The stone age in North America, vol. 2 of 2

by Warren K. Moorehead

MORTARS AND PESTLES

Classification of mortars and pestles.

Mortars. (a) Oval or circular. (Figs. 501–02.) (b) Angular or squared (metates). (Figs. 415–16.) (c) Pointed. (Fig. 511, top row.) Pestles. (a) Elongated, plain. (Fig. 517.) (b) Elongated, ridged or ornamented. (Figs. 513–14.) (c) Bell-shaped. (Fig. 503.) (d) With flat surfaces (mano-stones). (Fig. 515.)

There grew in North America, at the time of its discovery by Columbus, a profusion of seeds, nuts, and roots of various kinds, developing according to climate from northern Canada to southern Arizona. Man found these a valuable addition to his food-supply, and he made use of many of them that we of to-day should consider unpalatable. He procured shell-fish of various kinds both salt and fresh water; he knew the properties of many roots, bulbs, barks, and other plants. With the exception of such molluscs as he ate, and his fresh meat, the greater bulk of his food-supply was in the form of kernels, or grains, or bulbs, or nuts, which must needs be reduced to meal, or stripped of husks, or cracked and broken. To convert the raw food into palatable flour, he used both wooden and stone pestles in flat, oval, or round mortars, the form varying in different parts of the country.

In 1895, the American Antiquarian Society published “The Food of Certain American Indians and Their Method of Preparing It,” by Professor Lucien Carr. Mr. Carr was long Assistant Curator of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, and his research into historic Indian affairs is well known. I quote a few paragraphs from Mr. Carr:—

Fig. 501. (S. 1–8.) From the collection of Solon McCoy, Mountain Home, Idaho.

“Speaking in a general way, the old chronicler was not far wrong when he told us that the Indian ‘lived on what he got by hunting, fishing, and cultivating the soil.’ Unquestionably, he derived the bulk of his food from these sources, though there were times, and unfortunately they were somewhat frequent, when he was glad to fill out his bill of fare with the fruits, nuts, and edible roots and grasses with which a bountiful Nature supplied him. Dividing all these different articles according to their nature and origin, and beginning with those the production of which is believed to indicate racial progress, we find that corn, beans, and pumpkins were cultivated wherever, within the limits of the United States, they could be grown to advantage. Of these corn was by far the most important; and as it seems to have been the main dependence of all the tribes that lived south of the St. Lawrence and east of the tier of states that line the west bank of the Mississippi, and as the manner of cultivating it and the different ways of cooking it were practically the same everywhere and at all times, we shall confine our remarks to it and to the Indians living within these limits, merely premising that much of what is said about it will apply to ‘its sisters,’ as beans and squashes were lovingly termed by the Iroquois.

Fig. 502. (S. 1–3.) Ordinary mortar. Collection of Frank L. Grove, Delaware, Ohio.

“And here, at the outset of our investigation, we are met by the fact that modern research has failed to throw a positive light upon the question of its origin. That it was indigenous to America is generally believed, and so, also, the statement that it was first cultivated at some point between the tropics is accepted. Beyond this we have not been able to go; and without entering into a discussion of the subject, it is probably safe to assume that this is as near the truth as we can hope to get. However, be this as it may, there seems to be no doubt that its domestication took place ages ago, for in no other way is it thought possible to account for the vast extent of country over which its use had spread, and for the number of varieties to which it had given rise. Take our own country, for example, and when the whites first landed here, there were found growing, within certain limited areas, a number of different kinds, distinguished one from another, by the length of time they took to ripen, by the size of the ear, by the shape and hardness of the grain, and by the color, though this is said to be accidental.

Fig. 503. (S. 1–4.) Pestles, Class “C.” Collection of J. A. Rayner, Piqua, Ohio.

Fig. 504. (S. 1–5.) Collection of W. A. Holmes, Chicago, Illinois.

“In addition to these, which were known to the whites as hominy corn, bread corn, and six-weeks corn, there was still another sort, called by the French blé fleuri, and by ourselves popcorn, of which the Indians were very fond, and which they served up to those of their guests whom they wished to honor. With so many kinds, and planting them at different times during the spring and early summer, they not only had successive crops, which they ate green as long as the season lasted, but they also raised enough for winter use, and, not unfrequently, had some to spare to their needy neighbors, white as well as red. Indeed, their pedlers made long trips for the purpose of exchanging their surplus corn for skins and anything else that they needed; and but for the supplies which the Pilgrim fathers, and we may add the settlers at Jamestown and New Orleans, ‘obtained from the Indians willingly or through force,’ it is probable, as a recent writer suggests,’that there would have been but few if any of their descendants left to write their histories and sing their praises.’”

The cultivation of corn in the United States was widespread. De Soto, Coronado, and other early explorers in their wanderings, as well as our military expeditions of the French and Indian War, the wars of the Revolution and of 1812, found large corn-fields wherever the Indian population was thickest.

In addition to corn, which is placed first, the Indians gathered wild rice in the North and koonti and tuckahoe in the South. Of these roots, it is stated: “It grew like a flagge, in the marshes, and when made into bread had the ‘taste of potatoes.’” There were also great stores of dried meat and fish put up in every village, quantities of maple sugar, squashes, beans, pumpkins, and an endless variety of roots and nuts.

We now know that there are seventeen separate foods for which civilization is indebted to the Indian.

Fig. 504 A. (S. 1–4.) From the collection of B. H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky. Rare forms of pestles from the Cumberland and Tennessee valleys.

What we should consider the simplest form of mortar is a question. Of course, the mortar, rather than the pestle, is the essential thing. Man must have something in which to grind or crush his food, and it did not matter to him whether the receptacle was wood, stone, or leather so long as it served the purpose, and it was of no consequence to him whether his pestle was a round stone, an oval, an elongated pestle or bell-shaped, or a flat mano stone. What he wished to accomplish, the reduction of grains or nuts or chunks of dried beef to flour, was of primary importance, and the agencies employed to obtain this result were secondary. Of course, he may have used elaborately ornamented and artistically worked pestles and mortars in the preparation of sacred meal; as to that I do not know. What I am talking about now is the common form of mortar and pestle.

Fig. 505. (S. 1–4.) Cast of a steatite bowl. Found near Lynn. Collection of Salem Museum. Salem, Massachusetts.

Wooden mortars, as well as wooden bowls, existed in many portions of the country. There are abundant historical references to these, and readers are referred to the Bibliography in this instance as in others. The natives smoothed the surface of a fallen tree-trunk, or the top of a stump, and, by constant friction of either stone or wooden pestle, soon wore out a mortar cavity. They also selected glacial boulders, convenient points of bluffs, ledges, etc., in various parts of the country, and worked out stationary mortars. These have been found in at least a hundred places in the United States. Aside from the stationary mortars, there were many small flat stones, and some large stones of convenient size on which grinding is evident for a considerable length of time, and as a result a depression varying from a few inches to a foot or more in depth occurs.

Paint stones are simply small mortars. Sometimes they are highly polished and well worked out, but usually they are rude and may be classed as small mortars, as they are receptacles for grinding. Fig. 501, from the collection of Mr. Solon McCoy of Mountain Home, Idaho, illustrates seven short pestles and seven small mortars, size one eighth, such as are common in the Southwest and not infrequent in most portions of the East. This illustration may stand as typical for all such forms in the United States. The pestles used in them were more properly rubbing-stones; the end is slightly flattened, more often they are round at either end. Great numbers of short oval pestles occur in the New England States, and the South. Fig. 504, from Mr. Holmes’s collection, illustrates three stone pestles; the one to the left may have come from any one of a dozen states, as the form is the same everywhere; to the right, the typical bell-shaped pestles of the Ohio Valley. In the centre, the pestle is bell-shaped, short, and has been highly polished, and there is a prominent depression in the centre.

Fig. 503, from the collection of Mr. J. A. Rayner, pictures fifteen pestles; all save four of the bell-shaped variety. The one at the top, the centre, is an ordinary cone, to the right of that, a pestle with two grinding surfaces, one at either end, which is rare. In the centre are two long, slightly curved objects which may be pestles or rollers used in preparing clay for the making of pottery. The variation in the bell pestle is from an ordinary plain form to that having a narrow top and an unusually broad, flat base. The pestles shown at the right in Fig. 514 are highly specialized forms from the Northwest. There are similar types in the Ohio Valley, as shown in Fig. 504 A, Colonel Young’s collection. But as a rule the natives of the Mississippi Valley paid little attention to artistic development of domestic tools, such as pestles and mortars. Fig. 502 is the ordinary large stone mortar common in the eastern United States. It ranges from a small paint-cup in which a muller no larger than one’s thumb was worked, to stationary mortars in glacial boulders, so large that they cannot be moved. Fig. 507 presents three mortars of lava, and some flat mortars of trap rock. These are from Mr. G. B. Abbott’s collection, Corning, California. The stones used on these are flat, or oval water-worn stones and not finished, like mano stones common to the Cliff-Dweller country.

Fig. 506. (S. 1–4.) Soapstone dish. From the Peabody Museum collection, Salem, Massachusetts.

Fig. 507. (S. 1–9.) From the collection of G. B. Abbott, Corning, California.

In the East and the South we have steatite or soapstone mortars, cooking-pots, dishes, bowls, and sometimes dippers. Most of the larger museums have examples of these and particularly in highly finished stone dishes. Fig. 505 is a large, thin stone dish from the Peabody Museum, Salem, which was found near Lynn. Fig. 508 presents four soapstone dishes, two of them dipper-like in form. The three upper ones are finished and polished, while the lower specimen has been pecked into shape but not polished.

Fig. 508. (S. about 1–5.) Soapstone bowls. Collection of Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The quarries from which these dishes are obtained are found in New England, in the Potomac region, and in the South. Professor Holmes made them the subject of study. It seems that the natives worked around the mass they wished to remove and shaped it in situ, cutting a deep trench entirely around it, and when the dish had been brought into high relief, they cut away the narrow base and removed it. Numbers of unfinished dishes in position in the original ledge have been reported.

Fig. 509. (S. 1–6.) A portion of the collection of J. G. Crawford, Albany, Oregon. The peculiar objects above the central mortar are interesting. Similar ones have been found in the far Northwest. The purpose of such is at present a mystery. These were found in various portions of Oregon, not far above the mouth of the Columbia River.

Widespread as was the use of steatite in the East for mortars and dishes and of harder materials for mortars in which heavy grinding was to be done, it is in the Southwest, California, and the Rocky Mountains where more millstones are found than elsewhere in the United States. The Southwestern metate (see Fig. 515) is well known to students of archæology. All the museums have on exhibition hundreds of these, and we have in our museum at Andover, a hundred or more of them. They vary from small slabs, presenting a flat surface, to deeply worn rectangular and square specimens, some of which are two feet in breadth and will weigh a hundred pounds. These were in common use about the pueblos and cliff-houses. In our museum and elsewhere there are metates that have seen service for so many years that they are worn entirely through.

On these metates a flat stone, known as a mano stone, was used, taking the place of the Eastern roller or bell-pestle. It was pushed back and forth with the hand. In the Southwest, California, and Mexico some of the metates are highly ornamented, and have legs, which raised the body of the stone several inches from the ground. When I visited the Chaco Group, in 1897, I saw several hundred metates scattered about on the surface near the ruins. In explorations near Phœnix, Arizona, in November, 1897, to June, 1898, I collected more than ninety good metates. In Kelley Cavern, the Ozark Mountains, which was explored by Dr. Charles Peabody and myself in May, 1908, we found thirty-seven stone mills in one cave alone, and that cavern was no more than two hundred feet across the front and about a hundred feet deep.

Mr. J. B. Lewis of Petaluma, California, now deceased, sent me the photograph of a remarkable collection of California mortars. After shipping generous quantities to various scientific institutions in the East, Mr. Lewis still had several hundred in his possession. He constructed an outdoor cabinet of plank and placed thereon a portion of his collection. Fig. 511 illustrates a number of his specimens. It will be observed, by comparison with the figure of Mr. Lewis who is standing at the right of his cabinet, that the largest mortars at the bottom are not upright but are placed at an angle. These mortars range from two feet in diameter to those about a foot high. Many of these weigh as much as seventy-five or a hundred pounds each. The smaller mortars are on the upper rows.

Mr. Lewis, during the last two years of his life, wrote me many interesting letters regarding the character of the various stone objects found in his region. He was a keen observer, and during his fifty years of residence at Petaluma he became thoroughly familiar with the various prehistoric sites in that part of California. While I make substantial quotations from these letters, I change his language slightly:—

Fig. 510. (S. varying.) Stone bowls from a cache near San Fernando, California.

Fig. 511. Collection of J. B. Lewis, Petaluma, California. Mr. Lewis, who stands at the right, was fifty years in making this collection.

“On Sonoma Mountain, seven miles from Petaluma, is a depression in the hills in which the winter rains are collected, forming a large lake or lagoon of two hundred acres, called by the Indians Lagoon La Jara, formerly covered with a tall growth of tules, the home of geese and ducks and blackbirds in their season. Some forty years since, it was drained and brought under cultivation. On ploughing, stones were brought to light called ‘ceremonial sinkers,’ plumbs, etc. As time passes fewer are found, until now only three or four a year.”

Mr. Lewis, who lived within two miles of the lake, procured half of the objects thus discovered. Many of them are shown in Fig. 383. Another collector has secured four hundred. In the summer the lagoon was dry or nearly so. There was neither inlet nor outlet and no fish lived in its waters. Therefore the stones were not made use of as sinkers.

Fig. 512. (S. 1–10.) From the collection of H. K. Deisher, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.

Fig. 513. (S. 1–4.) Long effigy pestle. Butler farm, northwest part of Turkey Hill, Ipswich. From the collection of Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.

“When I came here in the early fifties, there used large numbers of Indians go by my ranch in the fall, down to the creek to catch sturgeon and dry them, and they always went back by the way of the lagoon and stayed a day or two and had some kind of a pow-wow. After the lagoon was drained, they never came back.”

Mr. Lewis, on arrival in California, heard that a numerous tribe living near Petaluma was practically exterminated by some contagious disease. He believed that the Indians returning annually to hold ceremonies at the lagoon belonged to this tribe.

Fig. 514. (S. 1–4.) From the collection of Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin.

Fig. 515. (S. 1–6.) From the collection of W. A. Holmes, Chicago, Illinois.

It is interesting to note that during the years of Mr. Lewis’s observations he found that the mortars with straight sides and flat bottoms occurred near Sonoma Mountain, where boulders of basalt are common. But in the sandy hills west of Petaluma pointed or urn-shaped mortars, such as are shown on the top shelf of Fig. 511, are found in some numbers. It is clear, he states, that the various types of mortars were confined to certain regions. He knew of only two mortars found in Indian graves. In one instance, where a mortar was buried with an Indian, the skull was pierced by a flint point. Near Santa Rosa, twenty miles from his home, a large spring was cleaned out, and in it were found numerous objects of stone. Mr. Lewis states that he never found a mortar and pestle placed together. They were usually found separate. While the plummets and so-called sinkers are found scattered throughout this region, yet nine tenths of his collection came from the lagoon previously mentioned. Not only has he found mortars upon the surface, but specimens have been dug up from a depth of twelve feet in the ground. The cavities may be large or small, independent of size of mortar. Of his entire collection of two hundred and fifty mortars he states that seventy-five had holes in the bottom, seventy-five were more or less broken, fifty were considered fair specimens, and about fifty were perfect. The late Mr. Horatio N. Rust, an observer of much experience in California archæology, described an interesting cache of stone bowls some years ago.[^[18]] I quote his article:—

“Mr. H. W. Hunt, of San Fernando, California, has been tilling for several years the site of an old Indian village, and in doing so has unearthed fragments of not fewer than thirty Indian bowls, but no whole specimen. A short time ago, while ploughing, he encountered a stone, and in digging it out discovered a cache of twenty-one sandstone bowls (see Fig. 510) carefully packed together in a space not exceeding four or five feet. On Mr. Hunt’s invitation I personally examined the contents of this interesting cache, finding the bowls quite symmetrical and all except one in perfect condition.

“These utensils measure about ten inches in greatest diameter, and from seven to ten inches across the bottom; they are about one and one fourth inches in thickness at the rim. A shallow groove is cut in the edge of the rim of each vessel, in which shell beads are set in asphaltum. About midway in the inside of one of the bowls a series of holes, about one fourth of an inch in depth and diameter, is cut, and in each of these holes a shell bead is set in asphaltum. These inset beads represent the only attempt at ornamentation.

“After carefully examining the field in which these vessels were found I reached the conclusion that the thirty broken bowls indicated the former occupancy of the site by a village of considerable size, and that they had been broken by an enemy rather than through use. I was led also to the belief that the villagers had been killed and many of their vessels destroyed, but that the predatory enemy had failed to find the cache of bowls, which had been secreted by their owners in fear of such an attack.

“This conclusion was reached in view of the experience gained from the examination of many village-sites in California. On one occasion, at a site south of San Jacinto Mountain, I discovered twenty-five stone mortars, within the radius of a mile, all of which had been broken by violence, evidently by an enemy for the purpose of depriving the villagers of an important means of preparing food. Beside these mortars, I found a slab of green talc, about eight by fifteen inches, and three slabs of sandstone of about the same width and length and one and one fourth inches in thickness. Fragments of similar sandstone slabs have been found near the same site, but no pestles or other artifacts that had not been broken, a circumstance that would seem to indicate that everything had been either stolen or deliberately destroyed.”

Fig. 516. (S. 1–5.) From the collection of James A. Barr, Stockton, California.

Fig. 517. (S. about 1–6.) Found at Riverside, Rhode Island. Material: greenish black slate. Collection of S. R. Turner, Riverside, Rhode Island.

On the top shelf of Mr. Lewis’s exhibit in Fig. 511 are pointed mortars such as I have placed under classification “C.” Usually these are of volcanic rock, worked down light and rather thin. They were pointed in order that they might be thrust into soft earth, or swampy places where certain reeds and roots abounded, they being held in position by the nature of the soil, while the women ground grain.

Fig. 518. (S. 1–3.) Stone bowl from the collection of H. S. Hurlbutt, Libertyville, Illinois.

Fig. 517 is a long, beautifully polished, roller pestle, about twenty-six inches in length and owned by Mr. S. R. Turner, Riverside, Rhode Island, and Fig. 513 is a roller pestle with an effigy head carved at one end. It is impossible to determine what this effigy represents. This is from the Salem collection, was found near Ipswich, and is about thirty inches in length.

Doubtless there are not a few objects classed as mortars which were food receptacles. I have included several in this chapter. The conditions under which some of these more highly finished bowls are found leads us to admit ignorance of their true meaning.

Fig. 518 is a delicate stone bowl from Illinois; Fig. 519 is a limestone bowl, shown one third size. This was found in the oblong mound of the Hopewell Group in 1901, by our survey. Neither of these specimens is to be classed as a mortar. Both are highly finished, and the limestone bowl is an unusual specimen, nothing just like it having been found in America. We cannot imagine that these were made use of to contain ordinary food.

Fig. 519. (S. about 1–3.) Stone bowl of twelve or thirteen pounds weight. Cut from solid limestone. It is somewhat like the type of bowls found on the Pacific Coast, and nothing comparable to it has been discovered in our Ohio Valley mounds.

Mr. C. E. Brown writes of his region:—

“A small number of stone pestles have been found in Wisconsin, and a few hollowed-out stones which appear to have been employed as mortars. The Wisconsin savages employed wooden mortars for crushing their corn and wild rice. These were hollows cut into the side of logs or made of sections of logs hollowed out. Wooden pestles were employed with these. At Lake Winnebago and elsewhere in the Fox River Valley are large boulders upon the tops of which are shallow depressions in which the Indians of recent times are known to have ground corn.”

Fig. 519 A. (S. 1–7.) Two are of steatite, and one of limestone. They were found in eastern Kentucky. From the collection of B. H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky.

There are no special conclusions to be reached with reference to mortars and pestles. An inspection, in any public museum, of collections from the Northwest Coast, Pacific Coast, and New England will acquaint the readers with the fact that both the mortar and the pestle were sometimes highly ornamented and worked into fanciful forms. Fig. 516, a remarkable metate from Professor Barr’s collection, is an illustration of the point I have in mind. Metates of this character are common in Mexico and Central America. Those who have studied symbolism see evidences of phallic worship in many of the pestles from California and the Northwest. The range in all tools and receptacles needed in the Indian’s domestic science, is considerable, and covers the entire field from the rough pebble to the effigy pestle, or the metate, almost table-like in character.

CHAPTER XXVIII
OBJECTS OF SHELL

Fig. 520. (S. 1–1.) Shell hoe from the village-site at Fort Ancient, Ohio.

Aboriginal man used shell and bone for a variety of purposes. He frequently made of these substances the same forms that he did in flint or stone, and if one were classifying under use, one would include, under arrow-points, not only those of flint, but of bone and shell as well. The same is true of the beads and of flat ornaments, which may be of shell, or bone, quite as often as of stone. But since we have begun to classify these objects according to material, it is necessary to place under the above head many artifacts that would naturally fall into another subdivision, were we to ignore materials.

