;e handle PHCARE dversity of :ticut Libraries 3 1153 DintD7fl D Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/antiquitiesoftenOOthru THE ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE AND THE ADJACENT STATES AND THE STATE OF ABORIGII^AL SOCIETY IN THE SCALE OF CIVILIZATION" REPRESENTED BY THEM A SERIES OF HISTORICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL STUDIES BY GATES P. ^™KUST0N COEBESPONDING SECEETAEY OF THE TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY ^ilxx&tvatetf* CINCINNATI ROBERT CLARKE & CO 1890 Copyright, 1890, By gates p. THRUSTON OFFICERS -AND MEMBERS OF THE TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AND ESPECIALLY TO JOHN M. LEA, ITS Honored President, ^15 Pofint^c V5 ^ffoctionatofr 5ncale 300 ft. to Uie in.^ Fig. 4. — Plan op the De Graffenreid Works, Williamson County, Tennessee.* and sixteen feet in height ; the remaining mounds vary from one hundred to twenty -five feet in diameter, and from one to four feet in height. " When the ground inclosed by the earth-work was cleared, about forty years ago, the mounds and ditch are said to have been covered with large trees, equal in size and age to those in the sur- rounding forests. A white oak four feet in diameter is said to have * From Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee (Jones), page 56. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 37 stood in the ditch. There were seven 'passways' over the works, at convenient distances from each other, and about eight feet wide, as long as the earth remained as the aborigines had left it. At that time, the ditch was five or six feet wide and three or four feet deep. The earth forming the embankments appears to have been thrown upon the outside, so that the ditch was within the line of fortifica- tions. Both the earth wall and ditch have been greatly altered by the weather and by the plowshare, so that at present they are in some places scarcely visible, and it is impossible to determine either the original height of the one or the depth of the other. Near where the intrenchment strikes the river bank, at the commence- ment of the steep bluff", is a large and never-faihng spring of excel- lent water. At another portion of the inclosure, indicated on the plan, there is a covert-way, or ditch, leading to the bluff, and down through a crevice to the river's edge. " The large, oblong mound. A, had no stone graves in its upper layer, but a shaft sunk into its center, through its entire depth, re- vealed, near the bottom and close to the original surface of the earth, a hard, red, burned surface or altar, with ashes and charcoal resting on it. It appears that the mass of earth composing the mound had been erected upon the altar. " The four next largest mounds (B, C, D, and F) in hke man- ner contained no stone coffins or human bones, but appeared to have been used for similar purposes as the large oblong mound; the interior giving evidence of having been burned with very hot fires, the red burnt stratum resembling bricks in hardness, so that it was possible to dig out with a pick-ax compact pieces of it a foot thick. " The burial mounds were four in number and smaller in size, and lay between this outer chain of sacrificial mounds and the river." The main tumulus contained nothing of interest, excepting the burnt clay hearth, with ashes and charcoal, near the natural surface, doubtless the remains of the ceremonies or sacrifices incident to its erection. From other sources and recent investigations, we learned 38 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. that these large and generally central mounds were probably raised foundations, upon wbieli were erected the bouses of tbe cbief and his family or retainers, or perhaps the council-houses of the tribes. From their commanding position, they were doubtless also used for observation and for directing forces in case of an attack. The elevations next in size (B, C, D, and F), averaging about two feet high, were oblong, and from thirty-three to sixty- six feet in diameter. They contained no burial remains. Recent mound explorations disclose the fact that the hard burned clay found must have formed the ancient walls and fire-places, or the hearths, of large family or communal dwellings, and that these low mounds are simply the debris or remains of these large houses. From burial mounds H and I, Dr. Jones obtained a number of remarkable relics. In the center of mound H, was a carefully con- structed stone grave, octagonal in form. It contained a skeleton, which appeared to have been buried in a sitting posture.* On the right side, and within the very bones of the hand, was found a re- markable flint knife or sword blade, the fingers resting around the tapering end or handle. This beautiful implement ^vas twenty-two inches long, and about two inches in width at the broadest portion. It is probably the longest and finest chipped stone knife known to archaeology. An illustration of it will be found in the chapter upon chipped flint implements. An earthenware vessel, seven inches high, was found on the left side, as if held in the hand, and two large sea shells lay on the right. Around this central octagonal grave were nine other stone graves, a form of burial frequently observed in Middle Tennessee. In one of them, four small, thin copper ^^lates were found, stamped * Bandalier reports that, in exploring the ruins of the pueblos in the valley of the Pecos, he found that the ancient Pueblo Indians buried their dead in stone graves, and in a sitting position. — Papers Archaeological Institute of America, No. 1, page 98. The practice of burying some of their dead in a sitting posture was com- mon among the mound building tribes, and also among several tribes of modern Indians. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 39 with rude crosses. They had probably been used as pendants or ornaments.* Unique images, and many fine specimens of painted pottery and of shell-work, were found in these graves. Dr. Jones was of opinion, from the location of burial mounds H and I nearest the laro-e mound, from the care exhibited in the burial, and from the fine quality of the relics found there, that these graves contained the remains of some persons or family of high rank in this ancient tribe of villagers. ~ "UUUul. Scale 3SOJ'i.ioiTwh Fig. 5.— Plan of Works, Mounds, and Graves at Old Town, Williamson County, TENNESSEE.t The greater number of graves found in the adjacent fields and without the lines of defenses, seemed to indicate that the fort may have been used as a place of refuge for the neighboring population in times of danger, rather than as a place of permanent residence. There is also an ancient fort at Old Town, on the Big Harpeth river, about six miles south-west of Franklin, Tennessee. The works extend from the steep blufi"of the river in a crescent form two thousand four hundred and seventy feet in length, and in- close twelve acres. They have been partly worn down by cultivation, but old residents state that thirty years ago the embankments were ■■•■ See illustration of these plates in the chapter upon objects of copper, No. 9. t From Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee (Jones), page 82. 40 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. SO steep that it was impossible to ride across them. A fine stream issues from the river's bank, witliin the lines. Two pyramidal mounds and a small burial mound are situated in the south-west corner of the works. The largest (A) is one hundred and twelve feet in its long diameter, sixty-five feet in its short diameter, and. eleven feet high ; the next in size (B) is seventy by sixty feet at the base, and nine feet high ; and the small burial mound is thirty by twenty feet in diameter, and two and five-tenths feet in height. A large aboriginal population occupied the surrounding country. SarkiLMoancL — ^^ JPp-amidal JUiZ . ^% TAsres ^% Secilo W5 j^.i:o inck % Spring — Fig. 6. — Plan of the Works and Mounds on West Harpeth River.* A circular fort or inclosure, one thousand nine hundred and seventy feet in circumference, containing about seven acres, may also be seen on the north bank of the West Harpeth river, about three miles distant from the works at Old Town. (Fig. 6.) The embankments and mounds are covered with large forest trees. Dr. Jones found an old oak stump within the inclosure, which showed some three hundred rings of growth. f The main pyramidal mound is one hundred and ten feet in * From Aboriginal Remains (Jones), page 79. t This ancient tree may have been growing within the inclosure when occupied by its aboriginal builders. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 41 diameter at the base, and thirty -five feet at the summit. Its mean height is but nine feet. Dr. Jones also reports that: " Fortifications several miles in ex- tent, inclosing two systems of mounds and numerous stone graves, lie along the Big Harpeth river, about sixteen miles below Old Town, at Mound Bottom and Osborne's Place. Within these ex- traordinary aboriginal works, which inclose the sites of two ancient ^'^ch Go ft n, , ^'"^ Bone Corilenls,54 A.3R.I3P. Fig. 7. — Plan of Stone Fort near Manchester, Tennessee.* cities, are found three pyramidal mounds, about fifty feet in eleva- tion, and each one exposing about one acre on its summit; and be- sides these are lesser mounds. The old road or trail which con- nected these ancient towns can still be recognized in the forest, the well-worn and compact path being in some places a foot or more lower than the general surface of the surrounding soil." f * From plan in Abori'^'inal Remains (Jones), page 100. t Aboriginal Remains (.Jones^, paga 3(). %. % 42 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. The largest and most elaborate ancient fortification of Middle Tennessee is known as the " Stone Fort," and is situated in the forks of Duck river, near Manchester, in Coffee county. The main wall, now varying from four to six feet high, is partly constructed of irregular, loose stone from the river bed or the adjoining bhifis. There is no regular wall or masonry, but the rocks and earth are heaped together promiscuously, forming a strong embankment, connecting with the precipitous river bluffs. (Fig. 7, page 41.) A wide, deep ditch in the rear of the w^orks separates and pro- tects them from the commanding ridge opposite. The entrance at the north end exhibits considerable engineering skill, and is similar in plan to some of the fortified gateways of the strongest ancient works in Ohio. Mounds of stone about three feet higher than the general wall, doubtless founda- fc tions for towers or extra defenses, were erected on CD f^ each side of the entrance. On the inside, double ^ protecting w^alls extend back from the opening, as m^^^'-;^^ shown in the small plan (Fig. 8), terminating at f both ends in raised mounds of the same character, I opposite the main entrance and the rear opening, the latter being concealed at the side. The enemy Fig. 8.— Plan of once within the main gateway, would find him- Enteance. " "^ self in cul de sac in this interior inclosure. Explorations made within this ancient fortress h^ve revealed no stone graves or other remains of interest, or connecting it with aboriginal life in other fortified works. The Stone Fort was probably a military or defensive inclosure, not used as a permanent settlement. There is a large mound, elliptical in form, thirty feet high, and six hundred feet in circumference, about a half-mile from the main entrance of this fort. It is constructed of earth and loose stone, but partial excavations have brought to light nothing of special in- terest regarding it. On the east side of the Tennessee river, on the high ground ad- joining the town of Savannah, Tennessee, there are extensive THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 43 earth-works, inclosing a group of mounds, some sixteen in number. They are of very great archa?ological interest. The largest mound is thirty feet high, over one hundred yards in diameter, and has a level area or platform on top. It occupies a central, commanding position, and probably overlooked nearly the entire line of works. The other mounds of the group ranged from twelve feet in height down to small elevations. The main lines of works measure, " north and south," one thousand three hundred and fifty yards. Fig. U. — Plan of the Earth-works at Savannah, Tennessee. and are distinctly traceable. At intervals of eighty yards along the works, the remains of redoubts are found, extending to the front about twenty yards, and at tlie main angles, thirty yards. In front of the main line about fifty-five yards, and parallel to it, there is a second and less elevated line, probably the remains of an advanced line of stockades, now partly obliterated, but still traceable. The redoubts of the outer lines projected about forty feet in front of it, and alternated with those of the main line. The plan of these works, from the Smithsonian Report of 1870, 44 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. (page 408), \vill give a more correct idea of its construction than the description. Extensive excavations were made in these mounds, in 1870, by J. Parish Stelle, and from his valuable report made to that institu- tion, we have obtained the information relating to it. He " sunk an eight-feet shaft in the center of the large mound, down to the solid earth," and made a number of excavations in various parts of it, but discovered nothing of interest, excepting near the surface, the remains of a level burned clay or "tile" floor, in the form of " a crescent," about sixteen feet wide and forty-four feet long. It " seems to have been made by spreading tempered clay smoothly upon a leveled space of earth, and then hardening it by means of fire built on the top of it. There are no seams to indi- cate that it was made otherwise and laid in sections." Mr. Stelle's experience in excavating this large mound does not differ materially from that of other explorers. The large central mounds of these southern groups of earth-works usually yield little treasure or information of importance, excepting burned clay hearths, ashes, and charred bones. They are the mounds for the chief's residence or for the council-house, or mounds of obser- vation and for giving commands. The burned clay surface was probably carefully prepared for use as a floor in some important building or residence. A few ves- sels of pottery, some implements, several skeletons, a number of copper ornaments, and a string of copper beads were found in exca- vating the smaller mounds. Mr. Stelle discovered in one small " double mound " of the group, what appeared to be the remains of three furnaces, or fur- nace flues, built of clay, about six feet apart. They were about two feet wide and eighteen inches high. He states that, " over these, rude arches had been thrown, formed of irregular masses of tem- pered clay, probably sun dried. Some of these masses we took out entire. They were about as large as a man could handle conven- iently, and, having been immediately in contact with the fire, were burned very hard. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 45 " From the three main furnace trenches, went up a number of small flues, eight or ten inches in diameter, whose walls had also been formed of tempered clay, and were now burned very hard. At some points, they rose directly toward the surface of the mound, while from others they wound and twisted about through it in various directions, all skillfully planned, with a view to conveying the heat to all parts of the pile. "Running through the mound horizontally, at difierent eleva- tions, were large logs, still retaining their entire shape, but com- pletely charred. 'We traced one from end to end, eighteen inches in diameter and twenty-two feet long.' The ends had been burned oiF by fire. There were also a number of upright charred wooden posts, which appeared to have been used to support or give strength to the furnaces. There were no indications of the use of the ax or other means of cutting the timbers than by fire. The whole earth about the furnaces showed evidences of having been heated and baked. "There were no fragments of pottery, or dross, or cinders, or any thing else, upon which a hypothesis could be based touching the object for which the mound had been used. Ashes in the fur- naces, bones, burned earth, and charred timbers, as already men- tioned, were the only things found, after a most careful and exhaust- ive examination." The only bones found in the furnace mound were two small piles of human bones dug up near the furnace flues. No satisfactory explanation as to the remarkable features of this furnace mound has been offered, so far as we are informed. We have endeavored to present the main facts relating to it. The interested reader is referred to the original account in the Smith- sonian Report for further particulars.* * The Force pamphlet, on Prehistoric Man, Darwinism, and the Mound Builders, published by Eobert Clarke & Co., 1873 (page 81), states that "it is not easy to be- lieve that the intrenchments and charcoal mound were not made by Europeans." He thinks they might have been the work of De Soto and his men, who went into winter quarters in that general section after the battle of Chicaca. (Savannah is north of the route usually attributed to De Soto.) 46 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. A number of ancient pottery ovens or kilns have been found within the mound districts, of simpler character and smaller. We have discovered the remains of two small kilns in the vicinity of Nashville. Squier and Davis report the discovery of pottery kilns in Panola county, Mississippi, " in which were masses of vitriiied mat- ter, frequently in the form of rude bricks, measuring twelve inches in length by ten in breadth'.'* In Maury county, twenty-one miles south-west of Franklin, there is a large tumulus, known as the " Parish Mound," situated in the bend of Rutherford creek, near Duck river, a position most favorable for defense. Dr. Jones states that it is a beautiful square mound, twenty-iive feet in height, six hundred and nine in circum- ference, and one hundred and fifty-two in diameter on the summit. There are two smaller mounds not far distant, but no traces of fortifi- cations or stone graves are now visible. There is an ancient mound on the high bluff at the intersection of Piney and Duck rivers, near Centerville, Tennessee. It is said to have an altitude of about thirty-five feet. A line of breast-works, now about seven feet high, runs across the angle formed by the junction of the two rivers, in- closing the mound. It was a fine position for defense. There is also a group of mounds on Duck river, at Indian Ridge, in Hum- phrey county, Tennessee. One of them is said to be forty-seven feet high, another twenty feet, and a third fifteen feet high. At Hurricane Rock, on Duck river, near its mouth, there are two mounds; and on the east bank of the Tennessee river, near John- sonville, Tennessee, there is a group of mounds. There is a very extensive system of mounds in Madison county, in the western district. Mr. John G. Cisco, of Jackson, informs us that Mt. Pinson, the largest of the group, is about seventy-two feet high, and one thousand feet in circumference at its base. A pen- tagonal mound, with an altitude of about thirty-eight feet, lies about a half-mile west of Mt. Pinson. * Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, pag3 195 ; Smithsonian Contri- butions, Vol. I. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 47 There are also several mounds in Sequatehee valley, and mounds and defensive earth-works upon Caney fork of the Cumber- land river, and in Smith county, Tennessee. Three ancient stone barrows, conical in form, were found by the early settlers standing* on a high bluff on Buffalo river, near the north border of Lawrence county, but time and the relic hunters have nearly destroyed them.* It seems there were " cliff dwellers," or rock shelf houses, in an- cient Tennessee. About eight miles from Jamestown, in Fentress county, upon the lands of Mr. Ben. R. Stockton, and in the midst of an apparently primeval forest, there is a projecting ledge of rocks, about one hundred and forty feet long, the overhanging stone cover being about thirty feet wide, and varying in height above the floor or surface of the ground from ten to twenty-five feet, forming a nat- ural roof or shelter. At some period in the past, these sheltering rocks have been utilized as a fortress or a communal dwelling, as the entire floor beneath is a bed of ashes, averaging about five feet deep, and extending a considerable distance beyond the rock wall line. Mr. Stockton, the owner, states that he has hauled from three hundred to four hundred wagon loads of ashes from the " Rock-house," to use in fertilizing his farm, and that there are probably from eight hundred to one thousand more loads, and that nearly as much more had been washed down the hill. Thousands of trees must have been burned in creating this immense ash bed, yet the surrounding forests show no evidences of their removal, indicating that centuries must have elapsed since this ancient house or fort was inhabited. There is a running stream at the foot of the hill, about two hundred yards from the Rock-house. In excavating the ashes, two skeletons have been discovered, * Dr. T. S. Evans and John M. Bass, Esq., recording secretary of the Tennessee Historical Society, visited these remains some years since. They discovered evi- dences of fire and of a duct, flue, or opening leading from the base of the stone mounds, but no relics of interest, and they reached no satisfactory conclusions as to the purpose ior whicli they were erected. 48 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. partly surrounded by stone slabs, and indicating that the remains were buried in a sitting posture. Earthenware vessels of well- burned clay and crushed shells, and other relics have been found, showing that this natural castle had probably been occupied by the people of the Stone Grave race. It must have been inhabited for a long time, and by a consid- erable force or flimily, as the ash bed approximates in size some of the prehistoric shell heaps along the sea shore. Doubtless walls or pickets made it a strong and comfortable fortress home during some long period of warfare or danger. Mr. Stockton informs us that there are a number of smaller " rock houses " in that vicinity.* Having given a brief description of the main features of some of the ancient tumuli, inclosures, and defensive works in Tennessee, we pass to a consideration of the state of aboriginal society, as rep- resented by them. Regarded simply in the light of their physical characteristics, they do not necessarily indicate a status more ad- vanced than that of certain tribes of historic Indians. In fact, it has often been found impossible to separate the works of the mound building tribes from more modern known Indian works, or to draw absolute lines of distinction between them.f From the excellent state of preservation of many of the skele- tons, shell, bone, and horn ornaments and implements, sun-dried pottery, and articles of wood, found in some of the mounds and stone graves of Middle Tennessee, it can not be believed that all of the latter antedate the Columbian discovery, the visit of Pamphilo de l^arvaez in 1528, or of De Soto in 1540. A greater number of skulls in a good state of preservation have probably been taken from stone graves of Middle Tennessee than from au}^ other section * Hon. W. A. Henderson,* of Knoxville, visited this interesting rock house in Fentress county, and kindly called our attention to it. t The earth-works of Western New York, long regarded as the unquestioned remains of an ancient race of mound builders, were, after carefui exploration, declared to be the remains of the stockade forts of the Iroquois Indians, or their western neighbors, and of no great antiquity.— Aboriginal Monuments of New York (Squier), page 83; Smithsonian Contributions, Vol. II. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 49 of the mound area; an indication that the Stone G-rave race prob- ably belonged to a late mound building period. A considerable por- tion — perhaps one-sixth — of the skulls examined by the author in his archaeological explorations, have been found to be in very good condition, and a large number have been carefully removed and preserved. Prof. Putnam and his assistants obtained, for the Peabody Museum, a most valuable collection of sixty-seven skulls from the valley of the Cumberland. Frail, sun-dried vessels of clay are often found in the graves, in the damp loam and sand along the bank of the Cumberland river, in a better state of preservation than the burned ware found in the Ohio mound dis- trict. Leather thongs, or strings, not yet decayed, were found in a stone grave near N^ashville, by Dr. Joseph Jones.* Prof. F. W. Putnam found the fragment of a string in a stone grave on Fort Zollicoffer.f In both cases, the copper ornaments to which they were attached aided in preserving them. The author found in a stone grave in the same ancient ceme- tery, on the bank of the Cumberland, a small, well-preserved, carved w^ooden wheel. A thin Him of copper covering a portion of it had probably partly preserved it. In an adjoining stone grave was found a small, but perfect, specimen of pottery, indicating a contemporaneous burial. We also found in a stone grave of the Koel cemetery, near IsTashville, a small half-decayed ornament or piece of wood, partly covered with fragments of oxydized copper. Fragments of wood not entirely decayed are frequently found in the burial mounds of Tennessee, also charred matting, burned corn-cobs, and other remains of perishable materials. These indica- tions point to the comparatively modern origin of at least some of the graves and tumuli of the Cumberland valley. t * Aboriginal Remains (Jones), page 45. t Eleventh Annual Report Peabody Museum, page 307. t Dr. Joseph Jones reports, that in exploring the large mound near " Stone Fort," in Coffee county, he found the remains of a white man, deposited there only about twenty years prior to that time — an intrusive burial ; and that he " was surprised 4 50 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. Haywood, in lais "Aboriginal History of Tennessee," states that in 1819, a white oak tree growing on the top of the " Stone Fort," near Manchester, Tennessee, was cut down, and contained three hundred and fifty-seven "annulars" or rings.* This ancient land- mark was therefore but seventy-eight years old when De Soto landed on the coast of Florida. An elm tree about four feet in diameter is still standing on the earthwork near Lebanon. These trees indicate a very considerable age, yet there are familiar old elms at Salem and in the suburbs of Boston and elsewhere in JS"ew England — elms planted since the advent of the Europeans — that probably equal in size the Lebanon elm or the largest trees now found growing upon the mounds. f Assured, therefore, that some of the mounds and stone graves of Tennessee do not antedate the dawn of history, we naturally turn to the chronicles of the early Spanish discoverers for the key to find the bones so much more decayed than those of many of the aborigines in the stone graves." — Aboriginal Remains (Jones), page 102. Dr. W. C. Blackman, an intelligent observer and physician, who resides in the midst of the stone grave cem- eteries south of Nashville, and has been present at a large number of grave explor- ations, agrees in opinion with the author, that some of these stone graves are prob- ably not more than three hundred or three hundred and fifty years old, and may be of considerably later date. They can not be less than about two hundred years old, as that is probably about the latest date of permanent Indian occupation. Dr. Ran, of the Smithsonian Institution, a noted expert in archaeology, dug up a num- ber of vessels of pottery at Cahokia creek, Illinois — ware of the same character and forms as some of the Tennessee and Missouri pottery— which he ascribed to the Indians, and stated that he regarded these remains as of comparatively modern origin. "Only a hundred years," says Dr. Ran, "may have elapsed since they (these vessels) were made, yet it is also possible that they are much older." — Smithsonian Report, 1866 (Ran : Indian Pottery), page 349. Dr. Wm. M. Clark found a well-preserved piece of string, or hemp fiber, wrap- ped around a copper spool, or ornament, in a stone grave near Brentwood, Tennes- see. — Smithsonian Reports, 1877. * Aboriginal History of Tennessee, page 170. t The centennial of the elm tree planted at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1790, in memory of Benjamin Franklin, was recently celebrated. It was found to be four feet in diameter. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 51 that shall unlock the uses and mysteries of some of these remains. The results fully justify our expectations. Narvaez, who attempted the conquest of Florida,* in 1528, with a well-appointed force, captured and detroyed several fortified Indian towns, surrounded by extensive fields of corn, but was finally compelled by the constant attacks of the natives to abandon the enterprise. Cabeza de Yaca, who accompanied him, makes a statement noticeable in this con- nection, "that the natives were accustomed to erect their dwellings on a steep hill, and around its base to dig a ditch as a means of defense. t The testimony of De Soto's followers is more direct and com- plete. It has been three hundred and forty-nine years since these Spanish adventurers marched through Georgia, Alabama, Missis- sippi and Arkansas, states bordering upon Tennessee. The antiq- uities of these southern states being similar in their main features, De Soto's Spanish records contain historic evidence of great im- portance. The meager accounts of Biedma, the more extended statement of " the gentlemen of Elvas," a Portugese soldier of much intelli- gence, and the romantic narrative of Garcilasso de la Vega, con- sidered together, are entirely in harmony with antiquarian research, and aiFord information unattainable elsewhere, as to the character of the towns, villages, houses, and of the interesting domestic -life of the tribes in the territory through which De. Soto's army passed. Garcilasso de la Vega, in his history, says : " The town and house of the Cacique (or chief) of Osachile are similar to those of all other caciques in Florida, and, therefore, it seems best to give one description that will apply generally to all the capitals, and all the houses of the chiefs in Florida. I say, then, that the Indians endeavored to place their towns upon elevated places, but because such situations are rare in Forida, or that they find a difficulty in procuring suitable material for building, they raise eminences in ■■■■ Florida, at that time, included Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. t Brinton : Nationality of Mound Builders. 52 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. this manner. They choose a place to which they bring a quantity of earth which they elevate into a kind of platform, two or three pikes in height (from eighteen to twenty-five feet), of which the flat top is capable of holding ten or twelve, fifteen or twenty houses to lodge the cacique, his family, and suite." * Biedma also states, in speaking of the same province: "The caciques of this country make a custom of raising near their dwellings very high hills, on which they sometimes build their huts." " We journeyed two days, and reached a village in the midst of a plain, surrounded by a wall and a ditch filled with water, which had been made by the Indians." f The principal towns of the natives were found by De Soto to be well fortified, and are described as " walled towns." They were surrounded by palisades formed by the trunks of trees, plastered with clay and straw, and surmounted at intervals with towers. They had protected openings or gateways. They sometimes con- tained a population of several thousand inhabitants. One town is mentioned containing six hundred houses. Some of the houses de- scribed were large enough to lodge a thousand or fifteen hundred people — great family or communal dwellings. The house of the cacique, or chief of the settlement or tribe, was often built upon an artificial mound or raised foundation of earth. The so-called temples, or altars of worship, were also built upon raised foundations or mounds. A mound or temple is de- * Archseology of United States (Haven), page 57. As translated by Irving, La Vega says: "The natives constructed artificial mounds of earth, the top of each beino- capable of containing from ten to twenty houses. Here resides the cacique, his family and attendants. At the foot of this hill, was a square according to the size of the village, around which were the houses of the leaders and most distin- guished inhabitants. The rest of the people erected their wigwams as near to the dwelling of their chief as possible."— Conquest of Florida (Irving), pages 129, 317, 241.) t Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part II, page 105. "The cacique's house stood near the shore upon a very high mount made by hand for strength."— Historical Collections of Louisiana (Gentlemen of Elvas), Part II, page 123. Historical Collections of Louisiana (Biedma), Part II, page 103. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 53 scribed as the place of burial of their dead chieftains.* The com- mon houses or huts were built of poles or rude timbers, were plastered with clay and straw, and thatched with bark and cane. A number of towns were environed by artificial ditches filled with water. La Vega's description of the towns of Mauvila, in Alabama, may be of interest : " This was the stronghold of the cacique, where he and his principal men resided, and being on the frontiers of his territory, it was strongly fortified. It stood in a fine plain, and was surrounded by a high wall, formed of huge trunks of trees driven into the ground side by side and wedged together. These were crossed within and without by others, smaller and longer, bound to them by bands made of split reeds and wild vines. The whole v/as thickly plastered over with a kind of mortar, made of clay and straw trampled together, which filled up every chink and crevice of the wood-work." " Throughout its whole circuit, the wall was pierced at the height of a man with loop-holes, whence arrows might be dis- charged at an enemy, and every fifty paces it was surmounted by a tower, capable of holding seven or eight fighting men." " There were but two gates to the place — one to the east, the other to the west. In the center of the village was a large square, around which were erected the principal dwellings." f A careful consideration of these features, with a map in hand, showing the present appearance and condition of any one of the many groups of ancient earth-works in Middle Tennessee — a group on the Ilarpeth river, or the works near Lebanon, Tennesse, or in Sumner county — will readily indicate the striking similarity of these remains to the ancient fortified towns described, and, indeed, will be conclusive of the fact that some of these earth-works are simply the remains of towns or villages, similar to those through ■•■■ Conquest of Florida (Irving), page 231. t Conquest of Florida (Irving), pages 261, 262. See also Gentlemen of Elvas, for description of fortified towns. — Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part II, pages 157, 158, 173. Also Historical Collections of Louisiana (Biedma), Part II, page 103. 54 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. which De Soto and his army passed in 1540-41, and then found active witli busy life. The long lines of earth that outlined the old walls, with their well-selected openings and projections, the ditches, the raised foun- dation mound, or pyramid of the chief's house — perhaps the mound that supported the rude temple or altar of worship — the rows of graves or burial mounds of the ancient cemetery, will still be found. Sometimes, the outlines of the low circular floors upon which the common houses or wigwams were placed may be seen, as in the Lebanon and Sumner county groups. It requires little eifort of the imagination to picture ancient life in one of these settlements in Tennessee ; to crown the long, low lines of earth again with their strong palisades ; to place the rude house of the chief upon its high pyramid overlooking the village and the far country; to repeople the council-house, the family dwellings, humble and spacious, hives of busy life ; to replace the altar of the sun worshipers in its rude temple ; to see the near-by burial mounds consecrated by the bones of their heroes ; the gay colors of the warriors, the trappings of the hunters, the toiling of the women, the basket and cloth makers, the throng of the half- naked children and yelping dogs ; the medicine man, with bis herbs and kettles; the dealer in implements and vessels of stone, clay, and shell ; the trader, perhaps from, a far country, with his wares and strings of shells ; the pottery makers, the pipe makers, the flint chipper and arrow makers, the fisherman — all necessary features of ancient town and village life in the South, as described by early writers in their accounts of the southern Indians. Now, picture this town swept by the desolation of war or rudely pillaged by the marauding soldiery of De Soto ; picture it after the lapse of three or four centuries ! Fire and decay have consumed its strong palisades, its great houses, and all that was left of wood. The raised foundations and pyramids of earth, with their steep sides, may have become common-place hillocks. The dense forest has again spread over the scene. Giant trees are covering its graves and ditches. Time, and probably the plowshare of the THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 55 pioneer, have almost obliterated the earth lines of the crumbled wall. You may thus have the true story of ancient life in Tennessee, and of many of the monuments and remains of the Stone Grave race The young oaks that sprung up on the mounds that De Soto left desolate and unoccupied, in 1541, would now be three hundred and forty-nine years old — old enough, indeed, to be lords of the for- est. Most of the earth-works in Tennessee and the Mississippi val- ley doubtless date from a period anterior to that time, some of them probably many centuries anterior. The testimony of his followers is given, however, to show their objects and uses, and to solve some of the apparent mysteries of their construction. Although De Soto did not visit the territory of the Stone Grave race m Middle Tennessee, his expedition penetrated into ISorth-east Arkansas, where their near kindred, the pottery makers of that district, resided, tribes most intimately related to the inhabitants of the Cumberland valley, as indicated by many identities and analogies. De Soto found there, as his chroniclers state, "walled towns within a league or a league and a half of each other." This was the terri- tory of the Capahas, where Fathers Douay and Charlevoix found them in 1687 and 1721. The Peabody Museum of Archfeology, some years ago, conducted a series of explorations in iSTorth-eastern Arkansas, under Mr. Edwin Curtis, who reported that he found the mounds there "were usually surrounded by earth-works and ditches, forming iiiclosures of from three to eighteen or twenty acres." * These remains in Arkansas are very similar in character to the an- cient fortified villages of Tennessee. We learn from Dumont's Memoirs, that near the mouth of the Yazoo river, in Mississippi, were the villages of the Oftbgoulas and other southern Indians built upon mounds artificially made.f Dumont also says the cabin of the chief of the Natchez Indians * Fourteenth Annual Report of Peabody Museum, page 19 ; Mounds of jNIissis- Bippi Valley (Carr), page 105. t Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part V, page 43. 56 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. j» "was on an elevated mound." La Petit, a missionary among the Natchez Indians, mentions that "the residence of the great chief, or 'brother of the sun,' as he was called, was erected upon a mound of earth carried for that purpose." Du Pratz, the early historian of Louisiana, states that the house of the Great Sun of the l^atchez stood upon a mound " about eight feet high, and twenty feet over on the surface," and that the temple of the priest was on a mound about the same height.* It is a matter of comparatively recent history, that when the French and Choctaws defeated the Katchez Indians, in Mississippi, in 1730, the latter established themselves upon the Black river, where they erected mounds and embankments for defense. These defenses covered an area of four hundred acres, and could still be seen as late as 1851. f The pyramids of earth raised by the Choc- taws over their dead when collected together, as described by Ber- tram, who traveled among these Indians, in 1777, are in the form of some of our southern burial mounds. | The Iroquois, nearly three centuries ago, had acquired a knowledge of military defense that the armies of the North and South had to learn during the late war by costly experience. |1 La Salle tells us they built a rude fort of earth and timbers every night they encamped near the enemy. Cartier found the site of modern ^Montreal occupied by a strongly fortified Indian town in 1535. On approaching it, nothing could be seen but its high palisades. They were made of the trunks of trees set in triple rows. Transverse braces formed galler- ies between them to assist the defenders. Lewis and Clark describe * Brinton : Nationality of the Mound Builders. t Pickett's Alabama, Vol. I. page 166. i Bertram's Travels, pages 51-4, 515. li Their forts are often counterparts of our fortified works in Tennessee. One of these stockade forts of the Iroquois is minutely described by Champlain, who attacked it in 1610. A familiar print ol this remarkable structure is given in the Documentary History of New York, Vol. Ill, page 15. The lines of stockades, the ditches, the great house inside, all recall some of the descriptions in the chronicles of De Soto, and show a marked similarity to our Tennessee remains. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 57 the forts built by the Mandans and other Indians of the North- west in 1805, with raised stockades, ditches, and fortified gateways. Captain John Smith, the founder and historian of the first Virginia colony, writes that the Indians of Virginia had " palizadoed towns." Bienville, of Louisiana, in 1735, attacked a Chickasaw village pro- tected by a strong fort. He was repulsed, with heavy loss. The palisade wall was six feet thick, arranged with loop-holes, covered with heavy timbers.