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THE BOOK OF THE PEARL
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According
to Squier and Davis/ two quarts of pearls were originally deposited in
one of these mounds. The writers consider that the pearls were probably
derived from the fisheries in the southern waters, and they regard
their presence in the Ohio mounds as a proof of "an extensive
communication with southern and tropical regions and a migration from
that direction."
A
number of pearls or pearl beads from the Ohio mounds and which formerly
belonged to the Squier and Davis collection, are now in the Blackmore
Museum at Salisbury, England. According to a communication from Dr. H.
P. Blackmore, director of the museum, these pearls, which originally
formed five necklaces, have been much injured by the action of fire at
the time the bodies of those interred in the mounds were burned. Mr.
Blackmore considers that the greater part of the pearl beads are of
mother-of-pearl cut from some large shell, made into a round shape and
perforated, but, after very careful examination, he is of the opinion
that about ten may be classed as natural pearls. Their present color is
a dull, leaden gray, rather lighter than the "black pearl" of commerce.
The size of these pearls or beads varies from four millimeters to
twenty millimeters in diameter. One of the necklaces consists of
thirty-three beads well graduated, but of a dead white color from the
action of the earth.
A
quarter of a century later, when the Centennial Exposition was in
preparation, the Smithsonian Institution undertook the formation of a
public exhibit illustrating American archaeology, and engaged Prof. F.
W. Putnam, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to open and examine some of the
most remarkable of the mounds described by Squier and Davis. These
explorations were continued for some years, partly for the government
and partly for the Peabody Museum of Archaeology at Cambridge, and
their results were exhibited at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. The
mounds explored were chiefly in the valley of the Little Miami, and
particularly those known as the Turner group.
A
very important series of explorations was also carried on by Mr. Warren
K. Moorehead, covering the years from 1887 to 1893, largely in
preparation for the Columbian Exposition. These investigations were
mainly in the Scioto valley, in the counties of Ross, Franklin, and
Pickaway, Ohio. Among the most important results then obtained were
those from the mounds of the "Porter" and "Hopewell" groups, in Ross
County.
Since
that time, much valuable work has been done by Mr. Moorehead and
others, and particularly under the auspices of the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society. The latest and most complete
investigation was made for this society in 1903, by its curator, Prof.
1 Squier and Davis, Smithsonian "Contributions to Knowledge," Vol. I, 1848, p. 283.
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