Fig. 521. (S. 1–4.) Collection of B. Beasley, Montgomery, Alabama.

Generally throughout North America shells were made use of for ornamentation. Shell beads are as widely distributed as chipped implements and more generally found throughout the United States than pottery. In fact, in most cemeteries, mounds, and cliff-houses where human burials occur, are strings of beads of various kinds and sizes. I might enumerate all the shells found in both fresh water and salt, and made use of by the natives in America, but this is hardly required. However, were I writing more extendedly upon shell objects, it would be necessary to give all the names. These are purposely omitted.

The classification of shell objects is as follows:—

1. For domestic service. 2. For ornamentation.

Under No. 1 there are the following subdivisions:—

a. Shells used as hoes. (Fig. 520.) b. As club-heads. (None shown.) c. As cups and bowls. (Fig. 522.)

Under No. 2:

a. As small beads, round or cylindrical. (Figs. 521, 521 A.) b. Ear and nose ornaments, circular or oval. (Fig. 523.) c. Hairpins. (Fig. 525.) d. Bracelets and finger-rings. (None shown.) e. Engraved shell gorgets. (Figs. 530 to 535.) f. Pendants and unknown forms. (Figs. 524, 529.) g. Effigies. (Fig. 537.)

Fig. 521 A. (S. 1–2.) Beads from Trigg County, at mouth of Little River, where it enters the Cumberland River, Kentucky. Bennett H. Young’s collection.

The larger shells of the Atlantic Coast between the mouth of the Potomac and the Mississippi were employed by the Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana Indians as digging-tools, heads to clubs, etc.

Mr. Clarence B. Moore, during the course of his extensive explorations in Florida and Alabama, found great quantities of large shells which had been used as domestic tools. It is well known that the shell mounds of Florida equal in size many mounds of earth or stone, farther north.

Fig. 522. (S. 1–4.) Large shells, Hopewell Mounds, Ohio.

In the North, the fresh-water unio shells were made general use of as hoes, such as is shown in Fig. 520, which was found at Fort Ancient, Ohio, on the village-site along the banks of the Miami River. It was much easier to perforate these shells and use them as hoes than to work out flint or wooden hoes. Persons who explore ancient sites find them in the ash-pits. The edges are always battered, or worn smooth, proving that they were of importance as agricultural implements.

Short, heavy shells were perforated and fastened to clubs for weapons and digging-tools. Moore describes and illustrates many of these.[^[19]]

Fig. 523. (S. 1–1.) The typical shell nose and ear ornaments are shown in this illustration. These six were found by W. C. Mills on the Baum Village-Site, Ross County, Ohio.

Bits of shell may have been set in handles, for use as “swords,” after the manner of South Sea natives.

However, while shells were useful for other purposes, yet it was for ornamentation that most of them were used.

Fig. 521, from the collection of Mr. B. Beasley, Montgomery, Alabama, is an illustration of small disc beads in the centre, larger beads about the margin and the string of rude and irregular shell beads enclosing the rectangular exhibit referred to. This is about one fourth size. Shell beads range in size from minute ones as small as those on the black background in the centre of the picture, to others three inches in diameter. Mr. Clarence B. Moore found shell beads as large as walnuts in his Florida and Alabama explorations.

Fig. 521 A shows a number of various shell beads, together with a few stone beads from mounds and graves at the mouth of Little River, Kentucky.

Large numbers of pearl beads, have been found in the altar mounds of the Scioto Valley, Ohio, and in the South. De Soto’s narrative states that the Indians, in 1540–42, possessed many bushels of these pearls. Some were of beautiful form and high lustre. All of these would have been very valuable, but for the fact that the natives drilled a hole through each one, thus, from our point of view, ruining them.

It has been estimated that the pearl beads found in the altars of the Hopewell Group, when new and undrilled, were worth upwards of a million dollars.

Practically all shell ornaments were made from the larger unio shells and also from the busycon and pyrula shells of Florida and the Carolinas. Fig. 522 presents one of these shells as yet uncut which was found in a mound at the Hopewell Group and another which has been cut down into the form of a large dipper or drinking-vessel.

Fig. 524. (S. varying.) Shell ornaments from California. Peabody Museum collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Fig. 525. (S. 3–7.) This figure illustrates some of the shell hairpins, rather rare in Ohio, but frequently found in the South. These are from the collection of Mr. John T. Reeder, Houghton, Michigan, and were found in Alabama and Tennessee. It would be impossible to drill with these, and by common consent they are called hairpins.

The ornamentation on large shell gorgets is complicated and characteristic. I am not sufficiently familiar with California shell gorgets to state whether they are ever engraved. Fig. 529, from Professor Barr’s collection, presents as highly developed gorgets as I have seen from the Pacific Coast. It is in the mounds and stone graves of the Cumberland and Tennessee valleys that the art in engraving or decorating gorgets seems to have reached its height. In Figs. 530, 531, 532, 533. 534, and 535 are presented beautiful specimens from the collections of Mr. John T. Reeder, Colonel Young, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Fig. 526. (S. 1–2.) An engraved shell gorget found in the glacial kame burials in northern Ohio. This is shown half size and is a remarkable specimen. The material is from a large fresh-water unio.

Professor William H. Holmes of the Smithsonian Institution has studied shell objects more than any one else in this country. I quote from his description of Fig. 534:[^[20]]

Fig. 527. (1–2.) Two small shell ornaments from the collection of John T. Reeder, Houghton, Michigan. These were found in a mound on Long Island, Tennessee. The one to the right is especially interesting in that the body of the shell is cut out, forming the bars of the cross. Such gorgets are exceedingly rare.

Fig. 528. (S. 1–2.) Four flat pendants found in Pilot Mound, Manitoba, by Henry Montgomery. Two copper beads and one shell bead, Pilot Mound, Manitoba. Two bone whistles, respectively nine and ten inches long, from mound near Sourisford, Manitoba.

Fig. 529. (S. 1–3.) James A. Barr collection, Stockton, California.

“Among the many interesting relics obtained from mounds and burial-places in the Mississippi Valley are the engraved shell gorgets, a number of which are now preserved in our museums. The most recent addition to this class of objects was obtained by the National Museum from Mr. C. A. Nelson of Eddyville, Lyon County, Kentucky, and comes from a burial-place encountered in opening a stone-quarry near Eddyville. It is a symmetric saucer-shaped gorget, Fig. 534, five inches in diameter and made apparently from the expanded lip of a conch shell (Busycon perversum). It is unusually well preserved, both faces retaining something of the original high polish of the ornament. Two perforations placed near the margin served as a means of suspension. The back or convex side is quite plain, while the face is occupied by the engraving of a human figure which extends entirely across the disc. It will be seen by reference to the illustration that this figure is practically identical in many respects with others already published.[^[21]] It is executed in firmly incised lines and is partially inclosed by a border of nine concentric lines. The position of the figure is that of a discus-thrower. The right hand holds a discoidal object, the arm being thrown back as if in the act of casting the disc. The left hand extends outward to the margin of the shell and firmly grasps a wand-like object having plumes attached at the upper end, the lower end being peculiarly marked, and bent inward across the border lines. The face is turned to the left; the right knee is bent and rests on the ground, while the left foot is set forward as it would be in the act of casting the disc. The features are boldly outlined; the eye is diamond-shaped, as is usual in the delineations of this character in the mound region. A crest or crown representing the hair surmounts the head; the lower lobe of the ear contains a disc from which falls a long pendant ornament, and three lines representing paint or tattoo marks extend across the cheek from the ear to the mouth. A bead necklace hangs down over the chest and the legs and arms have encircling ornaments. The lower part of the body is covered with an apron-like garment attached to the waistband, and over this hangs what appears to be a pouch with pendant ornaments. The moccasins are of the usual Indian type and are well delineated. A study of this figure strongly suggests the idea that it must represent a disc-thrower engaged, possibly, in playing the well-known game of chunky.”

Fig. 530. (S. 2–3.) Collection of J. T. Reeder, Houghton, Michigan.

Regarding Fig. 535 of Colonel Young’s collection, Professor Holmes writes me, under date of March 28, 1910, as follows:—

“The shell gorget from Lincoln County, Kentucky, is exceptionally large, being six inches in diameter. The design is engraved on the concave surface and represents a double-headed eagle treated in a very conventional manner. The heads are well drawn, but the bodies are simplified so that two legs only with characteristic talons are shown. The tail is single. The work corresponds in style to similar delineations on clay and other materials throughout a large part of the Gulf States, as shown fully in the works of Mr. Clarence B. Moore. It is not possible to say whether or not the duplication of the heads had any significance, or whether it is the result simply of the common practice in primitive art of employing modified natural forms to accommodate the spaces to be embellished. That the eagle, however, had some special significance with the peoples concerned, may be taken for granted.”

Fig. 531. (S. 2–3.)
Collection of J. T. Reeder, Houghton, Michigan. The upper figure is from a mound on Long Island, Tennessee River, Jackson County, Alabama. The lower figure is from a mound at the mouth of Chickamauga Creek, Hamilton County, Tennessee.
Fig. 532. (S. 2–3.)
Collection of J. T. Reeder, Houghton, Michigan. The upper figure is from a mound at Citico Furnace, Chattanooga, Tennessee. The lower figure is from a mound at Long Island, near Bridgeport, Jackson County, Alabama.

Fig. 533. (S. 1–3.) Shell gorgets from Kentucky. Bennett H. Young’s collection.

Fig. 534. (S. 2–3.) Shell gorget from Lyon County, Kentucky. United States National Museum collection.

Fig. 533 presents six beautiful engraved gorgets from Colonel Young’s collection, who has in his exhibit as many engraved shells as any other collector in this country. For many years he has interested himself in the archæology of Kentucky and has preserved thousands of specimens. No. 3 in this plate is shown in a larger form in Fig. 535. No. 4 is one of the rare gorgets with the design of the cross worked out by cutting entirely through the shell. No. 6 is practically the same as the right-hand specimen in Fig. 530, only that it is worked in higher relief. The exact meaning of these carvings is unknown at the present time.

Fig. 535. (S. 2–3.) Collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky.

Fig. 536. (S. 1–1.) Shell frog, two shell effigies, onyx bead, and effigy fish (jade?). From the large ruin near Mesa, Arizona.

The natives living in the great pueblos of the Salado Valley, southern Arizona, and in fact throughout that entire region, made use of a great many shells found along the shores of the Gulf of California. Not only did they make ordinary beads, after the manner of the Northern Indians, but they also made finger-rings and bracelets. These have been so frequently illustrated, I have purposely left them out. They worked all manner of effigies out of shell, as is shown in Figs. 536–37, from the collection at Andover. These specimens were obtained by me while exploring in 1897 and 1898 for Mr. R. S. Peabody, founder of the Department at Andover.

There are also shell frogs inlaid with turquoise—real mosaic work. Dr. Fewkes has illustrated some effigies of this nature, in his reports, and Dr. Pepper found numbers of them at the great Chaco Group of ruins, northern New Mexico. When the first shell frogs were discovered by the late Frank Hamilton Cushing, some of the archæologists went so far as to say that Cushing had made these, but now so many of them have been found that Cushing’s original contentions are verified.

Fig. 537. (S. 1–2 to 1–3.) Shell objects from Arizona.

It is surprising, the skill of prehistoric man in carving. When Squier and Davis made their exploration of the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, they found many highly carved and ornamented pipes. Years afterwards, observers who were unjustly skeptical endeavored to prove that these were made with rat-tail files or were the work of white traders. Since the time of Squier and Davis, even more remarkable carvings, work in copper, intricate designs on shell, and various tablets have been unearthed, in numbers, and by men against whom no charge could be made.

It will be seen by an inspection of the few shell objects that I have illustrated that, notwithstanding the lack of iron tools, aboriginal man in America was no mean artist.

CHAPTER XXIX
OBJECTS OF BONE

Bone objects served practical purposes more than they did ornamental uses. Of course some bones were worked into ornaments, but more of them were in use as utility tools than otherwise. The classification of bone tools is a subject to which one must give no little thought, for the material ranges from ordinary beads to highly decorated and grooved cylinders, or tubes. Therefore, I am not fully satisfied with the classification I herewith present, and hope at a future date to improve upon it.

1. Utility and domestic purposes.

(a) Bone awls. (Figs. 538–39.) (b) Harpoons. (Figs. 541–42.) (c) Ladles, spoons, etc. (Figs. 544–45.) (d) Bone fish-hooks. (Figs. 546–48.) (e) Tool-handles. (Figs. 549–50.) (f) Bone scrapers and celts. (Fig. 551.) (g) Arrow-shaft reducers. (Fig. 554.) (h) Bone chipping-tools. (Fig. 41.)

(a) Bone beads. (Fig. 546.) (b) Bone pendants. (Fig. 556.) (c) Bones used in head-dresses. (Figs. 552–53.) (d) Tracings on bone. (Figs. 564–65.) (e) Bone effigies. (Figs. 557, 567.)

Bone objects in the United States were in widespread use, and they served many purposes. In the Mississippi Valley more of them were worked into beads and awls than into anything else, but on the Great Plains they were made use of for many purposes. The tips of antlers were sharpened and fastened on arrows. In the Mandan country, North Dakota, and elsewhere in the West where stone was scarce, the bones of the buffalo served as clubs, the shoulder blades as digging-tools, and the ribs were polished and ground to an edge and used as knives and scraping-tools. The teeth of carnivorous animals were mounted as ornaments, and long slender bones of the smaller animals were cut into beads. Bone and horn spoons were doubtless common in all parts of the United States.

Fig. 538. (S. 1–1.) Typical bone awls from the collection of S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.

Fig. 539. (S. 2–3.) Blunt-pointed awls found with burials. Baum Village-Site, Ohio. William C. Mills’s collection.

Fig. 540. (S. about 3–4.) To the left, bone awls made from the tarsometatarsus of the wild turkey. To the right, bone needles. All from the Harness Mound, Scioto Valley, Ohio.

A larger percentage of bone awls have been recovered from village-sites than of other objects in bone, excepting beads. The ash-pits of village-sites preserved practically everything encompassed by them because of the preservative quality of ashes. Therefore, I have always believed that the proportion of bone awls to other things is no criterion as to the use of bone among the aborigines. In the caves of the Ozarks, during three seasons of exploration, we recovered upwards of a hundred bone awls. More than fifty were taken from the ashes of Kelley Cavern alone. It must be remembered that these caves, as is also true of the village-sites of central United States and the South, mark the residence place of natives where, perhaps, women predominated. Assuming that because of wars there were usually more women than men,—and I think that the early American history will bear out this statement,—the domestic arts were in excess of the other arts; and even if the persons engaged in domestic science were in the minority there would naturally be more cooking, garment-making, weaving, and general domestic science in vogue in a village or a cave or a cliff-dwelling than elsewhere. It is not surprising, therefore, that awls and hammer-stones, pestles and mortars, rough axes and hoes should predominate in such places. An unknown number of bone effigies and bone tools that must have been made and used by the ancient people have disappeared, because as in the case of textile fabrics they were not preserved unless buried in ashes.

Aboriginal man was very saving. When he killed a deer or a bear he not only made use of the meat and the hide, but also of the bones and sinews. The proof of such economy lies in any large village-site, where one finds in the ashes bones of practically every bird, animal, and fish formerly in the neighborhood. And these bones have been broken, or cut, or sawed. Some of them indicate the beginning of workmanship, many of them are broken to extract the marrow, and others are perfect. The exhibit is just such as one would expect from the camp-site of savages. After the feast was over and the bones cast out, in the ensuing days, when these bones had become more or less dry, the man, the woman, or perhaps the boy, gathered them up and worked them into the forms presented in this chapter.

The use of bones for harpoons was widespread. In fact no substance is more convenient. The skeletal remains of numerous animals, birds, and fish furnished the Indians with bones of various sizes and shapes, and it is quite likely that such bones as could be made use of were stored away, and that the aborigines selected the bone suited to their purpose and went to work on it to manufacture the harpoon, or the awl, or the ornament. Harpoons seem to have been more in use in the North than in the South, and more are found in the St. Lawrence basin, Canada, and northern New England, and New York State, than elsewhere in the United States. The same is true of the Eskimo country, where bone harpoon-points are very common. Illustrations 538, 541, 542, present four different bone harpoons.

Fig. 541. (S. 2–3.) Bone harpoon. P. D. Winship’s collection, Park Rapids, Minnesota.

Fig. 542. (S. 1–2.) (See Fig. 543 for description.)

Description of Figs. 542 and 543.
Objects of antler, bone, shell, and copper from North Dakota mounds:
a. Deer antler tines, showing perforations and notches.
b. Bone anklet, somewhat broken, but showing entire length in front.
c. Carved tine of a deer’s antler.
d. Bead made from the columella of a marine shell.
e. Pearly shell buttons or ornaments, perforated or notched; found with the anklet shown in b.
f. Flat piece of copper coiled into a bead.
g. Small marine shells perforated by grinding.
h. Pearly shell rings, probably a portion of a necklace.
i. Bone fishing-spear.
From Henry Montgomery’s collection, Toronto, Canada.

Fig. 543. (S. 1–2.)

Fig. 544. (S. 1–3.) Elk-horn spoons, from Humboldt County, California. H. K. Deisher’s collection.

It is not difficult to explain the preponderance of harpoons in the North and the scarcity of them in the South. They are essentially a cold-climate implement. In the St. Lawrence region, where they abound, nets and traps cannot be used save during summer and fall. The winter sets in early, and the spring is late. While fish were harpooned when on the spawning-beds, yet most of the harpooning was done in the winter. Even to this late date the Ojibwa Indians spear great quantities of fish in the winter season. Pickerel, pike, muscalonge are attracted by a moving bait. The Indian cuts a hole through the ice, and erects a small structure to shield himself from the wind. An effigy of a fish made of wood or bone, or in these modern times of tin, is dangled about four or five feet beneath the ice. Large fish approach this decoy, and as they are more sluggish in their movements in the winter, the Indian has no difficulty in driving the spear into such one as he wishes, before it is able to draw out of range. I suppose that the method did not vary in ancient times. Naturally, where possible, the Indians preferred to set nets or build fish-weirs. But practically all the nets and weirs of ancient times have long since disappeared.

Fig. 545. (S. 3–4.) This is a long spoon, badly decayed, but sufficiently preserved for us to determine its character. It is about six inches in length. It was found under an old building in Salem, Massachusetts, and is in the Peabody Museum. Very few bone or horn spoons, ladles, and dishes of the Indians remain, and yet we know that a great many were made and used by primitive man in the United States.

Fig. 541 illustrates a large, strong harpoon of bone. This spear has several prominent barbs. The muscalonge and sturgeon of the far North were large, strong fish and required a heavy spear to hold them. Whether the Indians of the Lake Superior region in ancient times made use of the spear with a detachable point, to which was attached a cord and float, I am unable to state. Possibly they made use of devices of that sort.

In the East and the North the harder and heavier bones, such as the horns of elk, deer, and moose, were made use of as gouges, celts, and scrapers. Numbers of these have been found at Madisonville cemetery, in the Little Miami Valley, ten miles north of Cincinnati, and also in the Iroquois sites along the Mohawk River in western New York. Mr. David Boyle, Curator of the Provincial Museum, Toronto, presents descriptions of a number of horn implements in his publications.[^[22]]

Bones were made use of as spoons, and ladles. Numerous examples of these are not wanting in the museums. The longer, slender bones were ground and polished and pointed, and may have served as hairpins and cloak-fasteners. A splendid example of what we have considered bone hairpins was taken from the ashes in Kelley Cavern, Arkansas. This bone was found at a depth of five feet, and is nine inches long.

Fig. 546. (S. 2–3.) Beads, arrow-points, and bone fish-hooks, from the Mandan Village-Site, North Dakota.

The slender bones of turkeys and geese were often made into whistles, the medicine-men used them, and bone tubes were frequently employed by shamans in drawing the evil spirit from the bodies of the sick. Small digits were worked into necklaces. Special bones of certain animals, it is supposed, were the property of the medicine-men and were used in their incantations. The skull of the buffalo played an important part in the mythology except among Plains tribes. I shall not treat of that phase of the subject in this volume, but refer readers to the list of titles in the Bibliography, under Buffalo; which will be found to contain full descriptions of the ceremonies connected with the buffalo. In another part of this work (Volume I, pages 208–09) I refer to the importance of the buffalo to Indians through an extent of territory fifteen hundred by one thousand miles.

Fig. 547. (S. 2–3.) Stages of fish-hook manufacture. Gartner Mound, Ohio.

Fig. 548. (S. 1–1.) Typical fish-hooks found in the Baum Village-Site, Ohio.

