much skill and delicacy. [Mifflin Gould.]
American Antiquities—Plate III.
Nabikoáguna Mnemonic. Fig. 1, [Plate IV]. This is the head of an infant represented in the fine red pipe-stone from the Missouri. Locality, site of the ancient fort of the Kasonda valley. [I. Keeler, junior.]
American Antiquities—Plate IV.
