Works of Art. Pottery is poorly represented, only small fragments having been found. Like those from other parts of the United States, the pots were made of clay, with or without the admixture of pounded shells, and were imperfectly burned so that the walls are both friable and porous. The ornamentation, when it exists, is of the rudest kind ([Pl. 14], fig. 18), consisting of indentations or tracings with a single point, or, as in some cases, with a series of points on one and the same instrument. Both at Crouch’s Cove and Cotuit Port, specimens were found in which the lines in the surface had been formed by impressing an evenly twisted cord into the soft clay ([Pl. 14], fig. 19), the cord being laid on in various positions. This kind of ornamentation has a special interest, since there is evidence of its having been made use of in widely distant places. We have found similar specimens on the banks of the St. John’s in Florida; there are others from Illinois, presented to the Peabody Museum by J. P. Pearson, Esq., of Newburyport, and others have been noticed in the ancient barrows of England.[16] This kind of ornament has given rise to the belief that the pots were moulded in nets, which were removed after the vessel was finished. All the specimens we have seen are wanting in any indication of a regular mesh, or of the existence of knots where the cords crossed, which, if they existed, as they must have in a net, could not have failed to be represented.
Implements. It is somewhat remarkable that with the exception of the shell-heaps at Salisbury, all of those here described yielded so few articles made of stone. At Mount Desert only two arrow-heads were found, at Crouch’s Cove Mr. Swann found a pestle, and Mr. Morse a rude chisel, both picked up on the shore, but probably washed out from among the shells. At Eagle Hill, Mr. Putnam found a spherical stone with a groove around it, but at Cotuit Port not a single piece of worked stone was discovered. In regions adjoining the different shell deposits, especially at Cotuit Port, an abundance of stone implements have been found, and those who have preceded us have occasionally obtained some from the heaps. In the Danish heaps, they seem to have been quite common, and Mr. Rau found them so at Keyport.
Implements of bone, on the other hand, are quite abundant, as were also fragments of bone showing the marks of the instruments by which pieces had been detached, and of such there was a considerable variety. Some of the bones were cut across by making a groove around the circumference, as one would cut a notch in a stick, and breaking the rest; and others, as the metatarsal bones of the elk and deer, were split lengthwise, by making a groove on each side nearly to the marrow cavity, and completing the division by fracture. The roughly striated surface of the groove, and its undulating course, indicate a piece of stone, and not a saw, as the instrument with which the work was done. We have found by experiment that this mode of working bone does not prove so great a labor as it might at first sight seem to be, and with care have succeeded in splitting in two, lengthwise, in the course of an hour, a piece of human ulna seven inches long, by means of a flint “chip” held in the hand. This, of course, involves a large expenditure of time, but it must be remembered that an Indian’s time was not valued. The work is rendered very much easier by keeping both the instrument and bone wet. It has been objected to the opinion, that certain implements from the European heaps were used as saws, that having wedge-shaped edges they would soon become “choked” or “jammed.” Practically this does not happen, for we have uniformly found that the roughness of the sides of the flint is sufficient to widen the groove as fast as the edge deepens it.
Implements of bone made by the Indians dwelling in New England have rarely been mentioned, and are seldom seen in collections, but if one may judge from the number of specimens we have obtained, must have been in quite common use. The inhabitants of the North-west Coast, and the Esquimaux, are largely dependent upon this material, and Messrs. Squier and Davis found a few bone instruments in the mounds of Ohio. The accompanying figures, drawn by Mr. Morse, represent the forms of the more important ones discovered in the different heaps, which form the subject of this paper. Except the first, which is reduced one-half, linear measurement, all are represented of the natural size. We are unable to assign any uses for the larger part of them, and of the others can only offer a conjecture.
Pl. 14.
WYMAN ON THE SHELL-HEAPS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Pl. 15.
WYMAN ON THE SHELL-HEAPS OF NEW ENGLAND.