Fig. 549. (S. about 1–3.) Andover collection. The long bones of large animals were cut or sawed into proper lengths, the openings in the ends enlarged and flint knives inserted. This figure presents eight such tool-handles. The two at the top were found in a gravel-pit in central Ohio, together with human skeletons. Flint knives lay at the end of each of these two bones. The decayed bone shown in the lower part of the picture was also found in a gravel burial and a slender flint knife rested against it. The position of the knives and the bones leaves me to conclude that these bones were knife-handles.

Fig. 550. (S. 1–3.) Bone tool-handles from the villages along the Upper Missouri River. Andover collection.

Fig. 551. (S. 1–3.) A series of bone celts from the Mandan Site, North Dakota.

Fig. 552. (S. 1–2.) Bone objects from Mandan Sites. Portions of head-dresses. (See page 154.)

Fig. 546 is interesting in that it shows not only bone beads to the left, but also three bone arrow-points (top row in the centre) and fish-hooks in process of manufacture. Professor William C. Mills published a valuable paper on the manufacture of fish-hooks.[^[23]]

Fig. 552 A. (S. 1–3.) How the Mandans made bracelets and head-dresses. (See pages 154, 155.)

Professor Mills found in the ash-beds of the Baum Village-Site bones which had been cut down until a narrow rim on both sides remained. I show Professor Mills’s finds in Figs. 547–48.

Professor Mills’s finds of unfinished as well as completed fish-hooks enabled his museum to secure the best series of such objects in the United States.

Having split the bones and ground them down until they were thin, the Indians would cut through the objects near either end, thus producing from a split bone two fish-hooks. Or, the entire bone yielded four fish-hooks. One side is cut long, the other short, thus forming the shank and bar. In Fig. 546 the entire process is shown. The split bone, to the right, the broken bone above the perfect fish-hook. To complete fish-hooks it was necessary to round the base, sharpen the point, cut out a little more space between the shank and the point, and notch the shank in order that the line might be attached.

Fig. 553. (S. 1–2.) Mandan bone ornaments.

Mandan Bone Implements

Something over twenty years ago, when I was living in Ohio, I received a communication from Mr. E. R. Steinbrueck of Mandan, North Dakota. He wished to begin the study of American archæology, to devote special attention to the ancient village-site of the Mandan Indians, made famous by George Catlin’s paintings and descriptions. I wrote to Mr. Steinbrueck a number of letters advising him. During the ensuing years, Mr. Steinbrueck spent many seasons in the exploration of the Mandan and other sites. His collection of bone and stone implements, amounted to about 8000 specimens.

Fig. 554. (S. 1–3.) Mandan bone objects. This figure represents some perforated bones from Mandan sites. Many similar to these have been found at Madisonville. The holes are polished on the edges, and aside from the theory that they were used to straighten arrow-shafts, no one seems to know the exact purpose of them. A few are shown in Fig. 555. Peabody Museum collection, from Madisonville, Ohio.

Mr. Steinbrueck wished to have his collection preserved in a fireproof building, and as it was through me he began collecting, he wished Phillips Academy to purchase his exhibit. Through the kindness of Professor Edward H. Williams, Jr., of Woodstock, Vermont, this disposition of the collection was brought about, and the collection is to-day on exhibition in our museum. I call particular attention to this Mandan exhibit, for the reason that it is, so far as I am aware, the best and largest collection of bone implements exhumed from one site, in America.

Suitable stone seems to have been scarce in the Mandan country, and the natives made use of the shoulder blades, ribs, and other heavy bones of buffalo, elk, and deer for various purposes, and these strong bones served them quite as well as would stone. An inspection of the illustrations of various Mandan objects will acquaint readers with the wealth of material secured by Mr. Steinbrueck.

I call particular attention to Figs. 550 to 555. In Fig. 550 are shown heavy bone handles in which were inserted small stone celts employed as scraping- and cutting-tools. This type was common on the Plains and has been described by Professor Mason and others. The handle is so strong that it would last almost a lifetime, and the Indian women needed but to sharpen the inserted celt, rather than to make a new handle.

Fig. 555. (S. 1–5.) This presents a bone hairpin, a fish-hook, a flute and harpoon, two bone celts, a perforated antler of an elk, and a long bone partially cut into bits, all of which were found in the graves at Madisonville, Ohio. Peabody Museum collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The figure of the bone celts (551) shows that nearly all of them were hollowed after the manner of Eastern stone gouges. The second specimen from the top is highly polished on the edge and there are eight places where notches have been worn into the bone. Similar wearing is noticed on the lower specimens.

The Mandans raised much corn, beans, and squashes, and the large shoulder blades of the buffalo and elk were made use of by these Indians as spades and hoes. There are more than one hundred of them in our collection.

Fig. 556. (S. 1–2.) Mandan bone ornaments.

Mr. Steinbrueck, at my request, wrote me at considerable length and sent me several books of field-notes. Particularly interesting are his descriptions of objects shown in Figs. 552, 552 A, and 553. I quote from his letter:—

“After a number of years of continuous researches in the ancient Indian village-sites on or about the Heart River and along the Missouri River, I have gradually learned to read the purpose, the use, and also, in some instances, the manufacture of certain horn and bone implements and ornaments of the Mandan Indians.”

It would appear that the late J. V. Brower and Rev. G. L. Wilson and Mr. Steinbrueck made explorations in common during several seasons.

“... On our sociable excursions, we used to find three-cornered pieces of elk-horn (Fig. 552) which showed considerable work. They were long and pointed, had a round base, showed the incision of a sharp instrument along the edges, were scraped at both sides; in short, seemed to be shaped for some purpose, which we could not guess. Probably they were intended for some kind of an awl, or some other object of use or ornament. It was strange, though, that we found such quantities of them and all in the same state of more or less finish, and still we never found an implement of a shape similar to these peculiar triangular pieces of horn. We called them ‘unfinished implements of horn, purpose unknown.’”

Fig. 557. (S. 1–2.) Bone ornaments and effigies. Three of these may represent goose heads. The bone to the right is ridged, and on the elevation are notches.

After Mr. Brower returned East, and Rev. Mr. Wilson moved away from Mandan, Mr. Steinbrueck continued investigations, and after several years had passed, came to the conclusion that the triangular pieces were discarded objects, obtained during the process of manufacture of other forms. Mr. Steinbrueck has drawn a series of outlines conveying his ideas as to the manufacture of these objects, which I reproduce in Fig. 552 A. Reference to the letters in Fig. 552 A will make clear Mr. Steinbrueck’s contentions.

Fig. 558. (S. 3–4.) Teeth of the opossum and raccoon. Harness Mound, Ohio.

Fig. 559. (S. 2–3.) To the left in Fig. 559 is an arrowpoint made of deer-horn, with a perforation for attachment to the shaft. The other two are pendants made of ocean shell. These are from the Baum Village-Site, Ohio.

Fig. 560. (S. 1–3.)
Shell crescent. Gartner Mound, Ohio. These three figures are from the collection of W. C. Mills.

“The part of the elk-horn for the bracelets was chosen just above the first prong (a). The horn was scraped all around to a smooth surface. Next, incisions were made with a flint knife, parallel to each other, up and down the horn, to the soft inside of the horn. Thus long narrow strips (b) were formed, which were easily (c) loosened from the stem. Next, the inside was smoothed down and the edges rounded off. Then, on the inside generally, not always, a groove was cut for the easier bending (a). The measure of the arm or wrist was taken and a hole bored at each end according to size of arm or wrist, and above the holes the bracelet was cut (e). We found an abundance of those short pieces (f). Then finally, there remained nothing to be done but soak the straight bracelet piece, maybe in hot bear-grease, and bend it. Most of the bracelets (g) are made in that shape and manner. There are also thinner, narrower ones, without a groove and ornamented at the ends or incised (i-i), maybe for the purpose of tying together. One of the necklaces I found, and which is among the specimens at Phillips Academy, represents a snake, one end showing the head, the other end the tail. Perfect horn bracelets are very scarce, owing to their fragility. The first I found was broken in many pieces. I gave it to Mr. Brower, who was much exalted over it, saying that that was the first complete bracelet he ever saw; and although broken, it is now restored. It is erroneous and was a mistake to state that bracelets were made from ribs of small animals. A test will prove the truth of my statement, that they all are made from horn and particularly from the elk-horn.

Fig. 561. (S. 2–3.) Bear-tusks in which pearl beads were inserted as ornaments. These are cut and polished, the bases being cut squarely off or diagonally, for what purpose is unknown. These specimens were found in various mounds, Ross County, Ohio, as were several other objects illustrated in this chapter.

“The manufacture of headgear from the buffalo, or the elk-horn, was brought about in the same manner. The buffalo-horn or the elk-horn was incised, after shaving smooth, from top to bottom, or vice versa, one incision opposite the other, thus forming two exact counterparts. Then they were cut or ornamented to fit the head and the taste of the wearer. The pieces were scraped thin and smooth from both sides, and then polished.”

Fig. 562. (S. 1–1.) Dug up by W. C. Mills from Ohio mounds, as were the specimens shown in Figs. 558 to 565.

I shall conclude the chapter on bone objects with some remarks from Mr. Charles E. Brown, concerning the distribution of bone implements in the Wisconsin-Michigan region:—

“The largest local collection of bone implements is that of Mr. S. D. Mitchell of Green Lake. It includes harpoon-heads, awls, tubes, and other articles obtained from a so-called ‘sacred spring’ into which it is thought that these and other objects were cast by early savages, probably for the purpose of propitiating some evil spirit supposed to dwell therein.

Fig. 563. (S. 1–1.) Cut bear-tusks, and tusks in which pearl beads are inserted. From Ohio mounds.

Fig. 564. (S. 3–4.) Engraved bone, Harness Mound, Ohio.

Fig. 565. (S. 1–1.) Engraved bone, Hopewell Mound, Ohio.

Fig. 566. (S. 1–1.) Engraved bone, Hopewell Mound.

Fig. 567. (S. 1–1.) Bone effigy, Hopewell Mound, Ohio.

“Bone implements and ornaments of these and other classes have also been recovered from various village-sites, refuse-heaps, and mounds. Bone awls are the most numerous. Among these are a few bone beads, scrapers, and needles. Two ribbons, probably those of the moose, were obtained from a mound at Eagle Corners. Both are transversely notched by cuts along one edge. One bears thirty-four cuts, the other thirty-three. The most casual examination ... reveals the evidence of rubbing over the projections between the notches. Dr. Frederick Starr, who has described these specimens, refers to them as ‘rattles,’ and states that ‘they not only might have been used for dance-timing, but were certainly so used.’[^[24]] It is probable that some of our native copper perforators were once mounted in bone or antler handles. The Winnebago Indians still occasionally mount wire nails in handles of bone for use as perforators in sewing buckskin. Bone awls are also occasionally found in use among these Indians and the local Chippewa. Medicine-tubes made of sections of bone or horn were formerly employed. Pendants made of the perforated canine teeth of the bear are occasionally found in graves and on camp-sites. Mr. Richard Herrmann of Dubuque has reported the finding of two combination bone knives and spoons, several awls and arrow-points, two eagle claw ornaments, a bone needle with part of the eye intact, and a musical instrument from a mound near Garner, in Grant County.”

Dr. W. J. Hoffmann mentions the former use of bone fish-hooks and notched bone arrow-shaft smoothers among the Wisconsin Menomini. For evening strands of basswood fibre in cord-making, these Indians use the perforated shoulder blade of a deer or other animal.[^[25]]

“Radisson found that the early Bœuf Sioux of the upper Mississippi Valley tipped their arrows with antler points. A few antler arrow-points have been found in Wisconsin. These are similar to those recovered in Ohio during the recent explorations of Dr. W. C. Mills. In the H. P. Hamilton collection is a portion of an antler which is ornamented with incised designs. It was found in the city of Manitowoc. In the same collection is a small human effigy carved from a piece of antler. Other antler objects found in Wisconsin include awls, a pendant, a tube, and several articles the exact function of which is still undetermined. Cut sections of antler are occasionally found on local village-sites. In the collection of Mr. J. P. Schumacher, at Green Bay, is a pipe made of the tip of a buffalo-horn. On its surface are several incised figures. Pieces of the tusk of a mammoth were obtained with other articles in a Grant County mound. Doubtless a much larger number of both bone and antler implements will yet be found in Wisconsin. Local archæologists have but recently turned their attention to these.”

CHAPTER XXX
OBJECTS OF COPPER

Mr. Charles E. Brown, Dean of the Museum of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, has prepared for me this chapter on copper objects. Mr. Brown’s long association with the Milwaukee Public Museum, and his knowledge of copper collections throughout the United States, have made him an authority on this subject.

I have added a few concluding paragraphs to Mr. Brown’s able paper.

The Native Copper Implements of Wisconsin

The number of native copper articles already recovered from Wisconsin fields, village-sites, mounds, and graves is very large, possibly exceeding that already obtained from the balance of the United States. A careful estimate places the total number of such articles collected in the state up to the present time at not less than twenty thousand.

Although the collecting of these implements in Wisconsin has already continued for nearly forty years the supply has not yet become exhausted.

The opening to cultivation of new lands in the central and northern portions of the state, the increase in the number of collectors, and the more careful examination of old sites, cause each passing year to add its large number to the total already in collections.

In an address delivered in 1876 before the Wisconsin Historical Society, Professor James D. Butler made the statement that the Society was then the proud possessor of 109 native copper implements. The Smithsonian Institution then owned 30 specimens; the Wisconsin Natural History Society of Milwaukee, 14; Dr. Increase A. Lapham, 11; Milton College, 4; and Beloit College, 1. At the present day there are in the combined collections of the State Historical Museum, Logan Museum at Beloit, Milwaukee Public Museum, and of Mr. H. P. Hamilton and of Mr. S. D. Mitchell nearly four thousand specimens.

Fig. 568. (S. 1–4.) A group of copper nuggets and implements owned by S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.

Fig. 569. (S. 5–8.) Copper beads and small cylinders. Collection of S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.

A very large number of other specimens are in other public and private collections in Wisconsin and other states. To the activity of the Wisconsin Archæological Society and of its members is due the very great increase in recent years of the number of copper implements in local educational institutions.

Fig. 570. (S. 2–3.) Copper gorget, W. H. Ellsworth’s collection. Copper beads, H. P. Hamilton’s collection. The gorget came from the banks of Silver Lake, Kenosha County, Wisconsin.

There is evidence to show that in pioneer days a very considerable number of such implements, their value being unappreciated, found their way into the hands of roving pedlers and junk dealers and afterwards into the founder’s crucible. In several institutions are implements which have been rescued from such a fate.

Fig. 571. (S. 1–2.) Copper and stone pendants from the cemetery at the mouth of the Wabash. Andover collection.

Others have been found useful by their original finders and wholly or partially destroyed.

I continue: The conclusion now universally accepted among archæologists is that there is no reason for attributing the working of the copper deposits or fabrication of the implements to any other people than the Indians. The early explorers found both the northern and southern tribes in this country using implements and ornaments of native copper often in common with those of stone. From South America almost to Canada various travellers refer to this metal being in the possession of or employed by the natives. Many of these accounts have been so often quoted by writers on North American archæology that they are entirely familiar to the student, and there is therefore no necessity of repeating them here. There is no doubt that some of these accounts refer to European metal obtained from earlier visitors or traders, or possibly from shipwrecks along the coast. Thus the natives soon became quite proficient in fashioning it into articles adapted or better adapted to their needs than the ruder articles which they then employed.

Fig. 572. (S. 1–2.) Copper ornament and discs from the Hopewell Group,

Ohio.

It is equally certain that other accounts refer to the native metal or to objects fashioned therefrom.

Fig. 573. (S. 7–8.) Copper axe, Harness Mound, Ohio. Professor Mills states: “This axe was taken from a mound belonging to a group eight miles south of Chillicothe. Both sides of the object are greatly corroded and covered with a finely woven fabric. Beneath the fabric there seems to have been the skin of some short-haired animal. The axe was found near the left knee of an uncremated skeleton.”

Whether the working of the copper deposits or the fabrication of copper implements in this section of the country, thought to have been begun at least several centuries before, was discontinued before the coming of the white man, or whether the industry was continued or at least to some extent resumed by the descendants of the pre-Columbian miners and artificers during and after his intrusion, is still in dispute. It is doubtful whether this matter will ever be satisfactorily settled.

The accounts of the Jesuits, as given in the “Relations,” give the impression that while the Wisconsin Indians of that period were evidently familiar with the sources of the metal, they regarded it with superstition and employed it only in a reverential way. Radisson, however, found native copper ornaments in use among the Bœuf (or Buffalo) band of Dakota, in Minnesota in 1661–62. Alexander Henry, as a result of his visit to Lake Superior in a later day, stated that the Indians there obtained copper for the manufacture of implements and ornaments. In recent times, Indian agents testified to the use of copper implements among the Wisconsin Winnebago and Chippewa. Native copper implements have also occasionally been recovered from local mounds, where they were found in association with metal kettles, glass beads, and other articles of European manufacture.

Fig. 574. (S. about 1–1.) From a mound on the banks of Black Snake River, Utah. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

The evidence of the mounds and of the earlier village-sites is to the effect that before the coming of white man the use of copper had become quite general among the Indian tribes of the upper Mississippi Valley.

Fig. 575. (S. 1–4.) Copper spuds or axes. Collection of Logan Museum, Beloit, Wisconsin.

Fig. 576. (S. about 1–3.) Collection of S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.

It is very probable that the native metal first became known to them through the accidental discovery of small nuggets among the debris of the glaciers, and as it quickly came into demand, was traced to its source in the Lake Superior region. These deposits they mined, cutting it into shapes convenient for transportation to their villages, where it was fashioned into articles for their own use, or for the purpose of trade with distant tribes.

Nowhere in this entire valley do copper implements, however, appear to have entirely replaced those of stone, the use of which was continued until quite recent times. The manufacture of copper implements doubtless extended through several centuries. The Siouan Winnebago and Dakota of Wisconsin, being nearest the source of supply, possessed of course the greatest quantity. Even among them the use of copper artifacts did not in prehistoric times equal the use of others. Among the outlying tribes in other states copper implements were yet probably somewhat of a luxury, when the intrusion of the Algonquian tribes into Wisconsin made more and more difficult, and finally altogether shut out access to the Lake Superior mines. It appears certain that the Chippewa after their occupation of the copper region, did do at least a small amount of digging for the metal which for purposes of trade, or for other uses, they found of value. This continued until the arrival of the traders laden with desirable articles caused a suspension of mining operations, and diverted the attention of the Indian from mining to other pursuits....

Fig. 577. (S. 5–11.) Copper awls and chisels. Collection of S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.

Fig. 578. (S. 1–4.) Copper axes. H. P. Hamilton’s collection, Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Fig. 579. (S. about 1–2.) Copper chisels; the left and central ones were found near Clintonville, Waupaca County, Wisconsin. The right-hand one, near Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

Fabrication

Fig. 580. (S. about 1–4.) Three copper punches and seven chisels. H. P. Hamilton’s collection, Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Our native copper implements were fashioned by being hammered into shape while the metal was in a cold or heated state with such rude implements as were at the command of the natives, the finishing touches being given by cutting and trimming the uneven edges with sharp flints and smoothing the surfaces by rubbing or grinding with stones. Successful experiments in reproducing the various forms of implements from the native or nodular copper by these primitive processes have been made by the late Frank H. Cushing, and by other archæologists. Mr. Gerard Fowke is authority for the following statement:—

“So far as its working qualities are concerned, copper at ordinary temperature is much more malleable than pure soft iron; and it is much more easily worked into shape when at a red heat than when cold. If hammered cold it must be annealed occasionally, otherwise it becomes brittle. It is somewhat hardened by pounding, which will account for the harder edge of celts and other aboriginal specimens beaten out thin.”[^[26]]

Fig. 581. (S. 1–5.) Collection of J. T. Reeder, Houghton, Michigan. 13 copper spuds, 4 pick-pointed knives, 4 knives. All except one from Michigan.

The theory that any of these implements may have been cast is now discarded by archæologists. There is no evidence to show that our local aborigines possessed any knowledge of the working of this metal in the broad sense.

“Even if copper could be melted in an open fire, which is very doubtful, it must not be overlooked that Indians had no materials of which to make crucibles or moulds capable of withstanding such heat. Admitting they had clay receptacles which would have answered these purposes, there is no way of handling the molten metal with safety.”[^[27]]

While it is probable that many copper implements were fabricated in the vicinity of the workings, it is now perfectly clear that fragments of the native ore were also carried away to be cut up and fashioned into implements elsewhere. The possession of such masses by the aborigines was noted by the early explorers and missionaries. On the extensive village-sites at Two Rivers, Sheboygan, Green Lake, and elsewhere have been obtained numerous small chips, scales, and fragments of copper, plainly indicating that the manufacture of implements was carried on there. Elsewhere in the state have been found lumps of the metal exhibiting tool-marks, and other indications of working.

Distribution

To fully discuss this phase of the subject would require many pages. The student must therefore content himself with such information as can be condensed into a comparatively limited space.