* , 4'W #^ □ □ n a Fig. 10. — Plan of Battle of the Horseshoe. The plan of the "Battle of the Horseshoe," where the Creeks, protected by breast-works, fought General Andrew Jackson in 1814, indicates that these Indians possessed considerable knowledge of military defensive Avorks. The original sketch drawn by the gen- eral, is appended to his interesting report of the battle, made to Governor Blount of Tennessee. f * Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, Part V, page 110. t Traced by the writer from the original report in the possession of the Tennes- see Historical Society at Nashville. 58 ATsTTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. General Jackson states, in his report, that " Nature furnishes few situations so ehgible for defense, and barbarians never rendered one more secure by art. Across the neck of land which leads into it from the north, they had erected a breast-work of great compact- ness and strength, from five to eight feet high, and prepared with double rows of port-holes very artfully arranged. The figure of this wall manifested no less skill in the projectors of it than its con- struction. An army could not approach it without being opposed to a double and cross fire from the enemy, who lay in security behind it." Surely no prehistoric defensive work could receive a higher compliment from higher" militar}^ authority! We have, moreover, direct testimony that some of these mounds, long regarded as the exclusive work of an ancient and more civilized race, have been built by modern Indians since the period of European discovery. There are a number of instances, well authenticated, where articles, certainly of modern European manufacture and origin, have been found in mounds, undistinguish- able in general character from more ancient mounds, and under cir- cumstances affording no presumption of a possible intrusive burial. Colonel C. C. Jones, in his Antiquities of the Southern In- dians,* reports at least one absolutely certain instance where "a portion of a rusty, old-fashioned sword," evidently of European manufacture, was found in a mound with decayed bones of a skele- ton alongside of pottery, and a stone celt. Atwater, a well-known archfeologist, tells us of his discovery, in an Ohio mound, of articles of silver and iron of modern European origin. Prof. F. W. Put- nam, in the fourteenth annual publication of the Peabody Museum, reports the discovery, by Dr. Mack, in Florida, of glass beads and ornaments of silver, brass, and iron, deeply imbedded and associ- ated with pottery and stone implements of native manufacture, all found in a burial mound, and furnishing conclusive evidence that the Indians of Florida continued to build mounds over their dead after contact with the Europeans. * Antiquities of the Southern Indians, page 131. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 59 The National Bureau of Ethnology also reports, in detail, a number of similar discoveries in mound explorations in Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Arkansas.* * In a mound iu East Tennessee, some six feet high, and wliicli sliowed no signs of disturbance, an old-fashioned case knife was discovered near the bottom. Far down in another mound (in Tennessee) of large size, and also iu comparatively mod- ern Indian graves at widely different points, have been found little sleigh-bells, probably what were formerly known as "hawk bells," made of copper, with pebble and shell bead rattles, and all of precisely the same pattern and finish. "At the bottom of a North Carolina mound, part of an iron blade and an iron awl were dis- covered in the hands of the principal personages buried therein : with these were engraved shells and polished celts." A silver plate with the Spanish coat-of-arms stamped upon it, and the iron portions of a saddle, quite certainly articles that had belonged to De Soto's followers, were found, by the agents of the Smithsonian Insti- tution, in an ancient mound explored in Northern Mississippi. — Work in Mound Exploration, Bureau of Ethnology (Cyrus Thomas), page 9. We have also in our collection a beaded copper ornament, or harness button, evidently molded or made by machine pressure. It was recently discovered in an artificial " Indian mound " on Battle creek, in Wayne county, Tennessee, with ancient remains of pottery and shell, by Mr. D. G. Charles, of Florence, Alabama. It is certainly of comparatively modern origin, and was probably a harness orna- ment, and a relic of De Soto's campaign. It is illustrated in a subsequent chapter. Col. C. C. Jones, writing of the earth-works of Georgia, wliich approximate in size the largest tumuli of the Ohio valley, states : " We do not concur in the opin- ion so often expressed, that the mound builders were a race distinct from, and supe- rior in art, government, and religion to, the southern Indians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. — Antiquities of the Southern Indians (Jones), p. 135. Lewis H. ^Morgan, a most original and learned ethnologist, in an article upon the Houses of the Aborigines of America, states; " It will be assumed that the tribes who constructed the earth-works of the Ohio valley were Indians. No other supposition is tenable. The implements and utensils found in the mounds indicate very plainly that they had attained to the middle status of barbarism. They fairly belonged to the class of sedentary village Indians, though not in all respects of an equal grade of culture and development." — Contributions to North American Eth- nology, Vol. IV, pages 198, 199. Major J. W. Powell, the director of the National Bureau of Ethnology, has also given an opinion to the same effect. "With regard to the mounds so widely scat- tered between the two oceans," he states, " it may be said that mound building tribes were known in the early history of discovery of this continent, and that ves- tiges of art discovered do not excel in any respect, the arts of the Indian tribes known to history. The tracing of the origin of these arts to the ancestors of known 60 ANTIQUITIES OE TENNESSEE. It has thus become a well-settled fact in American archeeology, that some of the modern tribes of Indians have built earth-works and mounds within the historic period, and that it is not necessary, upon the evidence of the mounds alone, to attribute these works to any other, or more civilized, or more ancient race than the ancestors of some of the advanced tribes of southern Indians. The ancient earth-works of Tennessee, and the states adjacent, must be regarded as fairly presenting characteristic types of the structures of the mound building tribes. The Etowah and Messier mounds of Georgia, the mound at Seltzerville, Mississippi, and the group in Madison county, Tennessee, are not less, in average height and cubical capacity, than the large mounds of the Ohio valley. The remains of the arts and industries found in the Tennessee mounds and graves, also show a state of development as advanced as that of any of the ancient inhabitants of the mound area ; in- deed, it is believed that the subsequent chapters of this volume will show that the interesting remains of the Stone Grave race, taken as a whole, indicate a more advanced state of art and industry in an- tribes, or stocks of tribes, is more legitimate." — Report of the Bureau of Etlmology, Vol. IV, page ix. "William H. Dall, an honorary curator of the National Museum, in his edition of Marquis De Nadaillac's Prehistoric America, thus states his conclusions upon this subject: " In closing this chapter, what, it may be asked, are we to believe was the character of the race to which, for the purpose of clearness, we have, for the time being, applied the term ' mound builders.' The answer must be they were no more nor less than the immediate predecessors, in blood and culture, of the Indians de- scribed by I)e Soto's chroniclers, and other early explorers— the Indians who inhab- ited the region of the mounds, at the time of the discovery by civilized men." — Pre- historic America, page 130. Similar views are held by Lucien Carr, the very intelligent assistant curator of the Peabody Museum, who, in an elaborate pamphlet upon The Mounds of the Mis- sissippi Historically Considered, has cited a number of authorities in support of this position. (See page 4.) Dr. Gerard Troost, of Nashville, who explored a number of mounds and an- cient cemeteries in ^Middle Tennessee, in his address before the American Ethnolog-v ical Society of New York, made the somewhat remarkable statement that the an- cients of the Stone Grave race " were less civilized than the Indians were when America was discovered by Columbus."— Transactions of Society, Vol. I, page 359. THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH- WORKS. 61 cient Tennessee, than existed elsewhere within the limits of the Mississippi valley, not even excepting the mound districts of Cen- tral and Southern Ohio. The mound builders of Tennessee probably belonged to the same aboriginal stock as the builders of the great mound at Caho- kia, Illinois, the largest in the Mississippi valley. ITo one can com- pare the pottery from the stone graves of the Cumberland valley with the vessels dug up at the base of this great mound, and at ]^ew Madrid, Missouri, without observing that the majority of them are identical in form and material, and some of the pieces found in the two districts seem to have come from the hands of the same aboriginal potter. The author obtained about four hundred and fifty perfect vessels and images from the ancient cemeteries re- cently excavated near ISTashville. ]^ot less than one half of them are of the familiar New Madrid and Cahokia pattern, and many of them are almost exact duplicates of the vessels found by Mr. Mc- Adams and others at the base of the great mound, as will be seen from the illustrations in chapters following.* The intimate relationship that existed between the stone grave builders of Tennessee, and the other tribes of the Central Missis- sippi district, that probably built the system of large earth-works at Cahokia, Illinois, and the burial mounds near New Madrid, Missouri, and in ISTorth-eastern Arkansas, is further shown by the existence of similar stone graves in Illinois and elsewhere in this district, wherever suitable stone slabs could be conveniently obtained ; also by the house ring or hut ring remains of the rude circular dwellings ■■■■ See illustrations and duplicate specimens in Contributions to the Archfeology of Missouri, published by the St. Louis Academy of Science, and in Footprints of Vanished Races, Conant, pages 79 to 9o, and Records of Ancient Races, McAdams, pages 47 to 57. The single cemetery explored near Nashville, produced good exam- ples of every one of the fifty-one forms illustrating Mr. Conant's article on the an- cient pottery of Missouri, excepting four, and produced many new and original forms not shown in either of the two last-named volumes. Tiie publication of the St. Louis Academy of Science contains one hundred and forty-eight illustrations of Missouri pottery. Seventy-three almost exact duplicates of these forms were found in the cemeterv near Nashville. 62 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. usually found in the ancient works of this district, by the similar forms of burial, and by the constant presence of the large, high, oblong, central mounds, characteristic of these works.* There are features common to all the works of the mound build- * ing tribes, The differences are generally only in degree, and are not believed to be sufficiently radical to make it necessary to attrib- ute them to different or distinct races. There are also some traces connecting these tribes with the ancient pyramid builders of Mexico, with the pueblo builders and pottery makers of ISTew Mexico and Arizona, and other Western tribes. These may be in the main but the outgrowths of a common inheritance, and of tendencies and beliefs springing from the same ancestry, and developing through long periods in different paths and under varied conditions. Doubtless some offshoot of the race or races that built up the ancient civilization of Mexico or the semi-civilization on the banks of the San Juan and Rio Grande rivers, finally pushed across the wide plains to the eastward, and colonized the Mississippi valley. Another wave of immigration, probably a more barbarous race, ap- pears to have come from the far north-west. The date was too re- mote for chronology. Centuries of time, migrations, changes, wars, extinctions, absorptions, must have succeeded. The more sedentary village or partiall}' village Indians of the South, and their industrious kindred of the Ohio valley, were probably the progeny of an ancient race from the South-west.f "•■■ See description of an ancient fortified village, similar to our Tennessee works, in Union county, Illinois. — American Antiquarian, May, 1885 (Dr. Cyrus Thomas), page 133. Also descriptions of the house rings in Missouri works. — Footprints of Vanished Races (Conant), page 60. Mr. Conant, who has written most intelligently on tliis subject, regarded the pottery makers of New Madrid, Missouri, and the builders of the Cahokia mounds as one and the same people. The chroniclers of De Soto's expedition also describe a walled town, similar to our Tennessee fortified villages, in North-east Arkansas. — Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part II, page 172; Conqueest of Florida (Irving, page 322. t Explorations among the ancient remains of Mexico, prove them to be of very THE ANCIENT GRAVES AND EARTH-WORKS. 63 The special influences of climate, soil, and environment that caused certain tribes of Indians to adopt the semi-agricult- ural state and others to adopt the hunter state, may readily be imagined; nor is it difficult to account for their military and defensive works, simple or elaborate, wherever they exist. The particular development, and religious or social rites, that led to the construction of the so-called effigy or flgure mounds of Wiscon- sin and Ohio, and the groups of more exact forms, circles, squares, and the sj'stems of terraced pyramids of the Ohio valley and of the South, offer some minor problems more difficult of solution, yet these mysteries are being unraveled. The rude eiSigj works seem a natural outgrowth of the religious rites and of the myths and superstitions of the Indian race, and Mr. Lewis II. Morgan, in an elaborate treatise, briefly considered in the next chapter, has offered a most reasonable explanation of the peculiar features of the Ohio structures.