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ABORIGINAL USE OF PEARLS
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are
regarded as having been the most advanced among the Ohio mound-builders
; while the term "Fort Ancient culture" is applied to a somewhat lower
grade in the matter of arts, which has its chief illustration among
the builders and occupants of that celebrated work. By-such researches,
thus minutely and systematically conducted, there is now beginning to
be possible something like a classification of these ancient unknown
tribes, which will doubtless be developed more fully, as investigation
shall be extended and its results combined and compared.
As
to pearls in the mounds of Illinois, we are informed by the veteran
archaeologist, Dr. J. F. Snyder, that in 1889 he found the skeletons
of three adult Indians at the base of a small mound on the bluffs of
the Sangomon River in Cass County. These skeletons were in a squatting
posture; artefacts—such as greenstone celts, a bicave stone and a heavy
pipe—had only been deposited with one of them. Around each wrist and
ankle of this skeleton were perforated beads made from Marginella shells,
and resting on the sternum was a solitary pearl which had evidently
formed the center of a necklace of the same small marine shells.
Although much decayed, it still retained something of its original
luster. It was spherical, measured approximately seven eighths of an
inch in diameter, and was perforated through the middle. Dr. Snyder
also states that at the base of one of the large mounds he opened in
1895, in Brown County, on the west side of the Illinois River, he
discovered a number of the large canine teeth of the bear, perforated
at the roots, so as to be used for necklaces. On the convex side of
each tooth were from two to four pits about one third of an inch in
diameter, and the same in depth, in which gems had been inserted. Two
small pearls were still in place. Near by were the remains of another
necklace composed of alternate pearls and bone beads; the latter were
oblong and perforated lengthwise. Eight of the pearls were recovered,
ranging in diameter from one half to one third of an inch, and pierced
through the center, but all were very badly injured by the action of
fire.
Mr.
David I. Bushnell, who has excavated the McEvers mound in Montezuma,
Pike County, Illinois, for the Missouri Historical Society, found in
this mound a cyst containing a skeleton six feet in height and also a
skull reposing on a bundle of bones near which lay forty-five pearls,
one of them weighing fifty-two grains and still showing a beautiful
luster. Almost all the objects discovered in the mound will be
presented to the Missouri Historical Society. The large pearl would be
worth from $12,000 to $15,000 if it were in perfect condition.
We learn from Mr. Richard Herrmann, founder of the Herrmann
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