Implements and ornaments of native copper are distributed commonly or sparingly throughout a large portion of the eastern half of the United States and in some states west of the Mississippi River. Outside of our own state, numbers of them have been recovered in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, and West Virginia, and also from the mounds and stone graves and village-sites in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. Mr. Clarence B. Moore, whose explorations have been very extensive, has reported their existence in the mounds of Florida and elsewhere in the extreme South. From five mounds on the St. John’s River in Florida he obtained ornaments of sheet-copper with repoussé designs, beads of sheet-copper, beads of wood, shell, and limestone copper coated, copper effigies of the turtle and the serpent, and piercing implements of copper. Dr. C. C. Abbott long ago recorded the existence of copper implements in the Delaware Valley.

Fig. 582. (S. 3–4.) Copper gouges. The one to the left was found near Westford, Dodge County, Wisconsin. The one to the right was found near Chilton, Wisconsin.

Fig. 583. (S. 1–1.) Copper spud from Mercer, Iron County, Wisconsin. Loaned to the Milwaukee Public Museum by Mr. R. L. Ball.

As a result of his researches, Rev. W. M. Beauchamp recently issued under the auspices of the University of the State of New York, at Albany, two finely illustrated bulletins, one descriptive of the metallic implements and the other of the metallic ornaments of the New York Indians.

Fig. 584. (S. 5–6.) Copper axe. Found in a mound on Green Bay Road, one mile north of Milwaukee. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

Professor G. H. Perkins states that objects of this metal are far more numerous in New England than those of bone or shell. They are found not only on the surface, but in the graves as well. They are similar in form to Wisconsin artifacts, and he believes it probable that all are made of metal obtained from the Lake Superior district. Dr. David Boyle and others have called our attention to the presence of native copper implements in both eastern and western Canada.

There is no longer any doubt that much of this metal was thus distributed, either in the unworked state or as finished artifacts, in the course of the trades or regular exchanges known to have been carried on between the aborigines holding possession of the copper district and those of other regions.

A description of the Wisconsin districts from which the greatest number of such artifacts have been recovered up to the present time may be given as extending from about the middle of Milwaukee County, northward along the west shore of Lake Michigan to Door County, thence westward to the Wisconsin River or slightly beyond, thence southward along this stream to Dane County and eastward to Milwaukee County, the starting-point. Embraced within this territory are the extensive lake shore village-sites, from which thousands of articles have already been recovered, and certain well-known sites in Green Lake and adjoining counties, the Rush Lake, Lake Chetek, and similarly productive regions. The amount of copper implements obtained from the mounds and graves of Wisconsin is very small when compared with the quantity obtained from the village-sites and fields.

Classes and Functions

The native copper artifacts of Wisconsin admit of separation into two principal classes, designated as implements and ornaments. Of these the former class is by far the more numerous. Mr. Henry P. Hamilton estimates that articles of utility constitute fully 95 per cent of the copper artifacts found in Wisconsin.

It is but natural that on account of its proximity to the source of supply we should find in our own state not only a more bountiful supply of implements, but a greater range of classes, types, and varieties as well. The correctness of this conclusion is proven beyond doubt. In the matter of the number and artistic excellence of its copper ornaments and objects of a ceremonial nature, Wisconsin, while possessing some types apparently peculiar to itself, cannot properly be said to lead. The artistically cut or embossed sheet-copper discs, gorgets, and plates, the spool-shaped objects and copper-sheathed stone and wooden ornaments of Ohio, Illinois, and the South, are here conspicuous by their almost total absence.

Fig. 585. (S. 1–1.) Copper spud with incised zigzag decoration. Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

No one Wisconsin collection contains all of the classes and types of the implements described in this bulletin. An examination of almost any local copper cabinet, however small, is almost certain to reveal the presence of some object that is original or peculiar; or some variation of a well-known type not elsewhere to be seen. The difficulties attending the making of a proper classification are therefore apparent. Especially among the objects classed as arrow- and spear-points the number of well-established types, of varieties and infrequent forms, is particularly numerous. In a somewhat lesser degree this is also true of other classes of implements.

Among spear- and arrow-points especially, there appears to be a gradual development from the primitive leaf-shaped, through the stemmed, to the numerous and well-executed socketed forms. In this case the important element in the transition from one form to another is in the manner of hafting. A gradual transition in some instances from well-marked types of one class into those of another may also be noted. The uses of many of these implements, because of their close resemblance to modern articles, are readily understood. The precise function of others is not so readily ascertained.

An examination of a large series of any of these should convince us that each had its special function, although probably also employed for such other exigencies as might arise.

In the following pages the various classes of local copper implements and ornaments are described and such information and suggestions concerning their workmanship, purposes, frequency, and distribution given as is now obtainable.

Axes

Large numbers of these implements have been recovered from Wisconsin soil and are to-day represented by one or several examples in nearly every local copper collection. They vary in weight from half a pound to three pounds, rarely more, and in size from three to ten inches. So far as is known no hafted copper axe has yet been recovered. Probably the usual and most satisfactory method of hafting one of these implements was to insert it between the parts of a cleft stick, to which it was afterwards secured by winding the stick above and below it with strips of hide, a number of turns being also taken around or across it. There are at least three well-established types of these implements, which may be briefly described as follows:—

Fig. 586. (S. 2–3.) Copper axe, Washington County, Wisconsin. Copper chisel, near Charleston, Calumet County, Wisconsin.

1. Those which are oblong or nearly oblong in outline, having the edges parallel or nearly so, and whose breadth is such as to exclude them from the class of implements known as chisels. Specimens range from less than four up to seven or more inches in length. They are generally of nearly uniform thickness throughout. (See Figs. 576, 578.) A variety of the above type has the margin at the edges slightly elevated, thus giving a depressed or concave surface in the centre, and from end to end, on one or both broad faces of the axe. In some examples this margin is fully one half inch in width at or near the middle of the axe. A curious feature of some examples of this uncommon form is the concave cutting edge. Such implements are to be seen in a number of the larger public and private collections in Wisconsin. So far as can be ascertained no examples of these curious axes have been obtained in surrounding states, where the normal form also occurs.

2. Axes with straight, tapering edges. They are widest at the cutting edge and become gradually narrower towards the head, which is either square, rounded, or pointed. The cutting edge is straight or convex. This appears to be the most common type of copper axe. The largest example known is fourteen inches in length and the smallest only two inches. The large specimen comes from Neillsville, Clark County, and is in the State Historical Museum. (See Fig. 578.)

3. A third and less frequent type has the edges curving equally from the cutting edge to the head. Most examples are quite thin, broad and flat. The head is square and sometimes nearly as broad as the cutting edge. By reason of their broad, expanding cutting edges, some of these axes may be appropriately described as bell-shaped. Fine specimens of this type are to be seen in the Milwaukee Public Museum, and in other collections. These axes approach the modern axes in form. In the H. P. Hamilton collection is a notched copper axe which comes from the vicinity of Horicon. It is rather rude and is irregularly oval in outline. Mr. M. C. Long has in his Kansas City collection the only grooved copper axe known.

Fig. 587. (S. 1–1.) Copper spud, Island Lake, near Gagan, Oneida County, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

Copper axes were well adapted alike for peaceful and warlike pursuits. In the hands of the Wisconsin aborigines they were undoubtedly useful implements, superseding at best the clumsy stone axe or hatchet, and possibly being in their turn laid aside for the more serviceable iron axe of the fur-trader.

Employed in warfare or the chase they would be terrible weapons. As tools they were probably especially useful in the felling of trees, the shaping of log canoes, the erection of dwellings, barricades, and stockades.

They may have been employed in connection with or without fire. It has been suggested that some of the smaller implements may have served as wedges.

Chisels. (See Figs. 577, 579, 580.)

The aboriginal copper implements known as chisels are of nearly as frequent occurrence in local cabinets as the implements of the foregoing class. In the H. P. Hamilton collection there is to be seen an especially fine series of at least a dozen or more examples, ranging in size from five to fifteen inches and in weight from five ounces to five and three fourths pounds. An equally fine series is in the Field Museum.

The office of these fine implements probably included the excavating of wooden canoes, mortars, and other vessels. Their employment in connection with the mining operations of the Indians has been mentioned. Some specimens exhibit upon their heads the flattening which would result from their being used in conjunction with a wooden mallet, club, stone, or other weighty object. Others show no such marks and were probably employed without such agencies. Rev. W. M. Beauchamp states that a large proportion of the copper articles found in New York are of the celt (axe) or chisel form. Professor G. H. Perkins has described similar implements from New England. At least three distinct types of these implements are known to occur in Wisconsin:—

1. The first of these is broadest at the cutting edge. The edges taper gradually upward from the cutting edge to a pointed, rounded, or squared head. They are usually thickest at or below the middle, the flat or convex surface sloping toward the narrow extremity. Some of these have the upper surface convex and the lower surface flat. The broad or narrow sides may be either convex or flat. Fine implements of this form are to be seen in the H. P. Hamilton, State Historical Museum, and other local collections. A few approach fourteen inches in length. (See Fig. 579.)

Fig. 588. (S. 1–1.) Back view of Fig. 587. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

2. A second type is of nearly uniform width throughout, with straight, parallel edges. A specimen in the S. D. Mitchell collection has a cutting edge at either extremity. Implements of this type are to be seen in various Wisconsin cabinets. They range from about five to ten or more inches in length, and from one and one half to two inches in width. (See Fig. 580.)

3. A third and less frequent type is characterized by a more or less prominent median ridge, which traverses its upper surface from within an inch or more of the cutting edge to the opposite extremity. From this ridge the surface bevels off evenly on either side toward the edge. The lower surface is usually flat, thus giving a triangular section. The edges are generally parallel for at least three quarters of the distance back from the cutting edge, whence they taper or curve gradually to the rounded head. A few are of nearly uniform width throughout, with an angular or squared head. Several of these implements have the upper extremity abruptly narrowed and prolonged into a short tang, as if intended to be set into a wooden handle. A few are curved or bowed from extremity to extremity. Some specimens have an expanded, curved cutting edge. One of the largest of these ridged chisels is fourteen and three fourths inches in length. It is in the H. P. Hamilton collection and comes from the town of Oshkosh, Winnebago County. (See specimen to the left, Fig. 579.)

Spuds. (See Figs. 581, 583.)

In northwestern Wisconsin have been obtained a limited number of copper implements bearing a close resemblance in form to some of the so-called stone spuds or spade-shaped implements, after which they were probably patterned. They are rather broad, flat implements, of nearly uniform thickness throughout, and from six to eight or more inches in length. The broad, narrow blades are semicircular or crescentic in outline. From them the handle tapers backward to a squared or slightly rounded extremity. The narrow sides are flattened. The author is indebted to Professor T. H. Lewis for sketches and information in regard to some of these, which were obtained by him at Lake Chetek, Barron County, Wisconsin; at St. Paul, Minnesota, and at Ontonagon, Michigan.

Fig. 589. (S. 6–7.) Copper spud from near Pewaukee Lake, Waukesha County, Wisconsin.

Fig. 590. (S. 3–5.) Copper spear. S. D. Mitchell’s collection, Ripon, Wisconsin.

The conclusion, probably correct, in regard to these implements is that they were employed, like the stone and modern iron implements which they resemble, in stripping bark from trees and for similar purposes.

Gouges. (See Figs. 582, 585.)

These implements are closely allied to the chisels, from which they are distinguished by the presence on their lower surface of a concavity sometimes reaching quite to the middle. They are well adapted for working out rounded or oval holes or hollows, and in Wisconsin are generally considered to have been wood-working tools. Elsewhere they were probably also employed like the more common stone gouges in quarrying and working steatite, catlinite, and similar deposits useful to the aborigines. Such implements are to be seen in the H. P. Hamilton, Field Museum, and one or two other collections.

Fig. 591. (S. about 1–1.) Copper spears. Found on Bluff Point, near Penn Yan, New York. Collection of L. G. Ogden, Penn Yan, New York.

Several specimens known to the author approach seven inches in length.

Professor Perkins mentions copper gouges as being rare in New England, where stone gouges are a common and characteristic implement. Neither stone nor metal gouges are of frequent occurrence in Wisconsin.

Adzes

These implements have also been called spuds, winged chisels, and hoes. Of these the term “spud,” though unsatisfactory, appears to be that in most general use at the present time. This name, as has already been shown, is likewise applied to a rather numerous class of stone implements of quite different pattern and use. Several theories as to the possible function of these implements have been advanced. It has been suggested that they were ice-cutting tools, or agricultural implements.

An examination of a large series of them suggests the correctness of the now prevailing opinion that they were employed in shaping wooden canoes and executing tasks of a like nature. Properly hafted, their general adaptability to such service is plain.

Fig. 592. (S. 1–2.) Various copper implements. University of Vermont collection.

A somewhat similar tool is also employed by modern woodworkers.

1. There are at least two well-marked types of these implements. The first of these is generally nearly square, less frequently oblong in outline. The flanges of the implement are turned inward to form a socket, at the base of which is a hip or shoulder, against which the tip of the wooden handle abuts. The blade is elevated above the socket and is provided with a straight or slightly curved cutting edge. The back of the implement, opposite the socket, is flat or transversely convex, and slopes or curves downward to the cutting edge. This is certainly the most common type, and has been obtained in many parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. Examples have also been collected in Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa. The average specimen appears to be about three inches in length by two and a half inches in width. The smallest known is only one and a fourth inches and the largest six and a fourth inches in length. Fine series of these implements are to be seen in the Logan Museum, Field Museum, State Historical Museum, Milwaukee Museum, H. P. Hamilton, and other collections. In weight adzes of this type vary from a few ounces to one and a half or more pounds. (Fig. 581.)

2. A second type differs from the preceding mainly in the fact that the extremity of the socket is angular in outline and that the flanges are bent straight upward or inward, instead of curved. The hip at the base of the socket is also often absent. The back is generally flat or transversely rounded, and in some specimens traversed from the top to the cutting edge by a pronounced median ridge. A specimen in the Milwaukee Public Museum has the middle of its back ornamented with a double row of zigzag incisions. Its blade is also ornamented. (Fig. 583.)

These implements are as a class larger than the foregoing. Of a dozen or more examples which the writer has examined in the Hamilton and other local cabinets, none are below five inches in length and two and a fourth inches in breadth, the largest known being six inches in length and three inches in breadth. The weight of these specimens ranges from twelve ounces to nearly two pounds.

There are also a small number of peculiar forms, each represented by a single example. These vary in the length and breadth of the flanges and the shape of the blade. When a sufficient number of these shall have been recovered, it may be advisable to expand the present classification to include them. Many of the implements included in the adze class are admirable for their symmetry and perfection. A specimen secured in the Lake Superior region has a portion of the wooden handle still fitted in the socket.

Fig. 593. (S. 2–3.) Copper chisel and awls. Logan Museum collection, Beloit, Wisconsin.

Fig. 594. (S. 2–3.) Copper spears. Collection of the Logan Museum, Beloit, Wisconsin.

Spatulas

Of the copper implements known as spatulas only a small number of examples have as yet been recovered in Wisconsin. The blade of these artifacts is usually broad and thin and irregularly rounded or somewhat triangular in outline. The handle is short, seldom more than three eighths of an inch in thickness, and nearly square or somewhat rectangular in section. Specimens are to be seen in the State Historical Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, and other local collections. They range from four to nearly six inches in length.

Fig. 595. (S. about 3–4.) Copper ridged spear-point, socket tang. From Coloma, Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

Fig. 596. (S. 1–4.) Copper spears. Collection of H. P. Hamilton, Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Fig. 597. (S. about 3–5.) Copper knives. Left to right: Hartford, Washington County, Wisconsin; Merton, Waukesha County, Wisconsin; Wayne, Washington County, Wisconsin.

The Reverend W. H. Beauchamp has described and figured both an iron and a copper implement of this class from New York. The possible employment of these implements in the shaping of aboriginal earthenware, the removing of the flesh from skins and bones, and of the scales from fish, has been suggested. They are but poorly adapted for use as spoons.

The small number of specimens on hand at present makes it undesirable to venture an opinion of their utility.

Knives. (Figs. 597, 598.)

In point of numbers these easily rank second to the numerous class of socketed spear-points. They have been recovered in considerable numbers in many parts of the state. At least four distinct types and some intermediate and peculiar forms are recognized. The close resemblance of some of these to the white man’s knife has frequently been remarked upon.

1. The most frequent form has a usually straight back and oblique curved or straight cutting edge. It is provided with a generally short, tapering, pointed tang, suitable for insertion into a wooden, bone, or horn handle. Such knives, ranging in size from diminutive specimens one inch in length up to twelve inches, are not uncommon in local collections. (Left specimen, Fig. 597.)

An exceptionally large and fine example in the Oshkosh Library collection measures seventeen and a half inches in length and weighs eleven ounces. The blade is one and a half inches in breadth at its base, and the tang is six inches in length. A few have the cutting edge of the blade beveled. In the R. Kuehne collection is a small hammered native silver knife of this type which was obtained from the vicinity of Sheboygan. A small number of these knives have their blades ornamented with incisions and indentations. Specimens of these are to be seen in the H. George Schuette, H. P. Hamilton, and other collections.

2. A second type is distinguished from the preceding by the greater breadth of its broad curved blade, which terminates in a broadly rounded point. In this style of knife the blade on one or both sides is frequently traversed from point to tang by a pronounced median ridge. The broad, flat tang also terminates in a blunt point. Such implements are to be seen in the Field Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, State Historical Museum, H. P. Hamilton, and other collections. These vary in size from six to twelve and three fourths inches in length and from one and a fourth to two and an eighth inches in the extreme breadth of the blade. (One in Fig. 568.)

Fig. 598. (S. 2–3.) Copper spears, knives, and arrow-points. Collection of S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.

3. A third type, locally known as the “handled copper knife,” differs from the preceding styles mainly in having the tang so uniformly broad as to obviate the necessity of a wooden or other handle. Only a small number of these are in collections. A fine specimen is seven inches in length. The handle is two and a half inches in length, and of a nearly uniform breadth of three fourths of an inch. It comes from Pardeeville, Columbia County, and is in the Logan Museum at Beloit. A knife in the J. T. Reeder collection, at Houghton, Michigan, has a broad copper ferule still encircling its tang. The tip of the tang is bent over, meeting the ferule. (Fig. 581, left specimen, near centre.)

4. Socketed knives. These resemble the knives of the type first described in the shape of their blades. They are provided with a socket similar to those of the socketed spears. A small number of these have been found and are to be seen in the H. P. Hamilton, H. George Schuette, and other Wisconsin collections. They range from two to nine inches in size.

In these knives the cutting edge is usually along the right, rarely along the left side of the blade. A specimen in a Milwaukee collection has its blade ornamented with indentations. A small number of knives of peculiar forms are also to be seen in local cabinets. (See Fig. 597.)

Arrow- and Spear-Points

1. Leaf-shaped points. (Fig. 598, upper right-hand specimen.) These vary considerably in form and size, measuring from two to six or more inches in length. The average size appears to be about four inches. Some are oval in outline, others elliptical, lanceolate, or almond-shaped, the elliptical forms appearing to predominate. The points are not numerous. One or more specimens are to be seen in all of the larger Wisconsin collections.

A small number of lanceolate forms in the Hamilton collection have the added feature of a median ridge which traverses either side of the blade from end to end. These range from two and three fourths to nine inches in length.

2. Stemmed, flat points. (Fig. 603—to the right. Fig. 598—lower central specimen.) These are of quite common occurrence in Wisconsin collections. These points are generally quite flat and of nearly uniform thickness throughout. The stem is of uniform breadth or tapers slightly toward its extremity. In the former form it sometimes expands at the base. The base is sometimes indented. In the Field Museum there is a fine specimen of this variety from Montello, Marquette County. It is nearly seven inches in length.

Fig. 599. (S. 4–5.) Copper spear-points. Left to right: Merton, Waukesha County, Wisconsin; Colgate, Waukesha County, Wisconsin; Wayne, Barton County, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

The blade varies considerably in shape and size. The smallest example known is one and three fourths and the largest about eight inches in length. The average size appears to be about three inches. A very small number have the face of the blade ornamented with indentations, usually arranged in two parallel rows.

2 a. Ridged points. (Fig. 595.) These and several of the succeeding forms are, strictly speaking, only well-established varieties of the preceding type. In the present instance they are distinguished by the presence of a median ridge which traverses both faces of the point, usually from tip to tip. This is not a frequent form. The largest specimen now known measures six inches in length. It is in the H. P. Hamilton cabinet and was found at Two Rivers. Professor T. H. Lewis obtained a specimen from a mound in Pepin County. Other specimens are in the Field Museum and Milwaukee Public Museum and several private collections.

Fig. 600. (S. 1–2.) Copper spear-heads. Rat-tail type. Logan Museum collection, Beloit, Wisconsin.

Fig. 601. (S. 1–3.) Copper spears and knives. Collection of S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.

