|
ABORIGINAL USE OF PEARLS 503
|
||
|
|
||
|
report as found on the top of a small altar, broken instruments of obsidian, cut patterns of mica, vestiges of cloth, etc.
Mr.
Moorehead's first discovery of pearls was in a small but interesting
mound, No. 20, about forty feet in diameter. It had been reduced by
plowing to only some two feet in height; and its contents would ere
long have been broken into and scattered by the same process. This was
strictly a burial mound, and soon yielded five skeletons, one of them
being that of a child, nine or ten years of age. With these bones were
numerous objects : two large shells made into cups for drinking,
several copper articles and ornaments, among them a broad copper
bracelet encircling the right wrist, and several hundred pearl and
shell beads and small shells. The same mound yielded later some other
children's remains, but with no important objects. A finely polished
pipe and two bear's teeth coated with copper were also found.
Mr.
Moorehead points out the evidences of a long occupation of this site by
a cultured tribe, who had commerce with the South and West more than
with the North or East.
Work
was then begun, in the latter part of September, on a large and
important mound known as the Oblong (No. 23), 155 feet long by 100 feet
wide, with an elevation at present of 14 feet, and originally of
perhaps 20 feet. This mound yielded thirty-nine skeletons, lying at
depths varying from eight and three fourths to eleven feet below the
present surface, nearly on the base-line of the mound. Some of these
were surrounded by boulders, others were much charred, and a good deal
of variety exists in their condition, all of which Mr. Moorehead
describes particularly. All manner of relics and objects were obtained,
including pearl beads and a splendid copper ax of seventeen pounds'
weight, of course entirely too large for any practical use, and hence
plainly a ceremonial object or badge of some high distinction. Among
the most remarkable of the many interesting objects discovered here
were the large canine teeth of bears,1 which had not only
been drilled through near the base of the root for suspension, like
many others, but had also been partly drilled at the middle of one
side, and a large pearl inserted into the cavity. These singular
ornaments were found at the neck of a skeleton, and had evidently been
worn as pendants. It will be remembered that almost identical specimens
were found by Professor Putnam in the Marriott mound in the Miami
Valley.2 The one here figured is now in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, with most of the other Hopewell material.
Another somewhat similar example of the taste and art of the same
1 See p. 499· 2 See p. 498.
|
||
|
|
||