This relic is now in the possession of ERASMUS GEST, Esq., of Cincinnati. The circumstances under which it was discovered are thus detailed by Mr. Gest in a letter published at the time:
“I herewith send you what I deem to be a hieroglyphical stone, which was found buried with a skeleton in the ‘old mound,’ situated in the western part of the city, together with two pointed bones, each about seven inches long, taken from the same spot. (See page [220].)
“In the course of the excavation several skeletons were disinterred; and their being generally in a good state of preservation and near the surface, gave rise to p275 the inference that they were deposited there since the mound was erected: but the one with which the sharpened bones and hieroglyphical stone were found, was in a decayed state. Being in the centre and rather below the level of the surrounding ground, it was no doubt the object over which the mound was erected. I have a part of the skull; the remainder of the skeleton was destroyed by the diggers.”
Fig. 194. From a drawing by H. C. GROSVENOR.
Fig. 195.
The position of the skeleton with which it was found, as also the other circumstances attending the discovery of this relic, leave little doubt as to its authenticity. It was discovered in December, 1841. The material is a fine-grained, compact sandstone, of a light brown color. It measures five inches in length, three in breadth at the ends, two and six tenths at the middle, and is about half an inch in thickness. The sculptured face varies very slightly from a perfect plane. The figures are cut in low relief, (the lines being not more than one twentieth of an inch in depth,) and occupy a rectangular space four inches and two tenths long, by two and one tenth wide. The sides of the stone, it will be observed, are slightly concave. Right lines are drawn across the face near the ends. At right angles and exterior to these are notches, twenty-five at one end, and twenty-four at the other. Extending diagonally inward are fifteen longer lines, eight at one end and seven at the other. The back of the stone has three deep, longitudinal grooves, and several depressions, evidently caused by rubbing,—probably produced in sharpening the instrument used in the sculpture.
Without discussing the “singular resemblance which the relic bears to the Egyptian cartouch,” it will be sufficient to direct attention to the reduplication of p276 the figures, those upon one side corresponding with those upon the other, and the two central ones being also alike. It will be observed that there are but three scrolls or figures, four of one description, and two of each of the others. Probably no serious discussion of the question whether or not these figures are hieroglyphical is needed. They more resemble the stalk and flowers of a plant than anything else in nature. What significance, if any, may attach to the peculiar markings or graduations at the ends, it is not undertaken to say. The sum of the products of the longer and shorter lines (24×7+25×8) is 368, three more than the number of days in the year; from which circumstance the suggestion has been advanced that the tablet had an astronomical origin, and constituted some sort of a calendar.
We may perhaps find the key to its purposes in a very humble but not therefore less interesting class of Southern remains. Both in Mexico and in the mounds of Mississippi have been found stamps of burned clay, the faces of which are covered with figures, fanciful or imitative, all in low relief, like the face of a stereotype plate. These were used in impressing ornaments upon the clothes or prepared skins of the people possessing them. They exhibit the concavity of the sides to be observed in the relic in question, intended doubtless for greater convenience in holding and using it, as also a similar reduplication of the ornamental figures,—all betraying a common purpose. This explanation is offered hypothetically as being entirely consistent with the general character of the mound remains; which, taken together, do not warrant us in looking for anything that might not well pertain to a very simple, not to say rude, people.[174]