Fig. 602. (S. 2–3.) Copper punch, hooked end, to right; from Barton, Wisconsin. Copper punch to left; from Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Copper punch in the centre, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

2 b. Beveled points. Of these only a small number of examples have been recovered. They are distinguished from the most frequent flat, stemmed form by a distinct bevel of generally uniform width which extends along the edges on both faces of the blade. Sometimes this bevel is nearly one half inch in breadth. The shape of the blade varies considerably. The known specimens range from two and a half to five inches in size. Examples are to be seen in the Field Museum, H. P. Hamilton, and other collections.

2 c. Eyed points. The base of the stem in this rare form is provided with an eye, opening outward and probably intended for the reception of a rivet. Otherwise these points do not differ from the flat, stemmed types. Only a very small number of specimens have been found.

2 d. Notched points. These bear a close resemblance to a numerous class of flint arrow- and spear-points, after which they are probably patterned. No two of them are exactly alike. They differ from each other in the shape of the blade and shape and position of the notch. A few are traversed by a median ridge. Some have indented bases. They vary in size from less than two and up to six inches in length. Such points are of infrequent occurrence. Specimens are in existence in the Milwaukee Public Museum, Field Museum, Logan Museum, and other collections.

2 e. Toothed points. These are rather remarkable and interesting implements, and are distinguished from all others by the peculiar angular toothing or serration of the edges of the stem, the purpose of which is evidently to facilitate the fastening of the point to the wooden shaft or handle, into which it was inserted, by means of sinews or strips of hide. A greater solidity of attachment was thus secured. The number of opposite notches on the stem varies in different examples, from two to as many as six or seven. The usual number appears to be two or three. Most examples of this type are long and narrow. A few, however, are short and broad, and elliptical in outline. The largest known example of this form is about nine and a half inches and the smallest about two inches in length. The average size appears to be about three and a half inches. In many specimens a central ridge or elevation extends along either side from extremity to extremity, or only from the base of the stem to the point of the blade. (Fig. 599.)

Fig. 603. (S. 1–3.) Copper knives, awls, fish-hooks, and other objects. S. D. Mitchell’s collection, Ripon, Wisconsin.

In both the F. M. Benedict and H. P. Hamilton collections are large and fine series of these points. Upon a specimen in the latter collection indications of cloth wrappings are to be seen. Other collections also possess one or a number of examples. The greater part of the known specimens are from the Fox and Wolf river valleys in northeastern Wisconsin. Now and then flint spear-points of somewhat similar pattern have been found in and about the same district. Michigan has furnished a few specimens of the copper points. Slate points of very similar form occur in New England, where they are regarded as knives. A small number of copper points of this pattern are also reported to have been found there.

3. Spatula-shaped points. (Fig. 596, central ones, and Fig. 600.) These peculiar points have obtained their name from the resemblance which the typical form bears to a chemist’s spatula. They are also locally known as “rat-tailed points.” In the most frequent form the blade is rather flat and somewhat elliptical in outline. It does not generally exceed three inches in length, being usually less than one half the total length of the implement. A small number have an elliptical, lanceolate or very rarely elongated lozenge-shaped blade. The usually long, tapering stem is generally circular or nearly circular in section, and is well adapted for insertion into a perforation or socket in a wooden shaft or handle. Several specimens have near the tips of their pointed stems a succession of rudely cut opposite notches, probably intended to prevent the easy withdrawal of the point from the shaft. A very small number have the blade traversed by a median ridge. The smallest specimen of this type of copper point now known is four inches and the largest nine and a half inches in length. A large number attain the size of eight inches. Fine specimens are to be seen in the State Historical Museum, Logan Museum, Field Museum, Hamilton, and other collections. The Reverend Mr. Beauchamp has noted the occurrence of a limited number of specimens in New York. A small number of iron trade points of similar shape have been found.

4. Short-stemmed points. The blade is generally long and triangular in shape, the stem short, cylindrical, and pointed at the end. The average size of these points appears to be about six inches. (Fig. 596.)

The largest example now known is twelve inches in length, the stem measuring only about three inches. This is not a frequent form of copper point. Fine specimens are to be seen in the Field Museum, Hamilton, and other collections. A cache of four of these singular points found at Chilton, Calumet County, is to be seen in the Milwaukee Public Museum. The Reverend W. M. Beauchamp has described similar spear-points from New York.

Fig. 604. (S. 1–1.) Copper harpoons. Logan Museum collection, Beloit, Wisconsin.

4 a. Barbed or pronged points. This type of copper point is of rather infrequent occurrence. The blade is usually of an oval or somewhat triangular shape. A few specimens have long narrow blades. Situated just below the base of the blade on either side is a single barb or prong. These prongs are sharply or obtusely pointed and as a general thing do not extend out to a point in line with the outer edge of the base of the blade. The stem is short, flat, or cylindrical, and usually tapers to a sharp point. (Upper left-hand specimen, Fig. 592.)

In some examples the blade is traversed on one or both faces by a well-defined median ridge. The prongs probably served the double purpose of barbs and of projections, by means of which the point could be more firmly secured to the wooden shaft into which it was inserted. Such points are to be seen in the Hamilton, Field Museum, and other collections.

The smallest specimen known is three inches and the largest about seven and one half inches in length. The average size appears to be about four inches.

This interesting form of spear-point also occurs sparingly in surrounding states, and has been recorded from as far east as New York and New England, where a few specimens have been found.

Large iron spear-points of somewhat similar form, but with the projections squared at the ends, have been found in Wisconsin. Some of these have hearts and other devices cut or punched through the face of their blades. These were probably introduced among the Indians by the early fur-traders.

5. Conical points. A very large number of these have been collected from the extensive Lake Michigan shore village-sites in Wisconsin, of which locations they appear to be more or less characteristic, replacing to a large extent all other types of copper points. Some fine examples have also been obtained from other sites in counties farther inland; from the Lake Superior shore, and from the Lake of the Woods region in Minnesota. Fine series of these points are to be seen in the A. Gerend, Hamilton, Kuehne, and other collections. (Fig. 598, three lower figures.)

Fig. 605. (S. about 3–4.) Copper harpoons. Left to right: Hartford, Washington County, Wisconsin; Wisconsin; Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

Fig. 606. (S. 1–2.) Copper harpoon. Collection of S. G. Crump, Pittsford, New York.

Fig. 607. (S. 1–8.) Front and reverse of a copper war-club. Dug out of a prehistoric grave at Spuzzum, British Columbia. Obtained by Mr. James Teit.

These points vary in length from less than one inch up to six inches or more. The majority, however, are of small size and do not exceed two inches in length. The most prevalent form is fashioned in the shape of an attenuated hollow cone of small diameter. Other specimens have the point solid for an inch or more back from the tip. Less frequently they are furnished with an open angular socket and hip like that of the ordinary socketed copper spear. In a few examples the flanges of the socket are pierced with a square or round hole, as if for the reception of a rivet, or possibly for the attachment of a light line. A few have a rivet-hole also at the base of the socket. It has been stated that these points have occasionally been found with fragments of the wooden shaft filling or extending beyond the socket. Their presence in numbers upon the sandy lake shore sites where the aboriginal residents appear to have depended largely upon the fishing industry for subsistence, appears to indicate their employment in such a connection. Possibly in the shooting or spearing of fish.

Fig. 608. The base of the Effigy Mound, Hopewell Group. Explored in 1891–92. Copper axes and plates in the foreground, lying as found. Teams, thirty to forty feet distant, and two feet higher than the deposit.

6. Ridged socketed points. If we except from consideration the very numerous small awls and fish-hooks, we may truthfully state that this is by far the most common type of copper implement occurring in Wisconsin.

Thousands of these points have been collected in Wisconsin, and probably as many or an even greater number are yet to be recovered from the soil.

They are represented in greater or less numbers in every Wisconsin and in many other collections.

This type and its varieties are too well and widely known to require much of a description. They are frequently symmetrically and beautifully wrought, indicating a degree of skill on the part of their aboriginal makers that is unsurpassed. The blade varies considerably in length and breadth. The stem is provided with flanges which are bent straight upward or inward, thus forming an angular socket for the reception of the wooden shaft. Some points having fragments of this shaft still in place have been found. This form is rarely if ever provided with a rivet-hole. In most examples there is a dip or shoulder in the socket at the connection of the stem and blade, against which the head of the wooden shaft abutted. A distinctive feature of these points is the pronounced central ridge which traverses the back of the implement from end to end. It is this feature which has gained for this style of point the local name of “bayonet-backed spear-point.” The tip of the stem is also usually angularly pointed. A small number of these points have the upper surface of their blades ornamented with indentations variously arranged in double rows or lines. This type of copper point has been found as far to the south as the Gulf, as far east as New England, westward to the Missouri, and northward into Canada.

The largest example known to have been found in Wisconsin measures thirteen inches in length. It is in the E. C. Perkins collection. The average size is between three and five inches.

Fig. 609. (S. 3–5.) Large copper plate covered with shell beads, Seip Mound, Ohio. W. C. Mills’s collection.

6 a. Rolled socketed points. (Fig. 601.) This form is almost if not quite as common as the preceding, from which it is distinguished mainly by the fact that the back of the blade and stem are not usually upon the same plane. The central ridge also is absent. Many examples are provided with a rivet-hole (very rarely with two, one above the other) within the socket near the base of the stem. Specimens with a small copper rivet or nail still in place in the socket are of not infrequent occurrence in Wisconsin collections.

At least two well-defined varieties of these points may be recognized:—

1. The first of these is provided with a short, broad, oval, or almond-shaped blade. The stem and socket in this form is usually broadest at the base, tapering or narrowing toward the blade. The average length of these specimens is about four inches. A large specimen found at Ripon, Fond du Lac County, measures seven inches in length, and two inches in breadth near the base of the blade. Specimens of this type may be seen in the Hamilton, State Historical Museum, Logan Museum, and other collections.

2. The second form is furnished with a long, narrow, lanceolate blade, often twice or more than twice as long as the stem. The socket and stem rarely taper upward and are of more nearly equal width throughout. In both this and the preceding form the flanges of the socket are rolled inward, in some instances nearly meeting. The average length of these points appears to be about five inches. The largest specimen known measures eleven and one half inches in length. Such specimens are to be seen in nearly every Wisconsin cabinet.

In the very limited number of the smaller specimens the face of the blade, rarely the back, is ornamented with indentations. The edges of the blade are also sometimes beveled.

Among the smaller specimens is observed a variety in which the length of the stem equals or exceeds that of the blade. In some specimens the socket has the appearance of having been formed by excavating the stem, the narrow flanges being continuous with the blade instead of cut and turned inward as in the ordinary form. A small number of iron socketed spear-points, not differing greatly from the ordinary socketed copper point, have been found.

Peculiar points. In several Wisconsin collections are several spear-points of curious form not included under any of the foregoing descriptions or represented, so far as can be learned, in other Wisconsin cabinets.

Fig. 610. (S. 1–1.) Ornamented copper plate, Seip Mound, Ohio. W. C. Mills’s collection.

One of these in the H. P. Hamilton collection has a long slender blade and a very short socket. It is seven and one quarter inches in length and comes from Two Rivers, Manitowoc County. Its blade is ornamented with a row of nine indentations.

In the Milwaukee Public Museum is a series of three peculiar socketed spear-points of an average length of about eight and one half inches. The blade of each of these is very long and narrow, with straight edges, and terminates in a sharp point. The stem is very short and narrow in comparison with the blade and broadens into a short socket at its base. One specimen has the middle of its blade, from near the base toward the middle, ornamented with a continuous zigzag indentation. Another has upon its blade a series of dots arranged in a triangular form. Two of these points come from Fond du Lac County, and the other from Sheboygan County.

Harpoon-Points

The purpose of these implements is too plain to make any explanation necessary. Four distinct types of harpoon-points, none of which are as yet known to be of other than very infrequent occurrence, have been obtained in Wisconsin. What special application any of these several patterns may have had is not yet clear. The following is a brief description of them:—

1. The first are short, flattish points seldom exceeding two and a half inches in length. (Fig. 605, to the left.) One edge of these implements is either straight or presents a continuous curve from extremity to extremity. The other edge is curved or straight from the point downward to about opposite the middle of the implement, where it terminates in a barb. From thence it narrows to the other extremity, thus forming a stem. Occasionally this is notched on either side near its base. Small numbers of these points have been recovered from the village-sites along the Lake Michigan shore.

2. A second and less frequent form is cylindrical in section and tapers to a sharp point at each extremity. (Fig. 604, second from right.) Removed from one extremity by several inches, more or less, is a stout and very pronounced barb. All are of large size. A particularly large specimen measures ten and three fourths inches in length and about one half inch in diameter at the middle. Others are to be seen in the State Historical Museum and H. P. Hamilton collections. Mr. Clarence B. Moore has figured and described a large example obtained by him in Florida.

Fig. 611. (S. 2–3.) Copper crescents. Collection of Logan Museum, Beloit, Wisconsin.

Iron harpoons of similar form, but frequently possessing from two to three barbs, sometimes alternating on opposite sides of the implement are still in use by Wisconsin Indians for spearing large fish.

Fig. 612. (S. 1–1.) Ear ornaments from the Hopewell Group, Ohio.

3. Another form of harpoon is represented by a specimen in the Milwaukee Public Museum. This implement is somewhat triangular in section, about eight and a half inches in length and about three fourths of an inch in breadth at the middle. The ends taper to a blunted point. The thinner edge of the implement is furnished with four stout, broad barbs, separated from each other by a distance of about one and a half inches. Bone harpoon-points of this pattern occur in New York and Ontario. (Like Fig. 606.)

4. A fourth type, the so-called “socketed harpoon-point” (Fig. 604), has one edge of its blade prolonged into a barb at the base. This barb may be on either the right or left side. Otherwise this type does not differ in shape from some of the flat-backed, socketed spear-points. Only a small number of these points have been found. All these are provided with a rivet-hole in the socket. An example in the Logan Museum is about four inches in length, and comes from Mequon, Ozaukee County.

Pikes and Punches. (See Fig. 602.)

In this class of objects, which are as yet alluded to by students and collectors by either of the above or other names, are included the largest copper implements found in Wisconsin. They are rod-like in form, usually circular or square, less frequently rectangular in section, and taper to a point at one or both ends. Large specimens of each of these several patterns have been found. The largest is in the Field Museum. It is about forty inches in length, one inch in diameter at the middle, and tapers to a point at either extremity. It weighs five and a quarter pounds and was obtained from a burial-mound on the Abraham place, at Peshtigo, Marinette County.

Fig. 613. (S. 1–1.) Copper crescent-shaped object obtained near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.

Fig. 614. (S. 1–3.) Copper crescents. Collection of Wisconsin Archæological Society.

A specimen in the H. P. Hamilton collection is twenty-nine inches in length, seven eighths of an inch in diameter, and weighs two and three fourths pounds. About one inch from the pointed extremity there is a broken projection which Mr. Hamilton believes to have been a barb. The other end terminates in a small claw or broken out eye. It comes from Maple Creek, Outagamie County. In the T. W. Hamilton collection there is another fine specimen which is eighteen and a half inches in length and weighs one and a half pounds. A specimen found at New Haven, Adams County, is fourteen and a half inches in length and weighs one and three eighths pounds. Other large specimens are to be seen in the Logan Museum, State Historical Museum, and Milwaukee Museum collections. Some of these are rather flat, rectangular in section and one inch in width and less than three eighths of an inch in thickness. They are pointed at one extremity and rounded or blunted at the other. Some other large specimens are known to have been cut in two and otherwise maltreated by the persons who found them.

In the Field Museum collections implements of this pattern ranging from eight inches or less up to the largest size are classed as “pikes.” That they were employed as weapons is extremely doubtful. It has been suggested that they may have been heated and employed in the burning-out of wooden canoes or wooden vessels. There is reason to believe that some of the lighter forms were mounted in wooden handles, at least one example with an accompanying copper ferule having been found at Milwaukee.

Fig. 615. (S. 2–3.) Copper saucer-shaped object. Hopewell Group, Ohio.

Awls and Drills. (See Figs. 593 and 603.)

These have been obtained nowhere in greater numbers than in the Lake Michigan coastal region in Wisconsin. They vary in size from about one to six inches or more, and in thickness from one sixteenth to one half an inch. The greater number are of very small size.

The simplest and most frequent form is a slender cylindrical piece of metal pointed at one or both extremities. A second and usually stouter form is either round or square in section and tapers from a well-marked shoulder at or near the middle to both extremities. Sometimes one end only is pointed. Occasionally also the upper half of the implement is straight and the lower half tapers to a point. Many of these small implements were probably mounted in handles of wood, bone, or antler, the object of the shoulder being to prevent their passing too far into the handle. Several specimens mounted in antler handles have been found. Similar implements of bone and stone have been found in Wisconsin. Most of them were probably employed in drilling holes in wood, bone, or stone, in piercing skins, and for similar purposes. The Eskimo are said to employ somewhat similar implements of bone for catching waterfowl. They are used by attaching a line to the centre, the bone spindle being baited with a small fish into which the implement is inserted lengthwise. Large fish are captured by them in the same manner. We have no record of the employment of such methods by Wisconsin Indians.

Fig. 616. (S. 1–2.) Possibly this was the crown of a head-mask. It seems to indicate growing antlers, or those of a young buck. When found the horns or projections were downward and the raised surface uppermost. Hopewell Group, Ohio.

Spikes. (See Fig. 580, lower left-hand specimen.)

In a number of Wisconsin cabinets are to be seen copper implements locally known as “spikes,” taking their names from the close resemblance which they bear to the modern articles. These vary somewhat in shape and size.

Fig. 617. (S. 1–1.) Pendant of sheet-copper. C. B. Moore’s explorations.

One specimen is four and a half inches in length, one fourth of an inch in thickness, with one extremity pointed and the other enlarged and blunted to form a head. Another is seven inches in length and tapers gradually downward from the head, where it is three fourths of an inch in diameter, to the point.

A few specimens are decidedly square in section.

An examination of the heads indicates that they are not the result of pounding while in use, but constitute an intentional feature of these implements. No suggestion has been offered as to their function. They may be simply perforators or drills. Some of the stouter implements, with broad, flattish points, may have been employed as chisels.

Needles

These are obtained from the same sites as the foregoing and are frequently associated with them, though not nearly as numerous. All are provided with eyes, and except in their somewhat ruder fashioning do not differ from the needles in ordinary domestic use at the present day. Their purpose requires no explanation.

These implements range in size from less than two to as much as eight and an eighth inches. The average size appears to be between two and three inches. Such implements are to be seen in many of the eastern Wisconsin collections. In the Milwaukee Public Museum is a small series of copper needles from Mexico.

Fish-Hooks. (See Fig. 603.)

Hundreds of these and fragments of many others have been collected from the aboriginal village- and camp-sites on the west shore of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. They have also been obtained in numbers from the village-sites at Green Lake and at various other localities along the upper Wisconsin, Fox, Wolf, and Little Wolf rivers, and elsewhere in this part of the state where good fishing was to be had. Some have also been found far to the north along the Lake Superior shore.

Most specimens are of small size, from less than an inch up to two inches in length. The largest known example is four inches in length. They are generally circular, though sometimes decidedly square in section. The points curve and slant outward and inward at all angles and degrees of curvature. None possess any indication of a barb.

The shank at the point of attachment to the line is most frequently straight. Sometimes, however, it is notched, flattened, bent over and flattened, or bent over to form an eye. A few specimens have been collected which have bits of sinew or twisted fibre still attached to the shank. Fine series of these useful articles are to be seen in many local collections.

In the H. P. Hamilton collection there is a series of ten fish-hooks obtained from the bank of the Little Wolf River, in the township of Muckwa, in Waupaca County. These are from two and a half to two and three fourths inches in length, the strongly and broadly curved hook reaching up to about opposite the middle of the shank. Some are circular and others square in section, and all are of a nearly uniform thickness of one fourth of an inch. Several have the tips of the shank flattened, and all are heavily incrusted with soil and verdigris, plainly indicating the manner in which they had lain upon and across each other.

Peculiar Implements

In a few of the large Wisconsin cabinets are to be seen a very small number of implements whose exact functions are unknown and which cannot be placed in any of the various classes here described.

Fig. 618. (S. 1–2.) Remarkable effigy in copper. Collection of J. M. Wolfing, St. Louis, Missouri.

One of these, in the H. P. Hamilton collection, is eight and one quarter inches in length. It is circular in section and tapers to a point at either extremity. It is seven eighths of an inch in diameter near the thicker extremity and is knotty all over the surface. Mr. Hamilton suggests that it may have been employed as a club or bludgeon. It weighs eight and one half ounces and comes from Little Chute, Outagamie County. In the same collection there is also to be seen a long, curved, flattish implement which, it has been suggested, may have served as a sword. It is about twenty inches in length and about one inch in width near the middle. It was obtained with a cache of six other copper implements at Oconto, Oconto County, Wisconsin.

