Rambles for relics

Scientific American, Volume XXIV., No. 12, March 18, 1871 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Rambles for relics.

RAMBLES FOR RELICS.

NUMBER II.

At a depth of fifteen feet, we were about to suspend our labors, supposing from the nature and uniformly dark color of the earth, that we had reached the surface of the alluvium, when a sign of the inevitable wood and bark layer was seen in a crevice. An excavation, five or six feet, into the wall, revealed the skeleton of a man laid at length, having an extra coverlid of wooden material. Eighteen large oblong beads, an ax of polished green stone, eleven arrow points, and five implements of bone (to be described) were deposited on the left side; and a few small beads, an ornamental shell pin, two small hatchets, and a sharp-pointed flint knife or lance, eight inches long, having a neck or projection at the base, suitable for a handle, or for insertion in a shaft, on the right side. The earth behind the skull being removed, three enormous conch shells presented their open mouths. One of my assistants started back as if the ghost of the departed had come to claim the treasure preserved, in accordance with superstitious notions, for its journey to the "happy lands." The alarm seemed to be a warning, for at the moment the embankment, overloaded on one side, caved in, nearly burying three workmen, myself, and a spectator. Our tools being at the bottom of the heap, and the wall on the other side, shaken by the falling earth, giving tokens of a change of base, our prospects of a ready deliverance were not very hopeful. The bystanders, however, went to work with their hands, and we were soon relieved, not without casualty, the spectator having the worst of it. Struggling to extricate himself, instead of abiding his time, he dragged one leg out of the pile shorter than the other.

The occurrence of marine shells in a burial depository, especially of the varieties pyrula and oliva, four or five hundred miles from the Gulf and that portion of the Southern coast where the mollusks exist, bears upon the question of migration and tribal intercourse, and the commercial value of these articles. Obtained from a distance and regarded as precious commodities, they were used in exchange, for the material of ornaments, and for choice utensils. Only two or three of these shells have been found in a perfect condition, but defective ones are frequent, with fragments, "cuttings," and various trinkets made out of them—such as ornamental pins, needles, crosses, buttons, amulets, engraved plates, and beads. From one of the specimens recovered from the mound sepulchre, the spire and columella had been removed, leaving a hollow utensil. It would have been suitable for a water vessel, but for a hole in the bottom, which had furnished a button-shaped ornament, or piece of money, which was found with the relic, and exactly corresponded to the orifice. The twirled end of the shell, however, had been improved for a handle by shallow cavities, one on the inside slanting from the middle longitudinal line, and one crossing that line at right angles on the convex side, so as to be fitted to the thumb and fore finger of the left hand, suggesting a use of the implement as a shield, or a mask held before the face. Adair speaks of large shells in use by the Indians of his time (1735), suspended about the neck for shields, and regarded as badges of priestly dignity.

A trench was dug on the east side of the mound, nearly corresponding in dimensions to the one on the west side, making the length of the whole excavation, including the central cavity, thirty-two feet.

In the last opening, eight skeletons were exhumed; the mode of burial was the same throughout. The only article of value recovered was a curiously wrought pipe of stone, having a "figure head" representing the human face, which I have put down in a list of "articles stolen," and which the thief can describe better than the writer. After filling up all the gaps, and levelling the surface to suit the taste of the proprietor, we closed our labors on the mound in the Bent.

Of the skulls collected, it is sufficient to say that they belong to the "short heads," the length and breadth having a comparative medium proportion, a common form of cranium in the mounds of Tennessee.

Of stone implements I specify an ax of serpentine, ten inches long, two thick, and four broad, having plain sides and a straight edge ground down on both of the flat faces; hatchets ("tomahawks") of green stone, flint, and diorite, from five to eight inches long, with rounded faces and sides, contracted to an edge at one end, and to a flat heel at the other; a wedge of black slate, seven inches long and half an inch thick, of a square finish on the faces and sides and at the heel, which was diminished two inches, as compared with the length of the edge; hatchets with a serrated edge at each end, plane on both sides, convex on one face and flat on the other.

