PRE-HISTORIC JASPER ORNAMENTS IN MISSISSIPPI
R. B. FULTON, M. A., LL. D.
In the annual Report of the Smithsonian Institute for 1877, Dr. Chas. Rau, under the title of "The Stock-in-Trade of an Aboriginal Lapidary," emphasizes his conjecture "that among the aborigines certain individuals who were by inclination or practice particularly qualified for a distinct kind of manual labor, devoted themselves principally or entirely to that labor." He referred to several instances where, in certain localities, finds of a large number of similarly wrought specimens of work in stone seemed to indicate that each set of specimens came from the hands of a special lapidary.
One of the most remarkable of these deposits was found in Lawrence County, Mississippi, in 1875, and was carefully described by Dr. Rau. It consisted of 469 imperfectly finished objects made by chipping, cutting and grinding out of reddish or orange-colored or brown jasper pebbles, and was found accidentally about two and one-half feet below the surface of the ground in the northern part of Lawrence County,[67] The objects were evidently intended for ornaments, and when finished all would have been polished and probably perforated. The majority were cylindrical in shape, and varied from one-fourth to one inch in diameter and from one-fourth to three inches in length. Others were roughly fashioned into ornamental shapes. Several showed an attempt at perforation, and one, not received at the National Museum, was said to be completely perforated.
When the hardness of the material used—jasper—is considered, the patience and skill needed to give their form and polish to these objects command admiration. From the fact that only one specimen was perforated completely, one might readily suppose that the workman found the difficulties of this part of his undertaking too great, and buried his unfinished work in despair.
Some time ago there came into my hands a set of similar articles found in the county of Lincoln, Mississippi, about twenty-five miles west of the spot where the above-mentioned find was made.
These last found objects were exhibited at the Cleveland meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in the hope of learning whether similar specimens had been found, as they appeared to me at that time to be entirely unique.
Following out suggestions made at that meeting by several gentlemen, and afterward by two of the best informed Southern archaeologists, I found that the above-mentioned region in Mississippi has yielded a number of carved, polished and perforated objects of this hard red or brown quartzite (or jasper), and nearly all such specimens of this material which I have been able to learn about came from this region.
The collection of specimens of this style of workmanship described by Dr. Rau probably contains the majority of pieces extant. A few specimens of polished jasper ornaments from other States than Mississippi are shown in the National Museum. There are two or three specimens from Indiana, one from California, and one from Louisiana (Claiborne Parish), which seem to be similarly made and from the same material.