Banner-Stones

The only specimens in native copper of this interesting and widely distributed class of ceremonial objects are in the H. P. Hamilton collection. One is of the ordinary butterfly pattern with expanding wings. Both specimens were found at Oconto, Oconto County, and were included in a remarkable cache of copper implements and ornaments, consisting of a crescent, sword, chisel, leaf-shaped blade, and two arrow-points. This specimen, weighing five ounces, is three and one half inches in length, and one and one fourth inches in width across the elevated part at the middle. The broad wings are one and one fourth inches in length and one and one half inches in width across their outer edges. The perforation at the middle is of one inch in length and has a short diameter of half an inch. A second specimen in the same cabinet is of the so-called “pick” shape. It weighs two and one fourth ounces. It is five inches in length and only one inch in width across the widest part, near the middle. The narrow wings are two and one fourth inches in length and taper to a rounded point, the perforation at the middle being half an inch in diameter.

Beads. (See Figs. 569, 570.)

The most common local form of copper bead is somewhat spherical in shape and was fashioned by rolling together a small, narrow strip or welt of native metal, varying in thickness from less than one eighth to one fourth of an inch or more, only one or two turns of which were necessary to make a rude bead of quite large size. Beads of this kind have been obtained in large numbers from Wisconsin village-sites, graves, and, sometimes, from the mounds. Quantities of them, as many as one hundred or more, have occasionally been taken from a single grave.

Fig. 619. (S. 1–3.) Unknown symbols in sheet-copper, Hopewell Group.

In several Wisconsin collections fine strings or necklaces of such beads may be seen. Beads of this form have also been obtained in Ohio, northern Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota. The Reverend W. M. Beauchamp has mentioned their occurrence in New York.

A second and quite common form of copper bead is made of a thin sheet of metal rolled into the form of a cylinder.

They vary in diameter from one eighth to one quarter of an inch or more, sometimes exceed two inches in length. They are of quite common occurrence on the Lake Michigan shore and on some inland village-sites. From aboriginal village-sites at Two Rivers and on the shores of Green Bay small cylinders formed by twisting thin sheets of native copper between the fingers in a spiral shape are found.

Bangles. (See Fig. 569.)

These are also made of thin sheets of native copper. They are of small size, conical or somewhat conical in shape, and open at both extremities. It is believed that these served as bangles, probably taking the place, in the past, of the small metal discs, brass or tin cones, brass thimbles or bells with which it was the custom, among the later Indians, to ornament dress fringes or other articles of wearing apparel. They occur on aboriginal village-sites in the Fox River Valley and in the Lake Michigan shore region.

Finger-Rings

These consist of small, narrow rods or strips of metal bent into the form of a simple circlet, the ends abutting or nearly meeting. Occasionally the rods are thickest at the middle and taper to a point at the extremities. Some may have served equally well as ear-rings. Specimens are occasionally found in the Lake Michigan shore region, as well as elsewhere in the state.

Fig. 620. (S. 1–2.) Copper fish. Hopewell Group. Field Museum collection, Chicago.

Ear-Rings

The fondness of the later Indians for such ornaments is well known, and it is quite probable that they were also in rather general use among the earlier aborigines.

In the S. D. Mitchell collection is a small crescent-shaped copper ornament which may have served as an ear-ring or nose-ring, being well adapted for such use. It measures one and three eighths inches in extreme width, and was obtained from an Indian village-site in Green Lake County. Similar specimens are in several other local collections.

The Reverend W. M. Beauchamp states that the earliest metallic ear-rings in use among New York aborigines were probably those of copper wire coiled and flattened, and believes it possible that perforated discs and coins may have served the same purpose in early historic times, but that they were more likely to have been employed in some other way. Glass and shell beads, and probably many other things, were so utilized.

Fig. 621. (S. 1–4.) Copper eagle. Hopewell Group. Field Museum collection, Chicago.

Ear-Spools or Ear-Plugs. (See Fig. 612.)

Professor T. H. Lewis has obtained ornaments of this class during mound explorations conducted by him at Prairie du Chien, Crawford County, and Wyalusing, Grant County, in Wisconsin. Ear-spools have been obtained from various localities in Ohio, Illinois, and the South. Some of these are rather elaborately ornamented with embossed figures. In the Field Museum collections are specimens which were taken from the mounds of the celebrated Hopewell Group in Ohio.

A specimen in the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society’s collections has still attached to it a fragment of the string or cord by means of which it was probably attached to the ear of its aboriginal owner. Similar objects of stone overlaid with sheet-copper have been described by various authors.

Gorgets and Pendants. (See Figs. 570 and 617.)

Careful inquiry has shown the existence of only a small number of these in Wisconsin collections. It is quite possible, however, that such ornaments were in more common use among Wisconsin aborigines than the present limited number would indicate. Being fashioned of sheet-copper, they would even under ordinary conditions be more likely to suffer destruction, through decomposition, than many other less fragile artifacts, which show very plainly the effects of chemical action during their interment. One form of pendant is triangular in shape and is provided at the broad upper extremity with two perforations, by which means it could be attached, by a cord, to the person of its aboriginal owner. Such pendants have been found in Winnebago, Jefferson, Crawford, and Barron counties. One of the largest measures three and one eighth inches in length, and one and one fourth inches in width at the upper edge.

Sheet-copper pendants of circular shape have also been obtained. These have perforations near the edge or at the middle. The largest specimen known is about three and one quarter inches in diameter. Pendants of this form have been obtained in Kenosha, Jefferson, Dane, Columbia, Grant, Crawford, Barron, Burnett, Winnebago, and Brown counties. A few specimens of other forms have also been recovered.

Crescents. (See Figs. 611, 613, 614.)

In this class of copper ornaments are at present included a number of thin, flattish objects, the basis of all of which appears to be the crescent, either plain or variously modified by the addition of prongs or other prolongations arising from the inner or upper edge, near the middle or extremities.

There is probably little doubt that the greater number of the objects included in this class were worn by our primitive Indians as breast ornaments, being fastened to the neck by means of cords. In this way several of them may have been worn, one below the other. The adaptability of certain of the pronged forms for use as hair ornaments is noticeable.

Large numbers have been collected in Wisconsin, and others will probably be found as old sites are more thoroughly explored, and new lands opened to cultivation. The existing examples appear to have been obtained, for the most part, from the village-sites and graves, where they sometimes occur in association with copper beads and other articles of personal adornment. But very few have been recovered from the burial-mounds of the state.

A few have also been found in Minnesota, northern Michigan, and Illinois. The finest series of these copper crescents, representing nearly all of the known types, is in the H. P. Hamilton collection. The following is a brief description of the Wisconsin types of copper crescents:—

1. One of the simplest, although uncommon forms, has the upper edge quite straight and the lower ones broadly curved. Specimens have been found in Manitowoc County, and in Houghton County, Michigan.

Fig. 622. (S. 2–3.) Mica ornament. Hopewell Group.

2. A closely allied type has both edges curved, approaching more nearly the true crescent form. The degree of curvature varies considerably in the small number of specimens known. Specimens have been found in Washington, Sheboygan, Marquette, Crawford, and Barron counties. Minnesota has produced several specimens: one from Monroe County, having both extremities notched to allow for suspension. (Fig. 611.)

3. A third type, the so-called “canoe-shaped” crescent, usually has its lower and upper edges curving equally and formed at the extremities into a short point or embryo prong, directed inward. This is the most frequent Wisconsin type, and examples of it are to be seen in many collections. The largest and finest example now known (10 × 2¼ inches, weight 20 ounces) is in the Hamilton collection, and was found in the city of Oconto, Oconto County. Michigan and Minnesota have also yielded a number of specimens. (See Fig. 611.)

4. A fourth type has the prongs or points at the extremities of greater length and directed upward or inward. Specimens have been found in Calumet, Door, Sheboygan, and Marquette counties. They vary in length from five to seven and one half inches. (One in Fig. 568.)

5. In a fifth type the prolongations, arising from the extremities of the upper edge of the curved base, approach each other and unite to form a central spike, which is usually circular in section and formed by the prolongations being twisted about each other. Specimens have been obtained in Price, Manitowoc, Green Lake, Waukesha, Washington, and Columbia counties. One has been found in Minnesota. (Fig. 614, specimen D.)

6. Another peculiar type is furnished with a pair of spikes or prongs, usually rather long, and either flat or cylindrical in section, which arise on either side of the middle of the curved top (or base). (Fig. 613.) Specimens have been obtained in Columbia, Pierce, Washington, and Vernon counties. One has been found in Ottertail County, Minnesota. These specimens range from four to eight inches in length, the prongs being from three to four inches long. A modification of this type has the prongs united at their points by a short cross-bar. (Specimen G in Fig. 614.)

Other Ornaments

In the Milwaukee Public Museum are two broad, flat strips of native copper which may have been worn as headbands.

Both of these fragments, originally curved, have the appearance of having been straightened, by the finders, and may have formed a part of the same band. The larger (six inches by one inch) and the smaller (three and five eighths inches by one inch), and less than one fourth of an inch in thickness, are ornamented along either edge and down the middle with a row of deep indentations. The locality is Sheboygan County. On the skulls of two skeletons in a mound in Crawford County were found thick copper plates. The larger of these was ornamented along two edges with a double row of indentations, and measured eight inches long by four inches wide. The other plate was about four and one half inches square.

Mr. Brown has called attention to the distribution of copper and has described these objects so thoroughly that no remarks on my part are necessary. However, I wish to offer, briefly, one or two suggestions.

Copper seems to have played an important part in aboriginal life in this country. As the natives possessed neither gold nor silver and because silver ornaments are extremely rare, one may say that silver was not in use; copper appealed to them as being something beyond the ordinary, if not possessing supernatural powers. There was no other substance which they could hammer into shape, or slightly anneal and work more easily. No other malleable material possessed that bright, beautiful color and was capable of such polish. Therefore, copper appealed to the aborigines, and they made general use of it more as an ornament, or a totem, than for ordinary utility; that is, save in the “copper belt,” where it was so common that tools were made of it.

Fig. 623. (S. 3–4.) Mica ornaments. Ohio mounds. Collection of W. C. Mills, Columbus, Ohio.

What the Northern Indians received in exchange for the copper has always been a mystery to me. In Wisconsin and Michigan where drift copper occurred in large quantities, and where it still may be found, it is likely that the natives carried on an extensive trade in copper and that the peoples of Ohio passed it on, one may suppose, to the South. This trade was extensive because not only in our museums are there thousands of copper objects, but there are many more in the hands of private collectors, and in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley where there has been much digging, great quantities of hatchets, plates, nose-rings, and spools are dug up from time to time.

Fig. 624. (S. 1–3.) Mica ornaments from mounds of the Hopewell Group. Field Museum collection, Chicago.

One may question whether the presence of copper in the Ohio Valley really means extensive aboriginal commerce or trade. I say Ohio Valley because more mound copper is found there than elsewhere, although the South should by no means be excluded. Copper and other foreign materials abound in the middle and lower Mississippi Valley. Yet upon the shores of Lake Superior, about the copper range, on the streams and lakes of Wisconsin and Michigan where lived the Indians who possessed so much copper that they made of it hatchets, fish-hooks, knives, spear-points, etc., usually are to be found no Southern types save a few pipes and problematical forms in slate. What did these Northern natives receive in return for the quantities of copper which they must have bartered? Did they receive bird-stones, gorgets, pipes, etc.? Their bird-stones are very like those of Indiana and Ohio, yet they have a broad bird effigy usually with ears on both sides of the head which is not found save occasionally in southern Ohio and Indiana, and seldom in the South where mound copper is common. Their gorgets and pipes appear to be local. It has occurred to me that the peoples of Indiana and Ohio, and possibly the South, made raids in the copper country, or found copper nuggets in the drift, or mined their own copper, or robbed the Northern peoples of such copper as they wanted. If there had been any extensive aboriginal trade, we should surely find more evidence of it.

Mr. Clarence B. Moore[^[28]] has conclusively proved that the copper taken from the Southern mounds and Ohio mounds is prehistoric and not of European origin. Some of the gentlemen connected with the Smithsonian Institution and affiliated museums contend that the fine repoussé work, on sheet-copper, could not have been made by aborigines working with stone tools.

A few words regarding the illustrations. An inspection of all the figures in this chapter, marked from the Hopewell Group, give some idea of the remarkable copper effigies, ornaments, cut designs, etc., comprising the Hopewell collection. This is now on exhibition in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, and can be seen by any person who will take the pains to visit that institution. It is justly considered the greatest prehistoric copper collection in the United States. In the Hopewell Group altars hundreds and hundreds of copper ear ornaments were found, all more or less affected by heat. Professor Mills has dug up many ornaments of these same kinds and says of them:—

“Copper ear ornaments were frequently met with in the graves, and twenty specimens were secured. They were invariably found in pairs. The manufacture of these ornaments required skill, as well as a high degree of advancement in ornamental art. The mode of manufacture of the ear ornaments, although two different types were found, was similar. One type was made of two concavo-convex plates, and were connected by a cylindrical column; but only a few pairs of this type were found. The other type, which was most common, was made of four plates of copper, two of which are circular, and two concavo-convex. The concavo-convex plates are attached to the circular pieces, which form the inside of the ornament. The discs are connected with a small cylinder of copper. This figure is a good illustration showing two views of the second type of ear ornaments. Other copper ornaments were found sparingly in the burial cists. From one grave a large copper crescent was removed, and from another, six large copper balls.”

Sometimes the copper plates were highly ornamented and cut or trimmed. Fig. 610 is thus described by Professor Mills:—

“The plate shown in this figure is perhaps the heaviest and smoothest of all the plates taken from Seip Mound. The scroll pattern cut upon one side of the plate represents the first specimen of the kind taken from the mounds of Ohio, as far as known. The plate was wrapped in leather when it was placed in the grave, and portions still adhere to the plate, as shown in the cut.”

Of the interesting pendants in sheet-copper, Fig. 617, exhumed from a mound in Moundville, Alabama, Mr. Moore has to say:—

“The upper part of the pendant has parts excised to form a six-pointed star within a circle. On the body of the star, repoussé, is a symbol to which we shall revert later. Below is an excised triangle; beneath which is part of an arm encircled by a string of beads and an extended hand bearing on it the open eye, all repoussé.”

The decayed cloth, the fragments of skins and the curious, fine silt, usually about a handful, lying around copper objects, indicate that they were at one time carefully wrapped up. If we had preserved to us some of these wrappings, not a little light might be shed on the use of the more highly developed copper problematical forms in the United States.

I am indebted to the directors of the Milwaukee Public Museum for making illustrations of the finest copper objects in their collections: Figs. 574, 579, 582–89, 595, 597, 599, 602, 605, 613.

CHAPTER XXXI
TEXTILE FABRICS

It would be comparatively easy for one to write a lengthy chapter upon textile fabrics. But because of the limited space now at my disposal and for the further reason that “The Stone Age” is purposely restricted chiefly to descriptions of art in stone rather than in fabrics, this chapter must necessarily be brief.

It is unfortunate that almost none of the fabrics of prehistoric times, made use of by the natives of that period, are in existence to-day, and aside from pieces of mats and here and there a bit of cloth from the dry caves of Kentucky and the Ozark Mountains, there is nothing in our museums to give a clue as to the nature and material of the garments, robes, blankets, etc. We are dependent chiefly on history for our knowledge of the use of textile fabrics.

But in the Southwest the aridity of the climate, together with the fact that the walls of the cliff-houses kept out the occasional rains, and that the sands of the desert drifting over the ruined pueblos, worked in harmony to preserve a goodly number of fragments of textile fabrics. Some of these are in the American Museum, New York City, others in Washington, Denver, and Philadelphia museums. All are of great interest and were made use of by stone-age man.

The copper plates found in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley sometimes contain impressions of cloth and other fabrics. There are occasionally bits of charred cloth, found in altars or ash-pits or between copper plates. Professors Holmes, Mills, Putnam, and others have described these in various reports.

An inspection of the material illustrated in this chapter will acquaint readers with the fact that the natives of Kentucky made use of various plants, the favorite of which is the ordinary flag, for the manufacture of baskets, sandals, etc.

In the Southwest, desert plants, such as the yucca, possessing elasticity and strength, were employed for a multitude of purposes.

Could we have preserved for our inspection the textile fabrics made use of in the Mississippi Valley, we doubtless should observe that primitive man in this great region employed utensils, garments, weapons, tools, and other things made of perishable material.

Fig. 625. (S. 1–4 to 1–5.) Sandals from Salts Cave, made of bark and wild hemp. Collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky.

Fig. 626. (S. about 1–3.) Andover collection. Three sandals and an unfinished object from Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Group, New Mexico. Found by W. K. Moorehead.

Fig. 627. (S. 2–5.) Moccasin worn through at toe and heel, from Salts Cave. Material, leaves of cat-tail. Collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky.

Salts Cave, near Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, has been recently explored by Colonel Young, and I am indebted to him for proof-sheets of his work, “Discoveries in Kentucky Caves.” Colonel Young states that the cave has been known for a hundred years and is an extremely interesting place. Upon examination he ascertained that many holes had been dug in the cave floor (for it is covered with debris and cave earth), apparently by the ancient people who had at some time lived there. Contrary to the caverns in the Ozarks, this cave has been visited and explored in prehistoric times, and the remains of man are not confined to the openings, where it is light, but extend for several miles through the various labyrinths. Colonel Young writes:—

“Along the main cavern for several miles are numerous fireplaces and ash-heaps; small piles of stone, evidently placed to hold fagots used in lighting; innumerable partly burned torches of cane-reed, and even the footprints of the men who, hundreds of years ago, walked along these majestic avenues. The cave contains a large amount of saltpeter, and has a mean temperature of fifty-four degrees. The atmosphere of the interior is dry and pure, and this, together with the nitrous matter in the earth, has produced conditions favorable to the preservation of all kinds of materials. About the hearths and fireplaces were found hundreds of fragments of gourds, and also some shells of the aboriginal squash, both of which were in an excellent state of preservation. Torches of reed, to be counted by the thousands, which had been filled with grease or soaked in oil, traces of which may still be seen on some specimens, appeared as if they had been cast aside but yesterday. Along the main avenues and the second or lower layer of caves, as well as in many side avenues, these torches were found. Those who have spent much time in this cavern say that they have discovered no places where these and other traces of aboriginal man are absent.

Fig. 628. (S. 1–4.) Collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky. Moccasins and pieces of cloth from Salts Cave.

Fig. 629. (S. 1–4.) Flags, wild hemp, and other materials used in making cloth. From Salts Cave. Collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky.

Fig. 630. (S. varying.) Collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky. Bag of woven cloth from Salts Cave—nine by seven inches; plaited rope; fragments of cloth.

“Among the most interesting discoveries were a number of neatly braided slippers or sandals, and fragments of textile art. Several materials seem to have been used in the manufacture of these. Some were made of the fibre of the cat-tail, or Typha, a plant which grows abundantly in the ponds in the southern part of the state. Others were woven of the inner bark of trees, probably the pawpaw and linn. Still others were made of what appears to be the fibre of wild hemp, and yet others from a species of grass which grew in great abundance on the Barrens of Kentucky.

Fig. 631. (S. 1–4.) Pair of leggings, with the bone needles used in making them. From cave-house ruins in eastern Utah, 1895. Collection of Henry Montgomery.

Fig. 632. (S. 1–5.) Wooden pail or tub from cave-house ruins, San Juan County, Utah, 1894. H. Montgomery’s collection.

Fig. 633. (S. reduced 2–3.) Vase, turkey form. Feathers are indicated by marks made with black paint. Collection of B. H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky.

Fig. 634. (S. 1–3.) Birch bark from a burial-pit in North Dakota. Henry Montgomery’s collection, Toronto.

Fig. 635. (S. 1–7.) Old wicker and twined baskets from the Pueblo of Zuñi, New Mexico. This figure shows some old so-called Zuñi-ware, collected for the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Stevenson, in New Mexico, long ago.

“The sandals show several distinct forms of braiding; the material of the more delicate and graceful appears to be the wild hemp, and the plait on the outer side exhibits a beautiful triangular figure. They have raised sides from the heel to the toe, the braids being worked forward, uniting in a seam in the middle line above the toes. Over the instep many were laced with cords, the lacing still being preserved in some of the specimens. Frequently long ornamental tassels were placed above the instep. These slippers are found in the crevices of the rock and on the ledges in out-of-the-way places where they evidently had been cast aside by these people. All show signs of wear at toe and heel. Several display a more or less skillful attempt on the part of the owner at mending or darning. This was done sometimes with cord, but frequently with bark. In size they vary from small ones, made for children, to specimens corresponding to a number seven shoe.”

Fig. 636. (S. 1–4.) Coiled bowl-tray of the ancient basket-makers, cliffs of southeastern Utah. Ornamented by two sinuous rings in black. Collection of American Museum of Natural History, New York.

While we have some numbers of textiles preserved for our inspection, yet our study of the subject is somewhat narrowed. As has been previously stated, the bulk of prehistoric artifacts are composed of more lasting materials. It is unfortunate that we have so few of the garments, robes, head-dresses, baskets, wooden and other things once in use in America.