With one skeleton was deposited a "set of tools," eight in number, of the species of rock before mentioned, varying in length from two to eight inches. Their peculiarity consists in a variety of shapes—no two being precisely alike—and in their fitness to various uses, such as carving, hacking, paring, and grooving. The smallest of them, having a square finish, was held by the thumb and two fingers, and is suitable for cutting lines and figures in wood and shells. Specimens of this art were furnished from the mound. The largest number might serve for hatchets, chisels, and gouges. One had been ground in the form of a cylinder five inches long and an inch thick, and then cut an inch on two sides to an edge, and worked into a handle with a round bead, from the center of the elliptical faces. It might be used for chipping wood and stone. One answered the purpose of a cold chisel; another was somewhat similar, but had a hollow face reduced to a curved edge for grooving. These polished instruments, wrought with much care, seemed intended for use by the hand rather than for insertion in a handle or socket, or attachment to a shaft by means of a strap or withe. Only one was perforated. The drilling through granite, quartz, and diorite, without the use of metal, was a severe labor, even for savage patience. A long knife of silex, with a wrought handle, lance heads, leaf shaped, of the same material, of beautiful workmanship, arrow points of fine finish, furnished, with others before mentioned, an assortment of arms. Several flint points, though only an inch long, were curved like a cimeter, and used probably as flaying instruments. True disks, of various mineral substances, from an inch to five inches in diameter, having convex faces, complete the list of stone implements. Those of bone comprise several like hollow chisels, sharpened at one end, and pierced through one face, near the other extremity, so as to be fastened to a handle; these were used for dressing skins. One was formed like a poniard, with a worked hilt. With these may be connected arrow heads and sharp pointed weapons of the worked antlers of the stag, and tusks of the wild boar.

Of ornaments, I noticed pins used for dressing the hair, made of the columns of large sea shells. The head is generally round, sometimes oval, from an eighth to a half of an inch in diameter, retaining the diagonal groove of the pillar from which it is made. The stems vary in length from one to six inches. It would be tedious even to classify ornamental beads and buttons of shell work, such as are usually found in the mounds. These trinkets are perforated, and, in addition to their being articles of dress, were used probably as "wampum," the currency of the recent Indians.

A miscellaneous collection includes a hematite stone, wrought in the shape of a cup weighing half a pound; when rubbed or ground it furnished the war paint of the savages; also the extremity of a copper tube, two inches long; needles in bone and shell, from an inch to six inches long, with grooves round the head, to serve the purpose of eyes; and plates of mica. The use of mica plates, which are found of large size in some of the Western mounds, has excited some inquiry. Of a certain thickness, they make good mirrors. Beside their use for ornamental purposes, they were probably looking-glasses of the beauties of the stone age. There was also found a pipe of soap stone, having a stem five inches long, and a bowl with a broad brim, like a Quaker's hat.

Of earthenware, there was an endless variety of fragments of the usual black, grey, or red compressed clay, mixed with pulverized shells or stones. One kind I have never seen described. The sherds had a red coating on both sides, an eighth of an inch in thickness, evidently not a paint or a glaze. The red coloring might have come from the pottery being burnt in the open air, instead of baked in a furnace, were not the layer of uniform thickness and of homogeneous paste, unlike the material of the vessel, which was a gray mixture of clay and particles of shells.

I give the above memoranda to the general fund of information, touching a subject that invites inquiry on account of its novelty and ethnological importance. Every examination of the monumental remains of the ancient Americans brings to light some new feature in structure or type of rudimental art. And since archæology has become a science, investigators, for half a century, may be looking about for facts to complete the system auspiciously introduced by the antiquarians of Northern Europe, and advanced in our own country by the researches of Caleb Atwater (Archæologia Americana) and by those of the Smithsonian contributors to knowledge, especially Squier and Davis. Rambler.

A Small Water Wheel.—There is in the town of Meriden, Conn., a Leffel double turbine wheel, running under 240 feet fall and driving a manufactory. It uses only about one-half of a square inch of water, and runs at the marvelous speed of 3,000 revolutions per minute, or 50 revolutions per second, which is by far the most rapid rate of motion ever imparted to a water wheel. This is, also, beyond comparison the greatest fall applied to the propulsion of a wheel in America. The wheel at Meriden is of the most diminutive size, scarcely exceeding in dimensions the old-fashioned "turnip" watches which our grandfathers used to carry in their capacious vest pockets. The complete success of this wheel has attracted much attention and affords further evidence of the wide range of adaptability of the Leffel turbine.

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