Fig. 419. (S. 1–1.) Front view of the “Owl Ornament,” found in a grave at Fort Ancient, Ohio, 1882. Collection of the Ohio State University. One of the first specimens collected by W. K. Moorehead at Fort Ancient. Material, graphite slate.
Few finer problematical forms have been found. There are two grooves on the face and back of this object. One runs from the top down about an inch and one half, intersecting the other. In the angles formed by these two grooves are two perforations extending through the stone and drilled from each side. At the bottom is an oval-shaped hole on the face extending through. This latter perforation does not exhibit an oval shape from the rear, but presents a round appearance. Around this oval-shaped depression are fourteen holes, each drilled about one eighth of an inch deep. They present the form of an arrow-head, or a heart. On the reverse side are two holes above the oval perforations which are not drilled through the stone, and which lie just under the horizontal groove. The remarkable part of this stone is that the symbol, three, occurs on it in three places—on the face twice and on the reverse once.
Quite a number of these whale and other effigies have been found in New England; but effigy-work in stone, the making of art-forms from life, was more general in the South and Southwest than in New England, where, indeed, effigy animals are exceedingly rare.
Fig. 415 illustrates an effigy of a bear. This was found in Salem during excavations for a cellar and is in the Peabody Museum of that city.
Mr. L. C. Deming, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, owns a peculiar effigy in stone about six inches in height. Just what it represents I am unable to state, as the ancient workman’s sculpture is crude.
Fig. 420. (S. 1–1.) The “Owl Ornament,” rear view.
Fig. 421. (S. 1–1.) Salem collection. This shows a grooved bar-like object at the bottom, and a curious effigy pendant above.
Fig. 422. (S. 1–3.) W. E. Bryan’s collection, Elmira, New York.