The remarkable stone disc, engraved and presented in Fig. 393, was found near a mound eight miles from Arkansas Post, Arkansas. Mr. H. L. Stoddard secured this specimen and permitted me to make illustrations from the photographs. There were also found two effigy pipes which are shown in Fig. 491.
These stone discs were found in considerable numbers by Mr. Clarence B. Moore at Moundville, Black Warrior River, Alabama. He figures several of them in “Certain Aboriginal Remains on the Black Warrior River” (Philadelphia, 1905).
The culture at Moundville was high as is evinced by the character of the objects found by Mr. Moore. These discs were more or less thickly smeared with paint, cream color or red.
Mr. Moore states: “The universal presence of paint upon these discs and slabs seems to offer a clue to the purpose for which they were used, and, until a better suggestion is offered, we shall consider them palettes for the mixing of paint.”
Fig. 393. (S. 1–3.) Engraved discs from Arkansas Post, Arkansas. H. L. Stoddard’s collection.
As ordinary slabs serve just as well as stones on which to mix paint, it is my opinion that these highly ornamented stones, if used for this purpose, were employed by the shamans in painting the warriors for certain ceremonies.
But the discs owned by Mr. Stoddard have not smooth centres as have Mr. Moore’s discs, and are apparently for other purposes than the mixing of paint.
TUBULAR FORMS
Not only are there tubular pipes, but there are also tubular forms which apparently are not pipes. I show numbers of these in Figs. 394 and 398. Fig. 394 illustrates a number of steatite beads from the collection of H. K. Deisher, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.