Thorough exploration of the caves and caverns, the cliff-houses and ruined pueblos may bring to light quantities of this textile and wooden material, and I would urge that such investigations be carried on. Many of the caverns are ransacked by curiosity-seekers, and soon all the objects buried therein will have disappeared.

CHAPTER XXXII
POTTERY OF THE UNITED STATES

In Volume 1, of this work, on page 26, is presented the classification of the Nomenclature Committee with reference to pottery, which covers, as a matter of course, all the specimens illustrated in this chapter.

Fig. 637. (S. varying.) Outlines showing range of form of vases. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.

While it is true that a great deal of pottery has been taken from mounds, graves, cliff-houses and ruined pueblos by expeditions under my direction, yet I have never made a detailed study of ceramic art in America, although in a certain sense familiar with the forms found throughout this country.

It would be presumptuous for one to write of a certain phase of archæology that has been more ably and exhaustively treated by some one who is a recognized authority. And in pottery we have two scholars, whose explorations and studies place them first, Professor W. H. Holmes and Mr. Clarence B. Moore. Professor Holmes’s “Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States”[^[29]] will be taken as the last word on the subject. And Mr. Moore’s eighteen reports of explorations in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi illustrate all the forms in clay found in that extensive region.

There is in the United States no collection of Southern mound pottery equal in extent to that obtained by Mr. Moore. His explorations have been of great benefit to science, and it is no exaggeration to state that his works shed very great light on prehistoric art as well in pottery as in other materials.

Therefore, I have quoted by permission from both Professor Holmes and Mr. Moore, and made use of numerous illustrations from their reports, including the outlines of types prepared by the former.

Fig. 638. Outlines showing range of form of vases. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.

Pottery may be said to be the barometer indicating the culture stage of any people. In the far North there is no pottery. In the St. Lawrence basin pottery is insignificant. In New England the few artistic specimens of decorative pottery have been made much of by observers, but these rare examples of the ceramic art indicate progress on the part of a few individuals. There was no real potters’ art north of the Ohio River or east of the Wabash. True, there are some good examples of fine pottery from the Ohio mounds, but the ancient Northern peoples made but little progress in ceramic art save on the part of a few individuals living in the Scioto Valley, southern Ohio. In the Iroquois country it appears that the natives were on the verge of developing art in pottery, and had they remained in their barbaric splendor two centuries longer, it is quite likely that they would have made remarkable advance in the potters’ art. Much of their pottery is decorated, but it is crudely so. Their pipes of pottery were highly developed, ornate, and interesting. But these have been considered under the chapter devoted to pipes and smoking customs.

Fig. 639. Vases of compound form. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.

Fig. 640. Vases of compound form. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.

So far as I am aware, the Wabash River in Indiana marks the farthest north, of Southern types of pottery. There may be a few strays now and then, but the cemetery explored by Mr. Anderson for Mr. Peabody, at that place, brought to light more than one hundred jars, bowls, and effigies, all of distinct types. (A few are shown in Fig. 681.) Elsewhere north of the Ohio and east of the Wabash, I have not known of effigy pottery being found.[^[30]] Throughout the Ohio Valley there are some fine specimens of ceramic art found in the mounds. But the pottery, as a rule, between the Wabash and the Alleghenies is of the Fort Ancient culture. Some of it is shown in Figs. 648, 649.

Fig. 641. (S. about 1–10.)
Collection of pottery, from mounds and graves in southeastern Missouri. From F. P. Graves’s collection, Doe Run, Missouri.

Fig. 642. Outlines showing various features of vase elaboration. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.

Fig. 643. Outlines showing various features of vase elaboration. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.

Fig. 644. Vases from a mound on Perdido Bay. Gulf Coast Group.

Fig. 645. Vases from a mound on Perdido Bay. Gulf Coast Group.

Fig. 646. (S. 1–4.) Wisconsin bowls. S. D. Mitchell’s collection, Ripon, Wisconsin.

Fig. 647. (S. 1–4.) Urn of pottery. From mound in western Ontario. Collection of Henry Montgomery.

At the great cemetery at Madisonville, Ohio, the pottery does not exhibit skill in modeling or high finish. All the pottery of this great region appears to be crudely made, of inferior materials, tempered with pulverized unio shells or sand. In Indiana and Illinois there are occasional effigies found in the mounds, but one must pass to the Cumberland and Tennessee valleys, and to the St. Francis basin of Arkansas, to southeastern Missouri, and to the region about Memphis and Nashville for the highest ceramic art of the Southern Mound-Builders. These people were peculiarly skilled in the potter’s art, and all the museums of the country are filled with their handiwork. Professor Holmes has commented on it at great length in the publication cited. The potters’ art was highly developed in regions explored by Mr. Moore, as is attested by the specimens presented in Figs. 678, 670–673. But effigy pottery in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama is rarer than in Arkansas and Missouri. On the contrary, there is more decorative pottery (with incised lines, tracings of snakes and birds) in the region explored by Mr. Moore than in the middle Mississippi Valley.

Fig. 648. (S. about 1–6.) The two central ones in the upper row and the left-hand specimen in the lower row are corrugated; from northeastern Kentucky. The others are from southern Kentucky. Collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky.

Through the Great Plains there is a dearth of pottery. The buffalo hunters had little need of it. The cemeteries and mounds of the Indian Territory and Oklahoma, and of that long stretch of country flanking the Arkansas River, produce good pottery, but not comparable with that of the stone graves and mounds of the central South.

Northwestern California, the entire Rocky Mountains present an anomaly in archæology in that no pottery—save here and there a stray—is found. The Cliff-Dweller country, by which I mean the Colorado River Valley, including its tributaries, abounds in pottery of the highest type found on the American continent.

But while admitting that the Cliff-Dweller pottery was superior in finish, material, and form of bowls, bottles, and dishes, yet the effigies of the South and the middle Mississippi Valley are superior to effigies found in the Cliff-Dweller country.

Fig. 649. (S. 1–2.) Perfect pottery found with a skeleton, Gartner Mound, Ohio. W. C. Mills’s collection, Columbus, Ohio.

The uses of pottery are primarily domestic. Whether bowls, jars, and other forms were used as receptacles in which to boil or stew or bake matters not. Man invented pottery because it was more convenient for him to make a receptacle out of clay and bake the clay than to hollow a bowl out of stone. He moved in the line of least resistance, and it was easier to make a bowl or a dish from clay than to carve such a utensil from stone. While Indians roasted much of their meat on the end of sticks, or baked the food in the ashes, yet they preferred to boil and stew their foods. This is especially true of the established villages where a profusion of pottery fragments abounds. It is natural to suppose that as the ceramic art developed, to the variety of forms in clay, man added the dish, the waterbottle, the effigy, and more or less complicated forms of the jar or the bowl. And because nothing but true cooking-pots are found in the Lake Superior region, New England, the Delaware and Susquehanna valleys, I claim that the pottery art was not developed in those regions beyond the manufacture of rough utensils to be used about the fire. And although there is some mound pottery in Ohio of such finish and character as to designate it as above, and pottery was made use of in the culinary arts, yet these examples are rare and denote rather a high culture in a certain locality than proficiency in ceramic art. It is only in the central and southern portions of the Mississippi Valley and in the Cliff-Dweller country that pottery-making became an art.

Fig. 650. (S. about 1–10.)
Various jars, bottles, and bowls, from graves and mounds in southeastern Missouri. Collection of F. P. Graves, Doe Run, Missouri.

Fig. 651. (S. about 1–5.) The small vessel is just the size of a teacup. The restored vessel has a diameter of eleven inches at the top. Found at Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Collection of H. P. Hamilton, Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Fig. 652. (S. about 1–5.) This pottery has been carefully restored. It was found in Warehouse Point, Connecticut, and is thirty-eight and one half inches in circumference and fifteen inches high. Collection of A. E. Kilbourne, East Hartford, Connecticut.

Indeed in the Tennessee stone graves, and at the village at the mouth of the Wabash River in Indiana, there have been found numerous clay rattles and clay toys. The latter take the form of small bowls and dishes. With them are frequently small clay pebbles. These little clay toys are buried with skeletons of children ranging from two to six years of age. It is remarkable that these people, whom we have considered as in the middle stage of barbarism, should have invented the toy. It is quite probable that the women who made these clay dishes were not influenced by knowledge of similar things in use among Europeans, for the Tennessee graves and the Wabash cemetery appear to be prehistoric. Such discoveries as the presence of these dishes alongside of little children suggest that we should go slowly in our statements that most of the time of the aborigines was given up to warfare and barbaric ceremonies. We know not the whole story of their daily life, but every year there are additions to the sum of human knowledge, and such finds as I have enumerated emphasize the human side of these people.

Fig. 653. University of Vermont collection.

Fig. 654. (S. 1–3.) University of Vermont collection.

Fig. 655. (S. 1–3.) University of Vermont collection.

Fig. 656. (S. 1–2.) Broken pottery from Ohio and Pennsylvania sites. Andover collection.

Fig. 657. (S. 1–5.) Bowls from Kentucky graves and mounds. B. H. Young’s collection.

Fig. 658. (S. 1–4.) Florida pottery. Andover collection.

Fig. 659. (S. 1–3.) Vessel, from Arkansas. Davenport Academy collection. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.

Fig. 660. (S. 1–2.) Vase with incised design. From Louisiana.

Fig. 661. (S. 1–4.) Florida pottery. Phillips Academy collection.

The ceramic arts among the aborigines embrace not only clay forms used in cooking and ollas for cooling, rather common in hot countries; but also effigies were made of clay, there were clay spindle-whorls, also clay rings, discs, and objects we know not the use of. Clay beads have been found in a number of places. Illustrations, with brief descriptions, are presented of all these clay things. It is quite likely that on the large village-sites in the Tennessee and Cumberland valleys, extending from central Kentucky to central Tennessee and northern Alabama, many sun-dried clay objects, or objects imperfectly burned, have disappeared through climatic agencies. I have remarked on the importance of comparing historic sites with prehistoric sites and have insisted that this should be done. I shall show, in the chapter cited above, that the prehistoric as well as the modern Indians selected the most favorable localities for villages; therefore modern villages were often built on the site occupied by a prehistoric building. The presence of stone, clay, bone, and shell objects on these sites indicates that the population was greater in prehistoric times than in modern. The fabrics and the wooden objects of ancient times have long since disappeared, as have most such things of even two centuries ago. It is observed on many sites that there are no shell objects even in the ash-pits, and few bone objects.

Fig. 662. (S. 1–3.) Vase from Madisonville, Ohio. Ohio Valley Group.

I take this to mean that such sites are the oldest of all. The things that are preserved are only those of such substances as resist atmospheric agencies. If one will study a village-site, walking back and forth across the ploughed field for hours,—as I have done,—one will observe that there are pieces of pottery of firm texture. There are other pieces of pottery ready to disintegrate. The same is true of shells. While one’s conclusions as to pottery are based upon the specimens he finds, yet I do not consider it at all visionary to assume that forms in clay, other than pottery, were in use among the Indians. I, myself, have picked up fragments of pottery in such disintegrated condition that they could be crumbled up between the thumb and index finger.

Fig. 663. (S. 1–4.) Vase from a mound at Madisonville, Ohio. Ohio Valley Group.

Fig. 664. (S. 1–2.) Vase from a mound at Madisonville, Ohio Valley.

Fig. 665. (S. a little over 1–3.) Vessel, from Arkansas. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.

Fig. 667. (S. 1–3.) Vessel, from Arkansas. Davenport Academy collection.

Fig. 666. (S. 1–3.) Vase with incised design. Lower Mississippi Valley.

Fig. 668. (S. 1–3.) From a mound near West Bay P. O. “Certain Aboriginal Remains of the Northwest Florida Coast,” p. 131, Fig. 1.

Fig. 669. (S. 1–2.) Clay vessels from Iroquoian sites, New York. Collection of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, Buffalo, New York.

Fig. 670. (S. 2–3.) Peculiar jar found during C. B. Moore’s explorations. A vase, probably unique, of compound form, representing a short-necked bottle imposed upon a vessel of eccentric shape, having a series of four projecting lobes, above and below. The ware is most inferior. The decoration, faintly and rudely executed, consists partly of the scroll and partly of parallel lines and punctate markings.

Fig. 671. (S. 2–3.) Mound place. A bottle of gray ware, having a flat base and a most unusual shape of body—possibly a compound form. The decoration consists of series of curved trailed lines above the spaces in the lower part of the body.

Fig. 672. (S. 1–1.) Mound below Hare’s Landing. “Mounds; Moundville Revisited; Mounds of Chattahoochee and Flint River.” Moore, p. 431, Fig. 3.

Fig. 673. (S. 3–4.) This jar was badly crushed, and lay apart from human remains. Put together, it proved to be a beautiful jar of highly polished ware. The decoration is made of scrolls, depressions, and incised encircling lines.

Fig. 674. (S. 2–9.) Three fine decorated jars from graves in southwestern Kentucky. B. H. Young’s collection, Louisville.

The range of pottery in America both north and south is from the rudest, thick, clumsy bowl, such as has been found in Kansas or Nebraska or in certain parts of New England, to the highest art of the ancient Cliff-Dwellers. I do not say highest art of the Pueblo people, for the modern Pueblo art does not equal that of the ancient Pueblos or Cliff-Dwellers. It must be remembered, when studying American pottery, that although a bowl from Arkansas, a bottle from Mississippi, a dish from Tennessee, or a pitcher from New Mexico may be of similar form and like pottery found in Greece, Egypt, or Europe, yet this American pottery has such an individuality of its own that the museum curator can at once distinguish the one from the other. Truly American pottery is different from that found elsewhere in the world. It may seem a paradox and yet it is true that while the bowl from Missouri and the bowl from ancient Rome may be of the same form and size, there is a peculiarity observed in the American specimen that enables one to set it aside as distinct and peculiar to the American aborigines. One could assemble and mingle in a museum a thousand vessels, jars, and bowls from all over the world, remove all the labels, and yet the students of American ceramics would at once pick out those that represent American art.

Fig. 675. (S. 1–3.) Vase with incised design. From Mississippi. Davenport Academy collection.

Professor Holmes, in his publication previously cited, divides the pottery of the United States into seven groups:—

Middle Mississippi Valley Group.

Upper Mississippi Valley, or Northwest Group.

Ohio Valley Group.

Iroquoian Group.

Atlantic Algonquin Group.

South Appalachian Group.

Gulf Coast Group.

About the pottery of New England he states:—

“The vessels were mere pots, and the pipes, although sometimes ornamented with incised lines and indentations, are mainly the simple bent trumpet of the more southern areas. The clay is tempered usually with a large percentage of coarse sand, the finish is comparatively rude, and the ornament, though varied, is always elementary. The surfaces have, in many cases, been textured with cord-covered paddles, and over these, or on spaces smoothed down for the purpose, are various crude patterns made with cords, bits of fabric, roulettes, and pointed tools of many varieties. The use of the roulette would seem to link the art of this Abnaki region very closely with that of the middle Atlantic States and portions of the upper Mississippi region.”

Fig. 676. (S. 1–3.) Vessel imitating animal form; from Arkansas. Middle Mississippi Valley Group. Davenport Academy collection.

In New Jersey, in the Chesapeake region, the pottery-ware is to a large extent of Algonquin type, although some Iroquoian wares are found.

As in the case of New England, the forms are simple, the pottery crudely made. But of course there are found fragments exhibiting considerable skill in manufacture. These may be exotic types, and their presence due to knowledge of the art of more advanced tribes, or to barter or exchange.

The lower Mississippi mounds furnish some very superior pottery, though many of the bowls, dishes, and jars taken from the mounds of that region are no more skillfully made than those of the St. Francis and Cumberland valleys. There are some examples of black pottery, very highly finished, found along the Red River. Professor Holmes says of these:—

“The most striking characteristics of the better examples of this ware are the black color and the mechanical perfection of construction, surface finish, and decoration. The forms are varied and symmetric. The black surface is highly polished and is usually decorated with incised patterns. The scroll was the favorite decorative design, and it will be difficult to find in any part of the world a more chaste and elaborate treatment of this motive.”

Fig. 677. (S. 1–3.) Vessel imitating animal form; from Arkansas.

Professor Holmes devotes special attention to the southern Appalachian stamped ware. Most of the specimens in the Smithsonian came from the Savannah River Valley. Mr. Moore has dug up a great deal of this pottery along the Atlantic seaboard. The designs are stamped by means of a paddle. Professor Holmes gives us the following description:—

“Although some of the peculiar designs with which the paddle stamps were embellished may have come, as has been suggested, from neighboring Antillean peoples, it is probable that the implement is of Continental origin. It is easy to see how the use of figured modeling-tools could arise with any people out of the simple primitive processes of vessel-modeling. As the walls were built up by means of flattish strips of clay, added one upon another, the fingers and hand were used to weld the parts together and to smooth down the uneven surfaces. In time various improvised implements would come into use—shells for scraping, smooth stones for rubbing, and paddle-like tools for malleating. Some of the latter, having textured surfaces, would leave figured imprints on the plastic surface, and these, producing a pleasing effect on the primitive mind, would lead to extension of use, and, finally, to the invention of special tools and the adding of elaborate designs. But the use of figured surfaces seems to have had other than purely decorative functions, and, indeed, in most cases, the decorative idea may have been secondary.

Fig. 678. (S. 1–2.) Effigy bottle. Collection of E. E. Baird, Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

Fig. 679. (S. 1–4.) Effigy pottery from southwestern Kentucky. B. H. Young’s collection, Louisville.

Fig. 680. (S. about 1–8.)
Decorated and painted bowls and jars typical of the best pottery, from the Middle Mississippi Valley. Taken from mounds and graves of Arkansas and Missouri. From the collection of F. P. Graves, Doe Run, Missouri.

Fig. 681. (S. 1–5.) Three effigy bowls. From the Wabash Cemetery.

Fig. 682. (S. 1–2.) Remarkable effigy bowl in clay. Supposed to be a life-mask. Found near Blythesville, Mississippi County, Arkansas. From burial-site which was being washed away by river. Side view. Collection of H. M. Braun, East St. Louis, Illinois.

Fig. 683. (S. 1–2.) Front view of Fig. 682.

“It will be observed by one who attempts the manipulation of clay that striking or paddling with a smooth surface has often the tendency to extend flaws and to start new ones, thus weakening the wall of the vessel, but a ribbed or deeply figured surface properly applied has the effect of welding the clay together, of kneading the plastic surface, producing numberless minute dovetailings of the clay which connect across weak lines and incipient cracks, adding greatly to the strength of the vessel.

“That the figured stamp had a dual function, a technic and an esthetic one, is fully apparent. When it was applied to the surface it removed unevenness and welded the plastic clay into a firm, tenacious mass. Scarifying with a rude comb-like tool was employed in some sections for the same purpose, and was so used more generally on the inner surface, where a paddle or stamp could not be employed. That this was recognized as one of the functions of the stamp is shown by the fact that in many neatly finished vessels, where certain portions received a smooth finish, the paddle had first been used over the entire vessel, the pattern being afterward worked down with a polishing-stone. However, the beauty of the designs employed and the care and taste with which they were applied to the vases bear ample testimony to the fact that the function of the stamp as used in this province was largely esthetic.”

Fig. 684. (S. 1–3.) Three typical bowls from the Chaco Group of ruins, New Mexico. Dug up from debris in a lower room, Pueblo Bonito, in 1897, by W. K. Moorehead.

Of the life element in decoration on pottery, Professor Holmes writes at some length. He assembled a number of vessels on which were various decorations representing man, quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, batrachians, and fishes. “The conclusion reached is that there is at least a large degree of consistency, and that particular forms of creatures may be recognized far down the scale toward the geometric. Exceptions were noted, however. The symbols are occasionally intermingled, as if the significance of the particular forms had been lost sight of, the potter using them as symbols of the life idea in general, or as mere decorations.

Fig. 685. (S. about 1–4.) Four typical Chaco pitchers. Andover collection.

“As a rule, the incised designs are more highly conventional than the plastic, the eagle and the serpent being the only incised forms, so far as has been observed, realistically treated; but it was possible to recognize others through their association with the modeled forms. In vessels furnished with the head of a bird in relief, for example, the same kind of incised figures were generally found around the vessel, and these are recognized as being more or less fully conventionalized representations of wings. The same is true of the fish and its gills, fins, and tail; of the serpent and its spots and rattles, and of the frog and its legs. The relieved figures, realistically treated, become thus a key to the formal incised designs, enabling us to identify them when separately used. It will be seen, however, that since all forms shade off into the purely geometric, there comes a stage when all must be practically alike; and in independent positions, since we have no key, we fail to distinguish them, and can only say that whatever they represented to the potter they cannot be to us more than mere suggestions of the life idea. To the native potter the life concept was probably an essential association with every vessel.”

Fig. 686. (S. 1–4.) Double jar from the Chaco Group. Found in a lower room in Pueblo Bonito.