*^ The author has visited a number of the great mounds in the Ohio valley. They are remarkable structures — monuments of labor and patience ; and evidently the remains of a progressive and indus- trious race. Imagine a thousand Indians of the semi-agricultural class — women and children, men also — with baskets of willow and skins, bearing on heads and shoulders the alluvial soil from the river side, to raise a mighty memorial to some great warrior, or to build a strong defensive work as a protection against a dreaded en- emy, or a towering home for an honored chief, and it will not be difficult to account for most of these large earth-works in Ohio, Georgia, or Tennessee. f great age. Ruins of cities and towns are found, like the ancient cities of Asia Minor and Greece, to have been built upon still more ancient ruins. The remains of the ancient stone pueblos of the San Juan and Rio Grande valleys, are also very ancient. It, therefore, appears to the author that, measuring by the evidences of age, it is much more probable that the mound building tribes, who left some traces of Pueblo or Toltec culture, were of Pueblo or Toltec origin, than that they were ancestors of the Toltecs, a theory supported by a number of writers. ■■■• Contributions to American Ethnology (Morgan), Vol. IV, page 202. t Mr. Gerard Fowke, who has been conducting mound explorations for the Na- 64 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. We have seen the busy throng of a hundred or more Italian women and boys with baskets, removing the earth that covered an- cient Pompeii. The ashes of Vesuvius, nearly nineteen centuries old, buried the city twenty feet deep ; yet about one-half of the en- tire ruins has been uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of the trav- eler. Less than a tithe of this vast labor of removal would have erected the largest purely artificial mound in the Mississippi valley. The highest of the great mounds of America, at Cahokia, Illi- nois, is but one-fifth of the height of the solid stone pyramid of Gizeh, on the bank of the Nile ; and how insignificant does the largest system of native American earth-works appear, when com- pared with a work of antiquity like the Chinese Wall, built long prior to the Christian era ! tional Bureau of Ethnology in Ross county, Ohio, the center of the Ohio mound district, recently reports the details of his investigations as to its construction as fol- lows : " The mound was raised to the height of fifteen feet, with a diameter of ninety feet. The earth was carried in baskets or skins holding from a peck to two pecks each. Hundreds of little, lens-shaped masses could be traced, where each had thrown his burden ; the weight of that thrown by the next comer flattening it out." — See report in Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, July 23, 1883. THE ANCIENT HOUSES ABORIGINAL TRADE. 65 CHA^PTER III. THE ANCIENT HOUSES— ABORIGINAL TRADE. The Houses of the Mound Builders of Tennessee ; of Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois — Their House and Home Life — The Testimony of the Early Writers — The remains of House Sites — The Larger Houses — Mandan Houses — Trowels for Plastering — The Navajo House — Store-houses — Aboriginal Trade — Obsidian — Native Copper — Catlinite — INIarine Shells. The remains of the houses occupied by the mound building tribes of the Mississippi valley indicate that they were probably simple in form, and that they were constructed of perishable ma- terial. JSTo tenement or dwelling known to belong to their period, no rude chimney, or house of adobe or brick, or of stone or wood, is left standing among their earth-works, or has been discovered in its original form within the wide area of their territory, to aid us in interpreting their unwritten domestic history. The pueblo tribes of l^ew Mexico and Arizona, who were not in advance of the Stone Grave race in the general scale of civilization, built vast communal houses, indeed fortresses, of sun-dried brick, grouting, and stone, that have withstood the waste of centuries, and in their magnitude, at least, ofier an analogy to the great mounds. The an- cient Mexicans of the stone age, and their southern neighbors, built imposing mound or pyramid temples, of almost noble architecture, now famous in ruins, but the northern mound builders, living amid difi'erent surroundings, so far as we are able to determine, did not erect dwellings very much more substantial than the rude struct- ures of some of the historic Indians. To the original researches of Lewis H. Morgan we are proba- bly more indebted for our knowledge of house and home life among the aborigines of America than to any other investigator. The discovery of the immense pueblos in the valleys of the San 5 66 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE, Juan and Rio Grande rivers, and the later scientific reports regard- ing them made by Bandelier and others, interpreting their uses and the social system that existed in them, have also greatly con- tributed to our knowledge of ancient Indian society, and its family and tribal systems. According to Morgan, aboriginal society in America was organized upon the basis of kinship. The weakness of the single family, and its inability to protect itself in the strug- gle for existence, led to the union of related families — to " the gens, the phratry, the tribe, and the confederacy of tribes." It led also to a communal system of living, and necessarily to the erection of joint tenement or apartment dwellings, like the long houses of the Iroquois, the large family houses of the Mandans and other tribes, and the houses of the pueblo communities.* The great pueblo houses, of adobe and stone, have from fifty to five hundred rooms, average from eight hundred to one thousand six hundred feet in cir- cumference, and are sometimes five or six stories high. Morgan traces this system through all the grades of Indian so- ciety, from the lodges of the more savage tribes to the great pueblo or communal house in the ancient city of Mexico, in which Monte- zuma, as an Aztec chief, gathered about him his relatives and at- tendants. f A single pueblo structure in IS^ew Mexico often housed * In describing the houses of the Iroquois, Parkman says : " These singular structures were about thirty to thirty-five feet in length, breadth, and height, but many were much larger, and a few were of prodigious length. In some of the vil- lages, there were dwellings two hundred and forty feet long, though in breadth and height they did not much exceed the others." — The Jesuits in America, page xxvi. Champlain says he saw them in 1615 " thirty fathoms long," and Vanderdonk reports that he saw one from actual measurement five hundred and forty feet long. The houses of the Mandans of the Upper Missouri river were circular in form, about forty feet in diameter, and were divided into separate stalls or apartments. Each lodge would accommodate from five to six families, embracing thirty to forty persons. — Contributions to Ethnology (Morgan), Vol. IV, page 126. According to Rev. J. O. Dorsey, ot the Bureau ot Ethnology, the Dakota word for "gens," or the family division, came from a word signifying " fire-place," indicating that the ancient families were counted by the number ot fire-places. t Cortez, in his dispatches to Spam, did not call Montezuma '' El Roy," or king, but "Seiior," or cacique. — Contributions to Ethnology (Morgan), Vol. IV, page 223. THE ANCIENT HOUSES ABORIGINAL TRADE. 67 the entire population, and constituted a town or village, as tlie an- cient fortified inclosures of Tennessee formed the villages of the mound builders. Some of the houses of the cliff dwellers in the rugged canons of Colorado also contained more than a hundred dif- ferent apartments or rooms. The first stories of the pueblos were without outside doors or openings. The villagers scaled the sides or walls to reach their separate rooms, and lived upon the upper terraces of these struct- ures, which were sometimes five or six stories high. Even chim- neys were unknown to them prior to the Spanish conquest, and the smoke from their fires found its way through holes in the roof, after the Indian wigwam sty]e.* The elaborate systems of earth-works and inclosures in the Ohio valle}' suggest many analogies to these pueblo structures. The raised embankments aflbrded a means of defense, and also elevated platforms for dwellings, thus combining the defensive and com- munal features of the pueblos. Both were similarly located along never failing streams. Within the ramparts of these large Ohio works, which Morgan styles " high bank pueblos," f there was room for stores, fuel, games, and recreation in times of danger, and some- times for gardens. The lesser works, without the main structures, may have been fortified inclosures for horticulture or other pur- poses. The houses of wood and clay, that must have crowned the embankments, have decayed and disappeared; the clay or sun-dried brick probably used by these tribes have crumbled in the moist, frosty climate of Ohio, and left few traces behind. The views pre- sented by Morgan offer the first and only reasonably satisfactory hypothesis as to the probable use of many of these remarkable re- mains. Morgan regarded them as the works of tribes of Indians of the village or sedentary class — of the same grade as the pueblo * No chimneys were discovered in the ancient stone houses of Central America and chimneys as now built were unknown to our European ancestors until about five hundred years ago. t Contributions to Ethnology (Morgan), Vol. IV, page 2i0. 68 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE.' tribes of ^ew Mexico. According to Frank Cusliing, the original ancient pueblo dwelling was probably a circular wigwam, or " brush hut," somewhat similar to a modern Navajo house or hut. He says the large pueblo structures were probably developed by evolution from these primitive houses by "a sequence of architectural types," the result of the location of weak and scattered tribes in the midst of " an almost waterless area," where stone was abundant, and where they were iinally compelled to erect these stone and clay fortress-houses for safety, as the cliff dwellers were forced to build their homes in inaccessible clitis.* Had some of these natives mi- grated at an early period from the pueblo districts, near the head- waters of the Arkansas river, in ISTew Mexico, down into the primi- tive forests of the lower Arkansas, a well-watered, fertile, and heavily-timbered country, or into Tennessee, it seems natural that their new environment would have led to methods of house life, and defensive works difl'erent from those adopted in the almost treeless and waterless highlands of iSTew Mexico. Houses of wood and clay, or earth, raised earth-works, and stockade defenses would seem to be the natural outgrowth of these new and dift'erent sur- roundings. The ancient works of Tennessee were apparently of simple con- struction, but they indicate the existence of large family dwellings as a characteristic of aboriginal society. Early historical records are also in harmony with this view. From Garcilasso de la Vega we learn that some of the houses in the fortihed native towns visited by De Soto were very large. He says "the whole, number of- houses" (in Mauvila, Alabama) "did not exceed eighty, but they were of size capable of lodging from five to fifteen hundred persons each," a statement probably extravagant, but generally sustained by the other chronicles. t Joutel, one of La Salle's companions in 1687, tells us that when they visited the village of the Cenis, west of the Mississippi, " The * Report Bureau of Ethnology, Vol. IV, pages 473, 481. t Garcilasso de la Vega, L. Ill, C. 20; Conquest of Florida (Irving), page 262. THE ANCIENT HOUSES ABORIGINAL TRADE. 69 Indian town, with its large thatched lodges, looked like a cluster of gigantic haycocks." He declares that " some of them were sixty feet in diameter." * Joutel's description of one of these dwellings illustrates the house life of the southern Indians at that early period. " These lodges of the Cenis," he says, " often contained eight or ten families. They were made by firmly planting in a circle tall, straight, young trees, such as grew in the swamps. The tops were then bent inward, and lashed together, and the frame thus con- structed was thickly covered with thatch, a hole being left at the top for the escape of the smoke. The inmates were ranged around the circumference of the structure, each family in a kind of stall, open in front, but separated from those adjoining by partitions of mats. Here they placed their beds of cane, their painted robes of buffalo and deer skin, their cooking utensils of pottery, and other household goods ; and here, too, the head of the family hung his bow, quiver, lance, and shield. There was nothing in common but the fire, which burned in the middle of the lodge, and was never suffered to go out." f In Iberville's Journal, it is stated that the cabins of the Bayo- goulas, a tribe of Louisiana, were circular in form, about thirty feet in diameter, and plastered with clay to the height of a man.;]; Adair says the winter cabins, or hot houses of the Cherokees, and several other tribes, were circular, and covered six or seven inches thick with tough clay, mixed with grass. Father Gravier, speaking. of the Tounicas of Arkansas, says: "Their cabins were round and vaulted. They were lathed with cane, and plastered with mud from bottom to ti)p, within and without, with a good covering of straw." II Tonti, who accompanied La Salle, in 1682, describes his visit to the town of Taensas on the Lower Mississippi. He says the natives had " large square dwellings, built of sun-baked mud, mixed with straw, arched over with a dome-shaped roof of canes, * La Salle (Parkman), pages 415, 417. t La Salle (Parkman), page 417. t Prof. Cyrus Thomas, ^Magazine of American History, February, 1884. II Early French Voyages (Shea), page 135. 70. ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. and placed in regular order around an open area. Two of them were larger and better than the rest. One was the lodge of the chief, the other was the temple or house of the sun. The house of the chief was about forty feet square, with no opening but the door. The temple ' where they kept the bones of their departed chiefs,' in construction, was much like the chief's house ; a strong mud wall planted with stakes surrounded it. In the middle of the temple was a kind of an altar, before which a ' perpetual fire,' composed of large logs, was burning, and was watched by two old men de- voted to their ofiice."* The "temple" in Georgia, described hy La Vega, was much larger at the entrance, and inside were large, rude, wooden statues, one twelve feet high. Wooden chests, skill- fully wrought, contained " the bodies of the departed caciques and chieftains of Cofachiqui, left to their natural decay, for these edi- fices were merely used as charnel houses." Annexed to this " mausoleum " were other buildings, which served as " armories," containing weapons, all arranged in order, and maintained with care.f Turning from these historical accounts to an examination of the traces of the house remains found in the ancient settlements of Tennessee and the neighboring states, we find they verify the state- ments of the early discoverers. Prof. F. W. Putnam, of the Peabody Museum, in his report upon the ancient earth-works at Lebanon, Tennessee, says: "Scattered irregularly within the inclosure are nearly one hundred more or less defined circular ridges of earth, which are from a few inches to a little over three feet in height, and of diameters varying from ten to fifty feet. An examination of these numerous low mounds, or, rather, earth-rings (as there could generally be traced a central de- pression), soon convinced me, that I had before me the remains of the dwellings of the people who had erected the large mound, made the earthen embankment, buried their dead in the stone graves, and « La Salle (Parkman), page 281. t Conquest of Florida (Irving), page 231. THE ANCIENT HOUSES ABORIGINAL TRADE. 71 lived in this fortified town, as I now feel I have a right to desig- nate it. JSTineteen of the best defined of these earth circles were carefully explored, with very gratifying results, and proved to my satisfaction that the ridges were formed by the decay of the walls of a circular dwelling, al)0ut which had accumulated, during its occupancy, such materials as would naturally form the sweepings and refuse of a dwelling of a people no further advanced toward civilization than were these mound builders of the Cumberland valley. These houses had probably consisted of a frail circular structure, tlie decay of wliich would leave only a slight elevation, the formation of the ridge being assisted by the refuse from the house." Prof. Putnam states that " the houses of the people were from fifteen to forty feet in diameter, and probably made entirely of poles, covered with mud, mats, or skins, as their decay has left a ring of rich black earth mixed with refuse, consisting of broken bones, broken pottery, etc." * He also states : "After the recent soil within the ridges had been removed, hard floors were discovered, upon which fires had been made ; while in the dirt forming the ridges were found fragments of pottery, broken and perfect implements of stone, several discoidal stones, most of which were made of limestone, bones, teeth, charcoal, etc. On removing the hardened and burned earth forming the floors of the houses, and at a depth of from one and a half to three feet, small stone graves were found in eleven of the nineteen circles that were carefully examined." These were graves of children, and from them " were obtained the best speci- mens of pottery found within the earth-works, with shell beads, pearls, and polished stones of natural forms, which were probably playthings." f The house site rings discovered by the author within the forti- fied works in Sumner county, Tennessee, near Saundersville, were of ■■■■ Eleventh Annual Report Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pages 205, 347. t Eleventh Annual Report Peabody Museum, page 351. 72 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. the same general character, averaging from twenty to forty feet in diameter, and having burned chxy tire hearths in the center. The agents of the Smithsonian Institution, who have explored the earth-works of Arkansas, Missouri, and sections of Illinois, have made similar reports as to the character of the dwellings occupied by the tribes of pottery makers of these districts. Prof. Thomas states that "in numerous instances, probably hundreds, beds of hard burned clay, containing impressions of grass and cane, were observed ; these were generally found one or two feet below the surface of the low flat mounds, from one to five feet high, and from fifteen to fifty feet in diameter, though by no means confined to mounds of this character, as they were also observed near the surface of the large flat topped and conical mounds." So common were these burned clay beds in the low, flat mounds, and so evidently the remains of former houses, that the explorers generally speak of them in their reports as "house sites." * These evidences of the character of the dwellings of the Stone Grave race, and their pottery making kindred of the Central Mis- sissippi district, might be multiplied indefinitely, but they are suf- ficient to show the methods of their construction, and that they * Magazine of American History (Prof. Cyrus Thomas), February, 1884. Prof. W. B. Potter, of the St. Louis Academy of Science, who explored a large number of mounds in South-east Missouri, found inclosures similar to those found in Middle Tennessee, with the large central mounds of about the same size, and thus refers to the house sites : "A marked feature of all the inclosed groups of mounds found in South-east Missouri is the occurrence of a large number of circular depressions, which seem to mark the sites of huts or dwelling-places. The average depth of these depressions is about two feet, and the diameter thirty feet. The (tenters are fifty to sixty feet apart. There is no systematic arrangement or grouping of the de- pressions. In the center, and occasionally at one side, of these depressions, there can be found, at a depth of about fifteen inches below the present surface, a square of burned or partially burned clay, about thirty inches by twenty-five inches. The clay was evidently placed there designedly, for it is entirely difTerent from the sandy clay or loam which occurs elsewhere throughout the settlements. Small pieces of charcoal and fragments of bone have been obtained from these hearths." — Archaeology of Missouri (Potter), page 10. THE ANCIENT HOUSES ABORIGINAL TRADE. 73 were necessarily built of wood or other perishable materials, and could not have been very much more elaborate or substantial than the dwelHngs of the Indians known to history. We have also some valuable information from archaeological sources as to the larger or public houses of the mound building tribes, and confirming the historical accounts of their erection upon the mounds.'^ Doubtless, systematic explorations will reveal further facts re- garding them. ■'■■ Colonel Morris, an agent of the Bureau of Ethnology, some time since ex- plored a group of earth-works in Butler county, Missouri, consisting of "an inclosing wall and ditch, two large outer excavations, and four inside mounds." The largest mound had an average diameter of about one hundred and thirty-five feet, and was twenty feet high. Deeply imbedded within the central portions of the mound were found two large upright charred jjosts, near the charred and decaying remains of horizontal or cross timbers, and in connection with burned clay, ashes, charcoal, and charred bones, indicating almost certainly the remains of a large house struct- ure, built upon or in connection with this mound, or upon the smaller mound, upon which the main mound appears to have been subsequently erected. Within the different strata or layers of the mound were the remains of nine large fire-beds, in- dicating altars, sacrifices, burial ceremonies, or, possibly, merely the fir o-hearths used at different periods of occupation. — Magazine of American History (Thomas), February, 1884. Gerard Fowke, an assistant of the Bureau of Ethnology, also re- ports that recently, in exploring a large mound on the Scioto river, in lioss county, Ohio, he discovered the remains of wooden "posts set in pairs around the edge; other posts at intervals within assisted" (or may have assisted) "in holding up the roof. The interior spacQ was nearly forty feet across. A streak an inch thick of mingled ashes, charcoal, and black earth, spread over the floor, indicated the usual untidy appearance of the aboriginal housekeeping." The skeleton remains of an elaborate burial were inclosed in the mounds, and appearances indicated that the house had been torn away or burned, and the mound subsequently increased in size over the remains. — Gerard Fowke's Report, in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, July 23, 1888. In 1876, Prof. Carr, of the Peabody Museum, in exploring a large mound in Lee county, Virginia, discovered a series of decaying cedar posts, imbed- ded in a circle around the top of the mound, which the intelligent explorer regarded as the remains of a large house structure similar to the council-house Adair saw on a mound in the old Cherokee town of Cowe, Georgia, in 1773. — Tenth Annual Report Peabody Museum, page 75. Prof. Putnam also found an upright cedar post still standing deeply planted in the large ancient mound of the Lebanon group, in Ten- 74 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. Researches among the remains of the ordinary dwellins^s — the dirt or clay floors invariably found; their width and generally cir- cular form, the fire beds in the center; the traces of perishable ma- terials used in their construction ; the irregular manner in which they were scattered within the fortified inclosures — all seem to iden- tify them as of the same general character as some of the houses and huts of the natives described by the Spanish and French dis- coverers.* We have, unfortunately, from historic sources, few illustrations of the better class of Indian houses of the early frontier. A ground plan and cross section of one of the typical dwellings of the Man- dan Indians of the Upper Missouri country (Figs. 11 and 12), will show a method of house construction employed by that tribe, by which homes of considerable comfort were provided. They doubtless differed materially from the clay-plastered dwellings occupied by some of the advanced tribes of southern In- dians ; yet, after centuries of abandonment and decay, such habita- tions would have left remains, not unlike some of the house site re- mains now found within the ancient earth-works of Tennessee. The illustrations explain themselves sufficiently for our pur- pose, and show the circular forms, the upright timbers, and the fire pits or hearths in the center of these houses. They were about forty feet in diameter, and were scattered ir- regularly within the fortified village sites, like the circular house floors found within the works at Lebanon and Saundersville. ISTo traces or remains of a more advanced system of house con- struction than that observed by the early explorers have been found within the mound or embankment works of Tennessee or elsewhere within the mound area, yet, under the floors and about these primitive homes, and within the adjacent cemeteries of the Stone Grave race, have been found many of the most elaborately wrought implements, vessels of pottery, and ornaments of stone and shell, yet discovered * The Huron Iroquois town covered a space of from one to ten acres, " the dwellings clustering together with little or no pretension to order."— The Jesuits (Parkman), page xxvi. THE ANCIENT HOUSES ABORIGINAL TRADE. 75 within the Mississippi valley, showing that the ancient towns- people and villagers who lived in these primitive dwellings of Mid- dle Tennessee had reached a state of development not inferior to that of the mound tribes of Ohio or the most advanced Indian tribes of the pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona. Fig. 11. — Ground Plan of Mandan House. Fig. 12. — Cross Section.*' The remains of art and industry indicate that the dwellings, al- though simple in form, and of comparatively temporary character, must have been constructed with considerable care, and were doubtless sufficiently substantial to securely house tiieir various * From Smithsonian Contributions to Ethnology (Morgan), Vol. IV, pages 126, 127. 76 ANTIQUITIES OP TENNESSEE. articles of domestic use, some of which were delicate and costly. The earthern floors, we find, were sometimes covered with mats, after the historic style. The adobe or clay-plastered walls of the Arkansas tribes were also often ornamented with molded work of reeded patterns, and even painted, as we know from the clay re- mains found on the circular house floors, and now preserved in the !N^ational Museum at Washington. Since this chapter was originally written, a discovery was made by one of the writer's assistants (in January, 1890), in exploring the large aboriginal cemetery, near Nashville, that throws considerable light upon the ancient houses. In a single grave were found five Fig. 13. — Plasteking Trowels (One-fourth), Noel Cemetery, Nashville.* implements of well burned clay, which we are satisfied were used as -plastering troivels. They were evidently the outfit or set of tools of an aboriginal plasterer of the old city upon Brown's creek. The two largest of these trowels, measuring about six inches in diam- eter, are illustrated in Fig. 13. The flat smoothing surfaces, circular in form, are burned nearly as hard as stone, as if made to stand hard usage. The three smaller trowels of the set, four or five inches in diameter, are oblong in form, and have similar handles. All show evidences of use, and are somewhat worn. Indeed, a very thin pohshed outside coating of clay may still be seen upon three of them, indicating very clearly that they were used in smoothing some clay surface or wall. Author's collection. THE ANCIENT HOUSES ABORIGINAL TRADE. 