Fig. 536. (S. 1–1.) Shell frog, two shell effigies, onyx bead, and effigy fish (jade?). From the large ruin near Mesa, Arizona.
The natives living in the great pueblos of the Salado Valley, southern Arizona, and in fact throughout that entire region, made use of a great many shells found along the shores of the Gulf of California. Not only did they make ordinary beads, after the manner of the Northern Indians, but they also made finger-rings and bracelets. These have been so frequently illustrated, I have purposely left them out. They worked all manner of effigies out of shell, as is shown in Figs. 536–37, from the collection at Andover. These specimens were obtained by me while exploring in 1897 and 1898 for Mr. R. S. Peabody, founder of the Department at Andover.
There are also shell frogs inlaid with turquoise—real mosaic work. Dr. Fewkes has illustrated some effigies of this nature, in his reports, and Dr. Pepper found numbers of them at the great Chaco Group of ruins, northern New Mexico. When the first shell frogs were discovered by the late Frank Hamilton Cushing, some of the archæologists went so far as to say that Cushing had made these, but now so many of them have been found that Cushing’s original contentions are verified.
Fig. 537. (S. 1–2 to 1–3.) Shell objects from Arizona.
It is surprising, the skill of prehistoric man in carving. When Squier and Davis made their exploration of the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, they found many highly carved and ornamented pipes. Years afterwards, observers who were unjustly skeptical endeavored to prove that these were made with rat-tail files or were the work of white traders. Since the time of Squier and Davis, even more remarkable carvings, work in copper, intricate designs on shell, and various tablets have been unearthed, in numbers, and by men against whom no charge could be made.
It will be seen by an inspection of the few shell objects that I have illustrated that, notwithstanding the lack of iron tools, aboriginal man in America was no mean artist.
CHAPTER XXIX
OBJECTS OF BONE
Bone objects served practical purposes more than they did ornamental uses. Of course some bones were worked into ornaments, but more of them were in use as utility tools than otherwise. The classification of bone tools is a subject to which one must give no little thought, for the material ranges from ordinary beads to highly decorated and grooved cylinders, or tubes. Therefore, I am not fully satisfied with the classification I herewith present, and hope at a future date to improve upon it.