Passing now to the actual discoveries of pearls in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, these will be reviewed in the order of the successive explorations in which they were made known. As already stated, the only region where any large amounts have been encountered, is that of the Scioto and Miami valleys in Ohio. Even here, pearls are found only at certain points, and though the numbers are great, the graves which contain them are few. They were apparently buried only with the remains of individuals of especial distinction, probably either chiefs or eminent medicine men. The accounts of recent explorations in these mounds bring to mind very forcibly the statement before cited from Captain John Smith, as to Powhatan’s treasure-house, where all his most valued articles, including pearls, were collected and kept, in preparation for his death and burial. Pearls appear also to have been used only by the more cultured tribes, and were kept in the larger and more prosperous communities exclusively. They are confined to the great “mound groups,” and are not found in isolated mounds. The tumuli of northern Ohio, the hill mounds, and the village sites along the smaller streams, have yielded practically none.
According to the manner of burial, the pearls vary greatly in their present condition. Where they have been placed with cremated bodies, they are, of course, much damaged, being blackened and largely decomposed. Otherwise, although injured in color and luster, the mere fact of burial in the ground has not entirely ruined them. They are generally perforated, so as to be strung or attached to garments, and traces of both these methods of use are sometimes clearly shown.
The term “pearl beads,” often employed by writers, is uncertain in meaning; as it may refer either to actual pearls, bored so as to be strung, or to imitations thereof made from pearly shell. With regard to this point, although such quantities have been obtained, there seems to have been very little close examination as to their structure, which would at once indicate the facts, according as the minute layers of the pearly material are concentric or not. The only distinct testimony is that we have cited above from Prof. Joseph Jones,[[549]] who states that he has examined large numbers, and found them to be apparently cut from shells. He makes the suggestion that they may have been carved from the thicker portions of the fresh-water Unios. This is not only probable, but would go far to solve the mystery of the enormous numbers found, as compared with anything known of the yield of genuine pearls by these mollusks, even with all the pearl hunting of recent years. An interesting fact bearing directly on this question is the discovery in the Taylor mound, at Oregonia, Warren County, Ohio, of several Unio shells in which had been made a circular hole, two thirds of an inch in diameter, either for some ornamental use of the shell or to extract pieces to be shaped into beads. These may have been made in either of two ways. Firstly, by breaking pieces of the shell from one of the valves, as a lapidary “roughs out” a piece of gem material before he begins to grind it into shape; or, secondly, by cutting out a circular disk of shell by means of a hollow copper drill or a hollow reed, just as they perforated hard pieces of quartz or granite for pipes, or as they trephined circular disks from the skulls. Decorated disks of Unio shell were also found in the same mound. If the ancient people made beads in this manner, there is little difficulty in accounting for the quantities described, especially in connection with the evident gathering of Unios on a large scale, as shown by the widely distributed shell-heaps already described. They certainly did make beads from various marine shells, and these are found with the pearl beads in many of the mounds, as particularly noted by Professor Jones, cited above, and by others.
In the recent exploration of the Harness mound, by Professor Mills, a very curious discovery was made of imitation pearls of a kind never before met with; these were made of clay, modeled apparently after the larger natural pearls associated with them, and after being baked hard, had been “covered with a flexible mica,” so as to resemble pearls.[[550]] The mica was a silvery mica that may have been burned and would pulverize into a gray powder with a pearly luster, as almost all micas are too resilient to be attached in any other way.
Taking up now the history of pearl discovery in the mounds, the first definite record goes back to about 1844, when perforated pearls were found by Dr. Edwin H. Davis[[551]] on the hearths of five distinct groups of mounds in Ohio, and sometimes in such abundance that they could be gathered by the hundred. They were generally of irregular form, mostly pear-shaped, though perfectly round ones were also found among them. The smaller specimens measured about one fourth of an inch in diameter, but the largest had a diameter of three quarters of an inch.
The next great discovery of these Unio pearls was in the Porter group of mounds, in the Little Miami Valley, explored by Prof. Frederick W. Putnam, and Dr. Charles L. Metz, who procured over 60,000 pearls, nearly two bushels, drilled and undrilled, undoubtedly of Unio origin; all of them, however, decayed or much altered, and of no commercial value. In 1884 these scientists examined the Marriott mound, where they found nearly one hundred Unio shells, and among other objects of special interest six canine teeth of bears, that were perforated by a lateral hole near the edge at the point of greatest curvature of the root, so that by passing a cord through this, the tooth could be fastened to any object or worn as an ornament. Two of these teeth had a hole bored through near the end of the root on the side opposite the lateral perforation, and the hole countersunk in order to receive a large spherical pearl, about three eighths of an inch in diameter. When the teeth were found, the pearls were in place, although chalky from decay. Upward of 250 pearl beads were found here, concerning which they say: “The pearl beads found in the several positions mentioned are natural pearls, probably obtained from the several species of Unios in the Ohio rivers. In size they vary from one tenth of an inch to over half an inch in diameter, and many are spherical. They are neatly drilled, and the larger from opposite sides. These pearls are now chalky, and crumble on handling, but when fresh they would have formed brilliant necklaces and pendants.”[[552]]
Necklace of fresh-water pearls and cut shell beads, from Mound No. 25
Bear-tooth inlaid with fresh-water pearl from the neck of skeleton No. 209, Mound 23