77 The different sizes were probably suitable for finishing the va- rious kinds of plastering work. Some of the smaller ones may have been used in making the large vessels of pottery. The subject of pottery and plastering trowels will be considered in the chapter upon implements of pottery, where other illustrations of these ob- jects will be presented. This set of plastering tools is a most interesting and suggestive discovery. ISTo one would have gone to the trouble of procuring or making these fine trowels to plaster a single residence. They must have been the tools of some artisan engaged in this occupation, and they were probably placed, with his other worldly treasures, in the grave in which he was buried, after the aboriginal custom. Such objects would not have been placed there as a tribute of afifection or esteem. They indicate that in the prehistoric period, men followed the business of plastering, and that some of the adobe or clay plas- tered houses were plastered with care by skillful workmen, and were probably of a better character than has been generally sup- posed, and better also than we have represented them. Fine clay abounded throughout this section, and there is no reason to believe that such mechanics were less skillful in their work upon the houses of the stone grave settlements than were the pot- tery makers of the same tribe, who made the fine vessels of earthen- ware. The houses were probably made of adobe or grouting, in part, as were some of the houses of the pueblo tribes. Unoccupied and uncared for, they could not long have withstood the moist at- mosphere of Tennessee. A single century, with the aid of fire and frost, would have been more than sufiicient to destroy them, and leave to the archaeologist only the "house site" remains now found. Doubtless many of the implements, ornaments, and utensils, showing evidences of some refinement, were made and used in these clay plastered dwellings. Among the historic Indians, it is not unusual to find varieties of good ware and well-wrought implements and fabrics manufact- ured in rude dwellings and amid wild surroundings. The N'avajos of New Mexico and Arizona live in common lodges or huts, made 78 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. of rough logs, and thatched, or covered with earth. Like the houses of the mound building tribes of Tennessee, their houses are circular in form, and from twenty to fifty feet in diameter. Ac- cording to Frank Gushing, the remains of their ancient dwellings show that they were also circular in form. The sketch of a modern l^avajo hut (Fig. 14), will show its rude and primitive construction. Yet the jSTavajos make beautiful and finely woven blankets, with home-made dyes and of rich and varied designs, in these com- FiG. 14. — A Navajo Dwelling.-^ mon dwellings and in the open air, under the neighboring trees. Of late years, they have also become expert silversmiths, and, with the aid of rude forges, they manufacture jewelry that would be a credit to civilized artisans. They make fine basket and feather work, and excel in several of the arts and industries of domestic life.f Some * From Report Bureau of Ethnology (Powell), Vol. IV, page 473. t The Navajos and Pimas of the village Indian class are similar in many of their habits and characteristics to the naound tribes of the Mississippi valley. They tattoo their faces ; they made pottery ware sometimes representing animal forms ; they used stone implements not unlike those of the Stone Grave race ; they culti- vated maize and beans and tobacco, and were a docile and progressive tribe. THE ANCIENT HOUSES — ABORIGINAL TRADE. 79 of the Indian tribes of the north-west coast of America, that live in rude huts, excel all other native tribes north of Mexico, in artistic carvings in wood and stone. It seems that there were, probably, general storehouses, in the prehistoric period, in the larger towns of the Mississippi valley. We are told by the " Portugese Narrative," that, at the date of De Soto's expedition, some of the towns visited contained " store- houses" filled with rich and comfortable clothing, such as mantles of hemp and feathers of every color, exquisitely arranged, forming admirable cloaks for winter, with a variety of dressed deer-skin garments, and skins of the marten, bear, and panther nicely packed away in blankets.* The extent of aboriginal trade, and of the interchange of com- modities among the natives of the Mississippi valley, can scarcely be realized without some investigation. Among the remains dis- covered in the ancient cemeteries near JS'ashville, as heretofore stated, were many articles showing intercourse or commercial rela- tions with the tribes of distant sections. Objects of native copper from the shores of Lake Superior, ornamented sea shells from the gulf and south Atlantic coast, finely wrought articles of cannel coal, and implements of polished hematite from distant mines, and of quartz, steatite, syenite, and slate were found. That obsidian or volcanic glass, copper, and catlinite, originally found only in special known localities, should be unearthed thou- sands of miles from their native beds, and often in considerable quantities, has been a matter of surprise, even to archaeologists, and indicates the very great extent of ancient intertribal com- munication. ■■■ Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part II, page 172 ; History of Alabama (Pickett), Vol. I, page 55. "There were found in the town many mantles and deer- skins, lion-skins, and bear-skins, and many cat-skins; many came so far poorly ap- pareled, and there they clothed themselves. Of the mantles they made them coats and cassocks, and some made gowns, and lined them with cat-skins, and likewise their cassocks. Of the deer-skins some made them also jerkins, shirts, hose, and shoes ; and of the bear-skins they made them very good cloaks." — Portugese Narra- tive, page 711. 80 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. Obsidian in situ is not found east of Mexico or Colorado, yet Dr. Troost, the former learned geologist of Tennessee, and Dr. Joseph Jones, both report its discovery in Tennessee.* Copper in its native state, suitable for hammering into imple- ments or ornaments, is found in situ in the upper peninsula of Michigan, along the borders of Lake Superior. It has not been dis- covered elsewhere in this form south of this general district, ex- cepting in very small quantities in one or two localities. The ancient copper pits or mines along the southern shore of the lake, worked by aboriginal miners, have frequently been described. f It is a remarkable indication of the far-reaching extent of aboriginal trade, that native copper, necessarily from these northern mines, has been found in nearly every section of the country, east of the Rocky Mountains, including the Gulf states. It is discov- ered in the mounds and graves, and elsewhere, in the form of im- plements, ornaments, knives, spear-heads, and other objects. A number of interesting articles of native copper found in Ten- nessee will be described in subsequent chapters. The widely spread use of catlinite also indicates the extent of aboriginal trade. The identity of its original location is more marked than that of native copper. This beautiful and easily worked red pipe stone is only found in situ in the ancient quarries of the " Coteau des Prairies " on the western border of Minnesota. Carver, who visited the Upper Mississippi region, in 1766-68, marked it on his majjs as the " Country of Peace," because all the tribes met there in peace to obtain pipe stone, :j: an illustration of the reasonable and gentle side of the Indian character ex- ■•■■ Troost's "Ancient Remains in Tennessee," in Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, Vol. I, page 361 ; Aboriginal Remains (Jones), page 76. Squier and Davis found obsidian arrow points and fragments in five ancient mounds in the Scioto valley, in Ohio. — Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, page 306. It has also been discovered in Mississippi and Wisconsin. t The writer visited these mines years ago, and discovered a grooved stone ax, used by the natives in their mining work. X Carver's Travels, page 78. THE ANCIENT HOUSES ABORIGINAL TRADE. 81 quisitely pictured by Longfellow in his " Song of Hiawatha." There the Great Spirit — " Smoked the calumet, the Peace pipe, As a signal to the nations," to come as brothers from near and far to this famous neutral ground, bury their feuds and hatreds, and quarry the pipes of peace.* Catlinite pipes must have been used by most of the ancient and modern tribes. The Delawares, Iroquois, and Kew England Indians, far to the east, used them. They have been found in the mounds of Ohio and Illinois. The catlinite pipe found in a stone grave in the ISToel cemetery, near ITashville, and now in the author's collection, is a typical specimen of prehistoric art. It offers positive proof of ancient re- lations or intercourse with the tribes of the far ISTorth-west, the ancient home of the Mandan and Dakota Indians. f There is no difficulty in identifying the well-known clay stone of which this pipe is made. It is only found in the locality mentioned, and is familiar to all collectors. | The extent of intercourse and traffic among the ancient tribes is also well illustrated by the widely distributed marine shells found in the prehistoric cemeteries of Tennessee. Vast stores of them are discovered, m an unusual variety of forms. Whether from their for- tunate preservation in the stone graves, or from their more recent * The poet Longfellow says they came — " From the vale of Tawasentha, From the valley of Wyoming, From the groves of Tuscalusa, From the far off Rocky Mountains, From the Northern lakes and rivers; All the tribes beheld the signal. Saw the distant smoke ascending, The Pukwana of the Peace Pipe." t Some authorities have suggested that the Mandans were probably descendants of the mound building tribes. + Tlie catlinite pipe is illustrated in a subsequent chapter. 6 82 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. date of deposit, no other state can compare witli Tennessee in the number and beauty of the shell ornaments and utensils found among its ancient remains. Beads, pendants, gorgets engraved and plain, pins, ear-rings, implements, cups, and spoons, are found in great numbers, a large proportion of which must have come from the distant Atlantic or gulf coasts, showing not only intercourse with the coast tribes, but intimate and extensive trade relations with them.* There is also ample historical evidence of intertribal traffic at a very early period. After the failure of ISTarvaez's expedition into Florida, in 1528, Cabeza de Yaca, who was left behind, found little difficulty in supporting himself as a trader or peddler in his long circuitous journey from Florida to Mexico. He reports that he gathered and exchanged the wares of the country and the coast flints, skins, mineral paint, naedicine, conch-shells, sea-beans, and other merchandise.! De Soto found the natives at the Saline Springs of Tulla, Arkansas, making salt, which was " made into small cakes, and vended among the other tribes for skins and mantles." % La Salle, Marquette, Hennepin, and Charlevoix traveled long distances through the interior of the Indian country with little or no other protection or introduction than the calumet or pipe of peace. The natives were a trading people, and as De Vaca says, he always received fair treatment, out of regard for " his com- modities." From the many identities, and marked resemblances found in the images and pottery forms of Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, there is but little doubt that the native traders came from the ancient focus of this pottery district on the Mississippi, * In illustration of Indian exchanges, Schoolcraft says, " he saw, at the foot of Lake Superior, Indian articles ornamented with the shining white Dentalium eli- phanticum, from the mouth of the Columbia river." — Ancient Monuments (Squier and Davis), page 254. t Kelation of Cabeza de Vaca, translated by Buckingham Smith, page 85, et seq. New York, 1871. ' t History of Alabama (Pickett). Vol. I, page 70. THE ANCIENT HOUSES — ABORIGINAL TRADE. 83 near the mouth of the Ohio river, with canoes hxden with wares, up the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Ohio rivers. Perhaps the aristocratic ancient town near N^ashville, whose remains have re- cently been unearthed, was a colony from this main center. Like some of the Greek colonies that settled in Italy, it surpassed the parent stock in some of its manifestations of art. Father Membre, in 1681, saw a fleet of one hundred and fifty canoes at one of the towns on the Mississippi river. Some of them were forty to fifty feet long.