BARS AND BAR-AMULETS
The “Handbook” says a little about these. Mr. A. E. Douglas, of the American Museum, in a pamphlet published some years ago, offered remarks concerning them. I present Figs. 364 to 368 illustrating these. All kinds are shown from the straight bar to the ridged bar, to the highly complicated form shown in Fig. 367. Whether these were worn on the forearm, or tied to the head, or worn across the chest, I am unable to state. All these various uses have been assigned them by other observers.
It will be seen that there are not only straight bars, but bars with the ends slightly enlarged, as specimen number 22 in Fig. 364, and also bars, convex above, and flat underneath. One with a ridge along the back is shown in the lower figure in 365.
The ridged gorgets gradually develop, according to my arrangement, until they terminate in bars, or the series may be traced the other way. Five of these are shown in Fig. 366. However, there is this difference, the bars are perforated or grooved at each end and the ridged gorgets are perforated on either side of the centre.
Fig. 353. (S. 2–3.) All of banded slate. Andover collection. These are the L-shaped or horn-shaped problematical forms, regarding which absolutely nothing is known. Reference to our series of outlines presented in Fig. 292 will indicate that there is gradual progression in this series. The slate bars are slightly curved, forming the dark, L-shaped type shown in the centre of the lower row. I know nothing about these objects.
The remarkable specimen from Iowa presented in Fig. 367 is the most highly developed bar-amulet that I have seen in any collection.
Fig. 360 in the upper right-hand corner is an engraved spool-shaped object of sandstone. Numbers of these have been found in the United States. They are of various sizes and diameters for the most part engraved in various lines, circles, etc. The best of the shorter articles dealing with these was published in The Antiquarian (Columbus, 1897) page 172, and was written by Mr. A. F. Berlin.
Dr. Thomas Wilson in The Swastika, page 975, speaks of these spool-shaped ornaments and draws comparisons between those found in America and foreign countries. Wilson thought that they were bobbins on which thread was wound. They appear to have been highly appreciated by the aborigines, for they are always carefully made and decorated with Maltese and St. Andrews crosses, zig-zag lines, sun symbols, etc.
Fig. 354. (S. 1–1.) Collection of W. F. Matchett, Pierceton, Indiana.
The “Handbook of American Indians,” page 157, contains brief descriptions of boat-stones, written by Gerard Fowke and Professor Holmes. I quote their remarks:—
Fig. 355 is a group of six objects from the Andover collection. (Size 1–2.) These illustrate the type of problematical form, a straight body sloping toward the ends, and running the perforations invariably at right angles to the grain. The two on either side are ordinary crescent-shape. The one at the bottom is a winged type, but is not cut down on either side to bring the wings into review.
Fig. 356. (S. 1–2.) The evolution of the crescent from the rough block of red slate at the top, which has been pecked into shape, down to the completed crescent at the bottom. Phillips Academy collection, Andover. This series, arranged from the Andover collection, is made up of specimens from Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana.
Fig. 357. (S. 1–2.) From the collection of Rev. James Savage, Detroit, Michigan. Three pick-shaped objects, half-size, which are described elsewhere in the text.
Fig. 358. (S. 1–2.) is a highly specialized crescent with flaring ends. It is beautifully worked, highly finished, and was found by Willard H. Davis, near the mouth of the Muskingum River in southern Ohio.
“Prehistoric objects of polished stone having somewhat the shape of a canoe, the use of which is unknown. Some have straight parallel sides and square ends; in others the sides converge to a blunt point. A vertical section cut lengthwise of either is approximately triangular, the long face is more or less hollow, and there is usually a perforation near each end; some have a groove on the outer or convex side, apparently to receive a cord passed through the holes. Sometimes there is a keel-like projection in which this groove is cut. It is surmised that they were employed as charms or talismans and carried about the person. They are found sparingly in most of the states east of the Mississippi River, as well as in Canada. Those in the Northern States are made principally of slate, in the South and West steatite is most common, but other varieties of stone were used. In form some of these objects approach the plummets and are perforated at one end for suspension; others approximate the cones and hemispheres. Analogous objects are found on the Pacific Coast, some of which are manifestly modeled after the native canoe, while others resemble the boat-stones of the East, although often perforated at one end for suspension.”
Fig. 359. (S. 1–1.) Phillips Academy collection. This figure shows an engraved spool in the upper right-hand corner, an L-shaped object below, and a peculiar slate ornament in which an angular opening has been cut. Whether the spool-shaped object should be classed with plummets or in the problematical series, I do not know.
Dr. Thomas Wilson had a theory that these boat-stones were made to ward off evil and that in the hollow of the boat-stone was tied a wooden effigy of a human being; that boat-stone and effigy were put away for a certain length of time, and thus the evil was avoided or the influence of the effigy rendered of no effect.
Fig. 360. (S. 1–2.) Andover collection. An interesting spool-shaped object in the centre, a highly ornamental plummet at the left, all of sandstone; rare slate bead at the right.
Fig. 361. (S. 1–1.) From the collection of A. Setterlun, The Dalles, Oregon.