"hinge-pearls,"
that are found in the region of the hinge-teeth of Unios. A large and
interesting exhibit of these is shown in the Field Museum of Natural
History, Chicago. But thousands of spherical pearls were also obtained,
from the "altars" or "hearths" of mounds belonging to the first
division of Squier and Davis's classification, above noted. From the
Turner group, in Clermont County, in the Little Miami Valley, Professor
Putnam obtained for the Peabody Museum as much as half a bushel of
pearls of this character. As these had been exposed to fire, nearly all
were blackened, some cracked, and all greatly impaired.1
The
next great series of explorations were those conducted by Mr. W. K.
Moorehead in the Scioto Valley, in the counties of Ross, Franklin and
Pickaway, Ohio. He opened and examined a number of mounds, and found
pearls or pearl beads in ten or twelve of them, but the larger deposits
were confined to certain limited districts, which seem to have been
occupied by tribes more advanced in culture and in traffic than the
rest. In these, the pearls and also objects of other kinds brought from
a distance, are principally found. The scattered mounds, not associated
with any village or community sites, have few of these valuable objects.
But
even where they are found freely, pearls were apparently used or
possessed by only a few individuals. Mr. Moorehead investigated in all
117 burial mounds, containing about 1400 skeletons. Pearls were met
with in only seven of these mounds, and in connection with but
twenty-two skeletons. These, however, yielded a total of 2600 pearls,
apparently from Unios, the numbers found with single skeletons varying
from 18 to 602, an average of 118. It thus appears that in Mr.
Moorehead's researches, pearls were found in about one mound out of
seventeen, and in these, with about one skeleton out of eight.
From
"altar mounds," pearls have been in some cases taken in vast numbers.
Professor Putnam's discoveries are mentioned above ; and Mr'. Moorehead
obtained tens of thousands from two altars or hearths in the Hopewell
group, which will be described hereafter.
When
found in the burial mounds with skeletons, pearls are generally seen
to have been placed at the wrists or ankles, or about the neck, or in
the mouth. Sometimes they are found on copper plates, and occasionally
they show evidence of having been sewn or attached to a garment.
Particulars on these points will be given further on. Mr. Moorehead has
also found bears' teeth, set with pearls, as Putnam and Metz did in the
Marriott mound, lying with or near skeletons.
In
the case of the altar mounds, there seems to have been a different
procedure, not a burial, but a great funeral sacrifice in honor of some
1 Collection of Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Cambridge, Mass.