All writers on pottery observe a great difference between the ware of the North and that of the South. Professor Holmes points to this in more than one place in his writings, and he asks this question: “Is it due to differences in race? Were the Southern tribes as a body more highly endowed than the Northern, or did the currents of migration, representing distinct centres of culture, come from opposite quarters to meet along this line. Or does the difference result from the unlike environments of the two sections, the one fertile and salubrious, encouraging progress in art, and the other rigorous and exacting, checking tendencies in that direction? Or does the weakening art impulse indicate increasing distance from the great art centres in the far South, in Mexico, and Yucatan?”

Fig. 687. (S. 1–8.) A beautiful collection of ceramics from cliff-houses in Utah and New Mexico. M. C. Long’s collection, Kansas City, Missouri.

Fig. 688. (S. indicated.)
A jar of “coiled ware,” from a cliff-house in New Mexico. Collection of M. C. Long, Kansas City, Missouri.

Fig. 689. (S. 1–3.) Stones used in smoothing pottery, kneading clay, etc.

The antiquity of pottery in this country is a question of absorbing interest. Perhaps the shell mounds of Florida shed more light on this question than do other remains. Mr. Clarence B. Moore, who has explored for several seasons, and thoroughly opened numbers of shell mounds, states that sometimes there was no pottery in the lower layers of some of these mounds. This would indicate that some of the shell mounds are very old, and had been in use before the discovery and utilization of pottery by our aborigines. I regret that I have not space to quote Mr. Moore’s remarks at length, but must refer readers to his reports, which take up this important question in detail.

Mr. Brown reports on the pottery of his region as follows:—

“About thirty-five specimens of the earthenware vessels of the Wisconsin Indians are now in existence. Most of these have been described and figured in the Wisconsin Archeologist. The largest of these vessels in the J. P. Schumacher collection at Green Bay is twenty inches in height and twenty-two inches in diameter at the widest part. It has the great capacity of two and one fourth bushels. The smallest specimen is in the H. P. Hamilton collection and is of about the size of an ordinary cup.

“Other pottery objects found in Wisconsin include pipes, a few beads, and perforated discs made of potsherds.”

I am indebted to Professor Holmes for Figures 637 to 646, 659, 660, 662 to 667, 675, 677, and to Mr. Moore for Figures 668 to 674.

CHAPTER XXXIII
HEMATITE OBJECTS

The hematite beds in various portions of the United States furnished the Indians with paint and with implements. Hematite, like copper, being different from other materials with which he was familiar appealed to the aborigine. Its bright red color attracted him, and although he found most of it very hard, yet he made use of it to a remarkable extent when one considers how refractory it was for him to work. Hematite is found on the surface in large quantities in portions of Missouri and Arkansas, in western Virginia, Ohio, and elsewhere. Most of the hematite seems to come from Missouri. It was common there, and therefore the native made of it grooved hematite axes, which he did not do elsewhere in this country. One supposes that hematite was exchanged and bartered with remote tribes. Just as in the case of copper, the natives of Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and Michigan prized their hematite highly and made of it their most perfect plummet-shaped ornaments, hematite celts, and such other objects as it was possible for them to manufacture. The softer kinds of hematite were ground into paint, and there are frequently found on the village-sites along the Ohio River small blocks of hematite worn to flat surfaces. There is in the Arkansas region a very hard blue-red or blue-gray hematite. How the Indians cut this into symmetrical oval plummets has always been a mystery to me. If the rough nugget was ground by means of other stones or sand, one is scarcely able to conceive how the finished article was produced. The process must have been long and laborious, much more so than the manufacture of an effigy pipe, or the making of a problematical form.

Fig. 690. (S. 1–1.) Eight hematite objects from the Andover collection. In the upper right-hand corner is a hematite pebble, polished on two of its angles and rough on the other side. This illustrates how hematite was cut and ground until reduced to the desired shape. Flint scratchings are still plain on the surface. Just beneath it is a triangular bit of hematite. This is of soft hematite. The flat surface may be due to grinding in order to obtain paint. Beneath are two hematite cones. The four specimens to the left represent hematite objects in various stages of manufacture.

Fig. 691. (S. 1–2.)
These are from the collection of George Y. Hull, St. Joseph, Missouri.
1. Celt from mound, Andrew County, Missouri. Smooth and well made but not polished.
2. Plumb much pitted by age, surface find, Callaway County, Missouri.
3. A fine truncated cone used as a paint-grinder. Top of cone is worn and depressed from use. Surface find, Callaway County, Missouri.
4. Finely polished celt, surface find, Doniphan County, Kansas.
5. From an old grave near the village-site at Wathena, Kansas.
6. Axe with flat top and flat side,—a surface find, Callaway County, Missouri.
7. From an old village-site at King Hill, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri.
The difference between the celts is self-evident, numbers 1 and 4 being square, and 5 and 7 oval.

The hard gray hematite referred to resists the knife and will wear an ordinary file in a short time, yet in the altar mounds of the Ohio Valley, and in the older graves (not graves of the historic period) are found numbers of these slender hematite plummets (see Fig. 700) worked from the hardest and most refractory iron ore. It is unfortunate that the earliest tribes known to the voyagers and explorers in this country had no hematite objects in use among them. If so, I fail to find references to such objects. This is unfortunate because hematite certainly was considered as more than of passing importance. It is quite likely that because it was so difficult to deduce it to the desired shape the so-called plummets were made use of, as Dr. Yates suggests, as stones used in certain ceremonies, or by shamans, or as charm-stones. I have seen unfinished hematite plummets, but cannot work out a satisfactory theory as to their manufacture.

Fig. 692. (S. 1–5.) This figure illustrates three grooved axes in the lower row; an unfinished hematite implement of unknown purpose and a hematite nodule above. Hematite axes are frequently found in Missouri, but seem rare elsewhere in the country. The groove may entirely encircle them, or be faintly indicated on the back. But usually they are grooved entirely around. The one in the lower left-hand corner has a broad, sharp, cutting edge. Naturally, because of its hardness, hematite made excellent axes. They retained their edges longer and more nearly approached the modern iron axe than any other aboriginal tool.

Fig. 693. (S. 1–2.) Hematite objects from the collection of Dr. Henry M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Missouri. Hematite plummet to the left, grooved axe in the centre, a hematite cone to the right, a celt in the lower right-hand corner.

Fig. 694. (S. about 1–3.)
Group of nine grooved hematite axes, from eastern and central Missouri. Collection of F. P. Graves, Doe Run, Missouri.

I have presented a series of figures covering all the known forms of hematites. No classification was attempted by the Nomenclature Committee, and the following is of my own make:—

Elongated or oval hematites.	Plummet-shaped. (Fig. 700.)
	Egg-shaped. (Fig. 699.)
	Egg-shaped, flattened. (Fig. 697, lower row.)
	Cone-shaped. (Fig. 697, upper part.)
Edged hematites.	Celt form, oval. (Fig. 691, specimens 5 and 7.)
	Celt form, beveled edge. (Fig. 693, lower right.)
	Axe form. (Figs. 694, 695.)
	Irregular forms. (Fig. 701.)
	Paint-stone hematite. (Fig. 690, second from the top.)

Hematite being valuable, may have served several purposes and doubtless did. The small celts might have been set in the heads of war-clubs and securely gummed in place. I have no particular evidence as to this, but have always believed that some of them were so used. Occasionally, one finds hematite ornaments and hematite bicaves. The information one is able to impart with reference to hematite implements and their use is an illustration of the disadvantages under which we labor in dealing with some of our archæological problems. There are certain phases of prehistoric life with

Fig. 695. (S. 1–2.) Two of the best grooved axes I have ever seen are shown in this figure, from the collection of Mr. Braun, East St. Louis, Illinois. There is one in the National Museum, and one in the New York Museum, each of which weighs over ten pounds, and they are nearly as symmetrical as Mr. Braun’s largest axe.

which we are familiar. Others we know nothing of save as we learn by continuous study, by gleaning a fact here and there from the specimens themselves, and from exploration.

Fig. 696. (S. 1–1.) A beautiful hematite axe from the collection of Henry M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Missouri. This was found in central Missouri.

In the collection at Andover there are about four hundred hematite objects. The collections in the Smithsonian and American Museum of Natural History are much larger. Doubtless we should be quite surprised if we were able to reconstruct the past and see to what use these strange iron ore specimens were put by the natives who worked so long and laboriously to bring them into a state of perfection.

Mr. C. E. Brown, reporting on the hematites of his region, states:

Fig. 697. (S. 1–2.) Hematite cones. Collection of H. M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Missouri. Localities: Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas.

“A small number of implements made of this material have been obtained in Wisconsin. These include a grooved axe, a number of celts, several cones and plummets, a gorget, and a pipe. The total number of specimens of all classes at present known to exist in local collections does not exceed thirty specimens. Nearly all come from southern Wisconsin counties. Several specimens have been obtained as far north in the state as Winnebago County. It is likely that some of these hematite implements were introduced into the state through early trades with middle Mississippi Valley tribes.”

Fig. 698. (S. 1–2.) Hematite cones. Collection of Henry M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Missouri. From Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas.

Hematite objects do not seem to have served as tools—save perhaps as celts and axes—but on the contrary they are of the problematical class. The bright color of the stone and its peculiar properties doubtless appealed to stone-age man. The fact that hematite celts are found in graves and mounds and also hematite plummets, whereas ordinary stone axes are seldom, if ever, found in mounds or graves, would strengthen the hypothesis that objects made of this peculiar stone were considered apart from the ordinary run of artifacts.

Fig. 699. (S. 1–2.) Hematite plummets, grooved in the centre. Collection of Henry M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Missouri.

Fig. 700. (S. 1–2.) These objects are also from the Andover collection and show the various types of plummets. In the centre is a fine plummet of steel gray hematite, very hard. Beneath it, a hematite a trifle softer in which there are some flaws. At the top, an unfinished hematite pecked and ground into shape, but not polished or grooved. On either side of the centre, ruder hematite plummets, and at the top, to the left, a grooved hematite object, the groove extending around the longest periphery of the object. To the right is a small plummet, grooved in the centre.

Fig. 701. (S. 1–1.) This ornament is made of hematite. It is remarkable in that both ends are decorated by notches. On the upper end there are eleven notches or incised lines; on the lower or broad end there are fourteen lines. This specimen is not a type but an anomaly. It is of heavy, pure hematite and not of stone discolored by iron oxide as are many of the ornaments. It was extremely difficult to work because of the density and hardness of the material. Aside from these facts this form is peculiar. The edges are slightly beveled. The specimen shows unmistakable evidence of antiquity because of the patina, and the cuttings (striæ) are irregular and have been made with flint and not with steel. Ross County, Ohio. Andover collection.

The reduction of the harder hematites to symmetrical plummets and cones must have been a severe task for workmen possessed of no metallic tools. Truly the ancient artisan who had the patience to cut and grind gray hematite (the hardest of all) “worked at his task with a resolute will.” It must be remembered that there are not a few but hundreds of these hematite problematical forms worked from most refractory iron ore.

CHAPTER XXXIV
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS

After one has attempted to describe and illustrate most of the types of ancient artifacts occurring in America, one discovers that there are numerous objects which scarcely fall under any of the classifications. These I have placed under this chapter devoted to miscellaneous objects. At some future time I hope to consider these at greater length, for it will be quite possible to devote an entire chapter to the club and paddle-like implements of the Pacific Coast, another to the slate knives of New England, and additional ones to the arrow-shaft straighteners, or the cup-stones—all of which are illustrated in the ensuing pages.

In Figs. 702, 703, and 703 A are shown some of the curious stone club and paddle-like implements of the Pacific Coast. Reverend H. C. Meredith, a collector of some experience in California, called these “stone ceremonial swords,” and described those shown in Fig. 702 as follows:—

“This figure shows two rare ceremonial knives. No. 2 is of fine sandstone, about sixteen inches long, with a broad blade that is reduced to a sharp edge. It was found on a village-site near Vacaville, and would make a formidable weapon.

“No. 3 is a double-edged and beautiful specimen. The material is mottled green and white serpentine. It is finely polished, and not much less than eighteen inches long. It is in the collection of Mr. A. B. Carr, Etna Mills. Two specimens similar to this one, but not nearly so fine, are in the Jewett collection. All three specimens are from Siskiyou. Like the chipped ceremonials, these knives are of extreme age, if not prehistoric. Work of this class is not done by the Indians of to-day.”

Whether the paddle-shaped implements in the two following figures are to be considered as “ceremonial swords,” I am not sufficiently familiar with California archæology to state.

Fig. 703 presents three remarkable specimens from Oregon and Colorado; collection of E. D. Zimmerman, Kutztown, Pennsylvania. The purpose of these strange objects is unknown to me. They are wrought with considerable skill and evidently performed some function in ancient times.

Fig. 702. (S. 2–7.) Stone ceremonial knives. California. Collection of A. B. Carr and H. C. Meredith.

Fig. 703. (S. about 1–3.) Stone clubs, from Oregon and Washington. Collection of E. D. Zimmerman.

Fig. 703 A. (S. about 1–5.) Stone club from near Florence, Lane County, Oregon; found on a village-site about three miles from the Pacific Ocean. A duplicate club was found at the same place later. Collection of A. F. Barrott, Owego, New York.

Fig. 704 A illustrates four of the curious club-heads, or perforated stones, common in California and Arizona. Various theories have been advanced as to these; the most sensible of which appears to me to be the statement that they were made use of as weights, to facilitate the use of digging-tools or sticks. There is some reason for the acceptance of this theory, as the discs are found in regions where the raising of crops by means of irrigation was known to the natives.

Fig. 705 is an illustration of a singular tool-handle, somewhat common near the Columbia River and farther north along the Pacific Coast. A fine one is in the possession of Dr. John Fargo of Los Angeles, California, and it is identical with this one.

Slate was made use of by the New England Indians not only for arrow- and spear-points but knives as well. Fig. 707, reproduced from Dr. William Beauchamp’s article,[^[31]] shows nine slate knives from sites along the Seneca and Oneida rivers and Oneida Lake, western New York.

In Fig. 710 are figured two beautiful slate knives from the Peabody Museum collection, Salem, Massachusetts.

I was very fortunate in procuring for examination the remarkable specimen shown in Fig. 711. It presents a woman’s knife of black slate in the original handle. When Mr. B. W. Arnold of Albany went north to Alaska some years ago, he found this knife in the hands of a woman who was using it in cutting open fish. He purchased it from her and placed it in his collection. It illustrates the method of mounting.

Fig. 704. (S. about 1–3.) Three remarkable specimens from Oregon and Colorado. E. D. Zimmerman’s collection.

The handle is crudely cut out of wood, and the only things modern about it are the strings which hold it in place, they being ordinary twine.

Fig. 704 A. (S. 1–3.) Four curious club-heads or perforated stones, common in California. Beloit College collection.

But perhaps as interesting as any other of the objects are the oval and flat stones with creases or depressions across them, which are supposed to be the result of straightening or reducing arrow-shafts, lance-handles, and other long, slender objects. All of those shown in Figs. 706, 708, and 709 exhibit differences. Those in Fig. 706, collected by Professor Montgomery, are neatly made and ornament-like in shape.

Mr. Bardwell’s specimen, Fig. 708, is an ordinary bit of sandstone on which there are two deep grooves at right angles. We have a number of them in our Andover collection, and I have shown five in Fig. 709.

Most archæologists agree that the stones were used for the purpose named. Near caverns, rock-shelters, and along bluffs we find that the surface of gritty stones or ledges exhibit such grooves. Fig. 712 is a sinew stone, or an oval stone much creased and worn, not by friction caused by arrow-shafts, but because sinews or cords have been drawn back and forth against the edge of it. There is another singular grooved stone in the State Museum of Iowa. The curator calls it a stone “corn-sheller,” and if one will draw an ear of corn back and forth over the surface of this stone, one is surprised at the ease with which the kernels are removed. Fig. 715 illustrates three unknown objects found in Pueblo Bonito. Fig. 716 is interesting in that it may or may not be a natural formation. It was found on the site of an old encampment and may have been considered by the Indians a medicine-stone. Figs. 717, to and including 721, I shall refer to in the Conclusions of “The Stone Age.”

Fig. 705. (S. 1–4.) Stone tool-handle. Collection of Frank O. Putnam, Campbell, California.

Fig. 706. (S. 1–2.) Grooved sandstone arrow- and needle-sharpeners found near the surface of a mound, North Dakota. Collection of Henry Montgomery.

I wish to speak at some length on Fig. 713. This specimen is one of the cup-stones about which there has been so much discussion. It is something over ten by seven and a half inches in diameter, and on the upper surface are fifteen distinct cup-shaped depressions. It is of sandstone and about two inches thick.

Fig. 707. (S. 1–1.) Slate knives. New York State Museum collection.

Fig. 708. (S. 1–1.) Grooved stone found on the island of Martha’s Vineyard by Ralph D. Bardwell. Collection of Robert D. Bardwell, Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Fig. 709. (S. 1–2.) Grooved stones found in various parts of the United States. Phillips Academy collection.

Fig. 710. (S. 1–2.) Slate knives. Peabody Museum collection, Salem, Massachusetts.

A great deal has been written about cup-stones, as reference to the Bibliography will attest. The pitted hammer-stone, the cup-stone, and the crude discoidal are more or less related. Cup-stones themselves have never been satisfactorily explained, and it is my opinion that such ones as are shown in Fig. 713 mean more than that they were ordinary depressions in which nuts were cracked. However, one must do justice to those who believe that they were used for that purpose. There is a suggestion along the lines of that theory which I would wish to make.

The Indians used large quantities of hickory-nuts, walnuts, and butternuts. The early historians tell us that they threw these into kettles of hot water; the oil rising to the top, they skimmed it off for future use.

Fig. 711. (S. 1–1.) Slate knife in handle. B. W. Arnold’s collection, Albany, New York.

Fig. 712. (S. 2–3.) Sinew stone found near New Berlin, New York, on the surface. Collection of Henry W. Bagg, New Berlin, New York.

Fig. 713. (S. 1–3.) Cup-stone from the Mohawk Valley, western New York. Phillips Academy collection.

Fig. 714. (S. 1–4.) Stone corn-sheller(?); made of gray quartzite. The plane surface is eight by fifteen inches. Shows fractures on nearly all sides, as though it had been much larger. The corrugations have a sharp, cutting-like edge. Found in a creek in Kansas. Collection of the Historical Department of Iowa.

Fig. 715. (S. 1–6.) A stone, with square hole (for unknown purpose), a sandal last, and a stone sword from the Chaco Group. Phillips Academy collection.

Fig. 716. (S. 1–2.) Cup-stone. Collection of Logan Museum, Beloit, Wisconsin.

On such a stone as is illustrated fifteen nuts could be placed at one time and crushed by a single blow of a heavy, flat slab. If they used cup-stones for this purpose, they would naturally employ stones in which there were many cups rather than the average stones containing one or two cups. If so used, the work proceeded rapidly; one person crushing and two others placing the nuts in position. As the stone weighs no more than six or seven pounds, it could be quickly raised and the contents dumped into a receptacle.

Fig. 717. (S. 1–2.) Skull from a Florida shell heap. (See page 351.) Peabody Museum collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Fig. 718. (S. 1–1.) Grooved stone axe from Allington, Washington County, Wisconsin. Collection of the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Fig. 719. (S. 1–5.) A group of bird-stones, boat-shaped objects and other problematical forms. J. T. Reeder’s collection, Houghton, Michigan.

Fig. 720. (S. 2–3.) Problematical forms from near Burlington, Vermont. Collection of G. H. Perkins.

Fig. 720 A. (S. 1–4.) A group of mound pipes. L. W. Hills collection, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

But while this may be true, it has always seemed to me that the pitted stones may be made use of in some way as controlling or regulating the apparatus used in drilling. While all the details of such an explanation were never clear, yet it seemed more plausible than the statement that the stone was used as a common nut-cracker. There is another observation to be made which, it seems to me; militates against the theory that it was necessary to work out circular depressions in order to make a nut-cracker. If one will select a flat, smooth slab and place a dozen walnuts upon it, and strike with another flat slab evenly upon these nuts, one finds that they are crushed quite as completely as if placed in the cup-stones proper. The Indians wished the oil rather than the kernels; and preferred the nuts completely crushed. And for all practical purposes in nut-cracking, two flat surfaces are fully as good as a surface which has been cupped. Again, stones having deep pits on their surfaces prevent the crushing of more than half of each nut. If one studies the cup-stones carefully, one will observe that some of the pitted stones are very smooth, others may be rough. In the exact centre of the pits is a small depression. In some instances this depression appears as if it was the result of a revolving object; in other words, a drill. I cannot believe that the cracking of nuts in these depressions would produce the effect just described.

Fig. 721. (S. 1–2.) Front and side view of an effigy in stone. Collection of Edward Beatty, Santa Rosa, California.

CHAPTER XXXV
THE STONE AGE IN EASTERN CANADA, UTAH, AND DAKOTA

(Written for “The Stone Age” by Henry Montgomery, Ph.D., University of Toronto)