Mississippi.
(1/1)
The same collection contains a large fragment of another small disk about two inches in diameter. The central part seems to be plain, but the looped figure, which has four lines, resembles very closely that engraved on the other plates. It is mentioned by Professor Putnam, on page 309 of the Eleventh Annual Report of the Peabody Museum. It is said to have been found on the surface in Humphrey County, Tennessee.
A much larger specimen, which resembles my type specimen very closely, is shown in Fig. 1, Plate LIX. It was obtained by Professor Putnam and Dr. Curtis from a stone grave on Mrs. Williams' farm, Cumberland River, Tennessee. It is nearly circular, and about two and a half inches in diameter. A small piece has been lost from the upper margin. It is neatly made and quite smooth, and the lines of the design are clearly and evenly engraved. The small cross in the center is inclosed by a plain narrow zone, and is defined by four triangular perforations between the arms. In this respect it resembles other shell crosses found within the Mississippi Valley. Surrounding the plain zone are eight pyramidal rays with cross-bars; in this feature, and in the drawing of the looped square and the birds' heads, there is but little variation from the type specimen. The surface upon which the engraving is made seems to be slightly convex.
Another specimen of this class was obtained from a stone grave near Gray's mound, at Oldtown, Tenn. It is shown in Fig. 3, Plate LIX. The design is very much like that of the type specimen, from which it differs in having four large perforations near the center. Although the engraved design which once occupied the central space is almost totally effaced, one or two of the tips of the pyramidal rays may be detected. It is probable that the four round perforations correspond to the four triangular ones by which the arms of the cross in the preceding example are defined. The perforations for suspension are near one margin, and seem to be very much worn by use. The whole object is fragile from decay. This specimen is also in the Peabody Museum.
One more very imperfect specimen obtained from a stone grave in the Cumberland Valley is nearly five inches in diameter and very irregular in outline. Barely enough of the engraved design remains to show that it belongs to the class under consideration.
It will be observed that the specimens of this class obtained from Tennessee are confined to a limited area. It thus seems especially unfortunate that so little is known of the history of the type specimen given in Plate LVIII, as without assurance of the correctness of the statement that it is from Mississippi we cannot make use of it to show geographical distribution. In reference to this point, however, we have a few very interesting facts which make the occurrence of specimens in localities as widely separated as the "Cumberland River" and "Mississippi" seem inconsequential. I refer now to two specimens described by Dr. Abbott in "Primitive Industry." One of these is a remarkable slate knife, the striking features of which are a "series of etchings and deeply incised lines of perhaps no meaning. Taken in order, it will be noticed that at the back of the knife are four short lines at uniform distances apart, and a fifth near the end of the implement. Besides these are fifteen shorter parallel lines near the broader end of the knife and about the middle of the blade. A series of five zigzag lines are also cut on the opposite end of the blade. * * * More prominent than the numerous lines to which reference has been made, are the clearly defined, unmistakable birds' heads, placed midway between the two series of lines. * * * Did we not learn from the writings of Heckewelder, that the Lenapé had 'the turkey totem,' we might suppose that this drawing of such bird heads originated with the intrusive southern Shawnees, who, at one time, occupied lands in the Delaware Valley, and who are supposed by some writers to have been closely related to the earliest inhabitants of the Southern and Southwestern States. Inasmuch as we shall find that, not only on this slate knife, but upon a bone implement also, similar heads of birds are engraved, it is probable that the identity of the design is not a mere coincidence, but that it must be explained either in accordance with the statements of Heckewelder, or be considered as the work of southern Shawnees after their arrival in New Jersey. In the latter event, the theory that these disks were the work of a people different from and anterior to the Indians found in the Cumberland Valley at the time of the discovery of that region by the whites is, apparently, not sustained by the facts."[139]
A cut of the bone implement referred to above is reproduced from Dr. Abbott's work, in Plate LIX, Fig. 4. It has probably been made from a portion of a rib of some large mammal and is thought to be somewhat fragmentary. "The narrow portion has been cut or ground away to some extent, and the edges are quite smoothly polished. Near the end of this handle-like portion, there is a countersunk perforation, and upon the concave side of the wider part there are rudely outlined the heads of two birds."[140] These resemble somewhat closely the heads depicted on the other specimen described by Dr. Abbott. The specimens referred to are both from New Jersey, and are probably surface finds.
Although the heads represented on these specimens do certainly in some respects suggest that of the turkey, the characters are not sufficiently pronounced to make it impossible that some other bird was intended, so that the original in the mind of the ancient artist may have been the same as that from which the examples on shell were drawn.
In comparing the northern examples with those of Tennessee I observe another feature that is more conclusive as to the identity of origin than the rather obscure resemblance of the birds' heads delineated. I have not had the opportunity of examining the specimen illustrated in Fig. 4; but in the cut given by Dr. Abbott a rather indefinite figure can be traced which has a striking resemblance to the looped rectangle characteristic of the designs on shell. This resemblance could hardly be owing to accident, and if the peculiar figure mentioned is actually found in conjunction with the birds' heads upon the New Jersey specimen, it will certainly be safe to conclude that the bone, stone, and shell objects belonged to the same people, and that they constituted the totems of the same clan, or were the insignia of corresponding offices or orders.[141]
As bearing upon the question of the species of bird represented in the preceding specimens, I present in Plate LX an illustration published by Dr. Rau in the Smithsonian Report for 1877. This remarkable ornament (represented in Fig. 3) was obtained from a mound in Manatee County, Florida. It is a thin blade of gold, pointed at one end and terminating at the other in a highly conventionalized representation of a bird's head, the general characteristics of which are much like those of the examples engraved upon shell. The crest is especially characteristic, and, as pointed out by Dr. Rau, suggests a prototype in the ivory-billed woodpecker, an inhabitant of the Gulf States.