* De Soto met a fleet of two hundred pirogues or large canoes, manned by the natives, on discovering the Mississippi. " It was a pleasing sight," says the Portugese narrator, " to behold these wild savages in their canoes, which were neatly made, and of great size, and with their awnings, colored feathers, and waving standards, ap- peared like a fleet of galleys." f Armed Indians, carrying shields made of bufi\\lo hides, sheltered the rowers, while others stood in battle array with their bows and arrows. That these native fleets could assemble upon the Mississippi, almost without warning, is an indication of the ease with which the ancient tribes were able to traverse the great rivers, and communicate with distant sections, either in their wars or peaceful exchanges. Bands of Iroquois from central Xew York came all the way down the tributaries of the Ohio in their light canoes, and up the winding Cumberland, to enjoy the pleasure of pillag- ing and burning the houses of the less warlike Shawnees near Nashville. They sometimes pursued the Cherokees and Chickasaws to the banks of the Tennessee river. They came west with La Salle, and drove the Illinois tribes beyond the Mississippi. Carver, more than a hundred years ago, learned from the Win- nebagos, of Wisconsin, that their war parties sometimes traveled as far to the south-west as New Mexico, " the land of the Spaniards," and that it required months to make the journey. J Similar excur- "••■ Discovery of the Mississippi (Narrative of Father Membre), page 181. t Portugese Narrative, C. 22 ; Conquest of Florida (Irving), page 314. t Carver's Travels, New York, 1838, page 42. Du Pratz mentions the fact that 84 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. sions or migrations were doubtless not uncommon in the prehistoric period. Pipes, flints, axes, and ornaments of stone are rarely found near their original beds. Beautiful pipes, wrought out of steatite, por- phyry and serpentine from East Tennessee and North Carolina, found their way far down the Mississippi into Louisiana, and into the shell heaps of Florida and Alabama. Three pipes, of the well defined north-west coast forms, have been unearthed in JSTew Eng- land. Plates of mica, from ISTorth Carolina and Virginia, are found in great abundance in the mounds and graves of the Mississippi valley. To understand the ethnic status of the prehistoric tribes, therefore, and to clearly comprehend ancient life in Tennessee, these widely extended relations should be fully realized. The aborigines were evidently a trading, traveling, warring, and migrating race. We are told by Hubert Bancroft that the ancient Mexican traders made long journeys to distant sections, occupying months of time, and we have no good reason for supposing that either the Toltecs, the Aztecs, or the pueblo tribes were wholly ignorant of the vast population inhabiting the Mississippi valley, especially as the remains found occasionally exhibit traces of Mexican and pueblo culture.* one of the Yazoo Indians of Mississippi (Montcacht-ape), in one of his journeys to the Far West, reached the Pacific coast, and returned to his tribe in Mississippi after an absence of five years. — History of Louisiana, Vol. II, page 128. London, 1763. ■;•:- Herrera, the Spanish historian, describes the cargo of a large trading canoe that came from Yucatan, at the time of Columbus, to one of the islands in the gulf, "forty leagues" distant from the mainland; showing how easily Cuba and Florida could be reached by the natives of Central and South America. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 85 CHi^F»TE]R IV. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. Ancient Inscribed Stones Found in Tennessee — The Sumner County Pictograph — Tlie Riggs Face Bowl — Images of Clay — Stone Idols — The Troost Idol — The Cradle Board Image — Crania from the Graves of Tennessee — Ancient Crania from ^Missouri — Peruvian Skulls — Pueblo and Cliff Dwellers' Skulls — Tables of Measurement. One of the surest indications that the state of ancient society in the Mississippi valley was essentially rude and primitive is found in the fact that few prehistoric inscriptions of archselogical value, or picture writings of interest, have been discovered within this widely extended area. None have been found approaching the higher grades of hieroglyphic writings, such as marked the civiliza- tion of the Mayas of Central America, or even equaling the ruder Runic characters or alphabet of the ancient Northmen. The North American Indians excelled all other barbarous tribes in the efficient and general use of sign language, and in ex- pressing conceits, recording events, and conveying information by rude markings or inscriptions; yet the antiquarian will search in vain among the pictographs and inscriptions that illustrate the large volumes of Squier and Davis, Catlin, Schoolcraft, or the more recent valuable publications of the Bureau of Ethnology * for traces of an ancient native written language, or decipherable symbol lan- guage. The large number of pictographs and inscriptions illus- trated are rarely above the grade of the rude archaic animal sketches and markings, or rock carvings, of the historic tribes, and are of comparatively little ethnic value. A few inscriptions or * In the Fourth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Powell), page 13, will be found a long and valualjle illustrated paper by Colonel Garrick Mallery upon the pictographs of the North American Indians. 86 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. pictures of a higher type have been discovered. The Cincinnati tablet,* the figures on copper from the Etowah mound in Georgia, and several of the engraved shell figures and pictures from the mounds of Tennessee, Georgia, and Missouri, are objects of much archseological interest, and must be excepted from the mass of ruder prehistoric pictographs. Although these expressions of art are es- sentially Indian and primitive, they point to a state of society, or of local or individual development, in certain ancient centers of population, a degree above the general culture status of the his- toric tribes. This proof is positive, and must be accepted. These evidences of ancient culture could not all have been borrowed or exotic. They do not indicate a state of society beyond the reach of the ancestors of the historic tribes in the natural progress of development, nor are they above the general state of art and culture of progressive tribes like some of the advanced pueblo villagers. They merely mark the highest points or stages of culture prob- ably reached in the slow processes of evolution, and suggest that there has been a slight decadence since the dawn of history, or the best prehistoric period, probably resulting from wars, migrations, or other natural causes. Illustrations of some of these interesting objects will be found in subsequent chapters. A few ancient carv- ings or inscriptions upon stone of considerable interest have in re- cent years been found in Tennessee. The carefully engraved stone, both sides of which are fairly well illustrated in Fig. 15, w^as found some years ago near Peters- burg, in Lincoln county. Middle Tennessee, and is now in the col- lection of the Tennessee Historical Society. The stone is of dark, hard, and compact slate. It is a little larger than the illustration, and bears such marks of age and use that there can be no question * We are aware that the genuineness of this tablet has been questioned. We have carefully examined the original and investigated its history, and also that of the two ruder Ohio tablets of somewhat similar character. We have known Mr. Gest, the owner of the Cincinnati tablet, many years, and we see no good grounds to doubt that it is a genuine prehistoric relic. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 87 as to its genuineness.* The ornamentation engraved upon it is of the familiar Greek key or classic fret pattern, frequently found Fig. 15. — Ornamented "Banner Stone" (Lincoln County, Tennessee). among Mexican antiquities. The same pattern, in more regular forms, ornaments the front of the ancient " Governor's House," at Fig. 16. — A Vessel op Pottery from the Moqui Pueblo. Uxmal, in Central America. More exact examples of the orna- mentation upon this stone are, however, to be found upon the an- * It was presented to the Tennessee Historical Society, in 1883, by Mr. R. A. Parks, an intelligent and reliable gentleman of Lynchburg, Tennessee. He writes that, " it was found in the sand on the bank of a small stream in Lincoln county, near Petersburg, by the children of the Marshall family." 88 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. cient pottery from the Moqiii pueblos in the province of Tusayan, Arizona. The handsome old Moqui vase (Fig. 16) is ornamented in patterns almost duplicating the lines engraved upon this stone. It may be found in the collection of the ISTational Museum, with many other articles of pottery of similar ornamentation from the same province.* A fine specimen of a higher type of this form of ornamentation is presented in Fig. 17. It was taken from a fragment of very an- cient pottery found in Mexico, and shows the more advanced cult- ure of the Aztecs or Toltecs.f This rare little engraved " banner stone" was doubtless long worn or carried as an ornament, token, Fig. 17. — A Fragment of Ancient Mexican Pottery. or amulet, or, perhaps, was used for some ceremonial purpose. It may have been a long-treasured keepsake of the Fatherland in the Far West, as it was probably an importation, centuries a^o, from the Moqui pueblo section. I^o similar tracery or ornamentation has been discovered among the antiquities of Tennessee, or of the Mississippi valley, so far as we can learn. It establishes with con- siderable certainty the existence of intercourse between the ancient inhabitants of Middle Tennessee and the tribes of the pueblos, evi- dently village Indians of the same general class. An inscribed stone of an interesting character was recently * See the larger illustration of this vase and others in Reports Bureau of Eth- nology, Vol. IV, pages 320-336. t The illustration is copied from Prehistoric Man (Wilson), Vol. II, page 30. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 89 found by Geoi\s:;e Wood, a colored maii, while "digging for pots" in the large aboriginal cemetery on the ^oel farm, near ]^ashville. The stone is a sandstone, yellowish-gray in color, and of rather coarse grain. It is about two inches in diameter, and nearly an inch thick. On the reverse side, it is hollowed out like a " cup stone." An engraving of it, representing both sides, is shown in Fig. 18. The inscription, well and deeply cut into the hard stone, is evi- dently ideographic, and a painstaking attempt at hieroglyphic or sign writing. It was certainly intended to have some special signif- FiG. 18. — Inscribed Stone Found near Nashville.* icance, or to record some specific idea, as the characters are not careless incisions or markings. It may have represented some con- tract, or totem, or memorial, or some money idea, or value. The characters happen to be somewhat similar to some of the letters of the old Phoenician alphabet, and to the Runic iuscriptions of the ancient Scandinavians. Dr. M. "W. Dickinson, in his valua- ble work upon American Numismatics, gives a number of illustra- * Author's collection. The unevenness of the surface rendered it impracticable to present a photo-engraving directly from a photograph of the stone ; but no one, upon examining it, will doubt the genuineness of this antique. We obtained it from the workman the day it was found, and washed away the clay adhering to it. 90 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. tions of small, inscribed disks of stone, clay, coal, and galena, in form somewhat like this inscribed stone, objects discovered by him in exploring the mounds of the lower Mississippi valley, and which he designates as " aboriginal money " of the mound building tribes,* A few small disks of the same kind have been found in Tennessee. Dr. Dickinson was excellent authority upon this general subject, but we do not find it considered elsewhere, and we can not be certain that these little " discoidals " were used as money. The prehistoric tribes probably had no medium of exchange corresponding with our modern idea of money or currency. Even the Aztecs of ancient Mexico had no regular metallic currency in general use. Barter and interchange of commodities constituted their principal method of exchange. The nearest approach to a system of currency among the historic tribes, w^as the use of wam- pum or shell money, a use doubtless originally derived from the value of shells or shell beads as ornaments. The unique stone il- lustrated, however, is of interest as indicating an eftbrt at sign writ- ing much above the ordinary types of Indian inscriptions. Some of the E^orth American Indians, so expert in conveying their ideas by signs and sign writing, were evidently making slow but certain progress toward a written alphabet. . There has also been discovered, in Sumner county, Tennessee, near the stone graves and mounds of Castalian Springs, a valuable pictograph, the ancient engraved stone illustrated in Plate II, which we have taken the liberty to entitle A Group of Tennessee Mound Builders. This engraved stone, the property of the Tennessee Historical Society, is a fiat, irregular slab of hard limestone, about nineteen inches long, and fifteen inches wide. It bears every evidence of very great age. A plate engraved directly from a photograph of it would have been made for this publication, but the surface of the stone was uneven, and it was found impossible to get a strong pho- * Dickinson's American Numismatics, page 37. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, 'CRANIA. 91 tograph of the whole picture for a single plate. The stone was found on Rocky creek, in Sumner county, and was presented, with other relics, to the Tennessee Historical Society about twelve years ago. The society, at that time, not having sufficient room to ex- hibit its collections, the stone was packed awa}^ until 1886, when it was placed on exhibition at the new " Historical Rooms," in the Watkins Institute, in E"ashville. No archaeologist, upon examin- ing it, will doubt that this interesting pictograph in stone is a gen- uine antique. It is evidently an ideograph of significance, graven with a steady and skillful hand, for a specific purpose, and probably records or commemorates some important treaty or public or tribal event. It seems to represent a time of general congratulations, perhaps some aboriginal Fourth of July! Indian chiefs, fully equipped with the insignia of office, are arrayed in fine apparel. Two leading characters are vigorously shaking hands in a confirma- tory way. The banner or shield, ornamented with the double serpent emblem and other symbols, is, doubtless, an important feature of the occasion. Among the historic Indians, no treaty was made without the presence or presentation of the belt of wam- pum. This, the well-dressed female of the group appears to grasp in her hand, perhaps as a pledge of the contract. The dressing of the hair, the remarkable scalloped skirts, the implements used, the waist-bands, the wristlets, the garters, the Indian leggins and moccasins, the necklace and breast-plates, the two banners, the ser- pent emblem, the tattoo stripes, the ancient pipe — all invest this pictograph with unusual interest. Mr. Conant, in his Footprints of Vanished Races, published in 1879 (page 94), referring to the mound builders of South-east Missouri, makes the following statement: "In some of their human effigies do we find the manner of arranging their hair dis- tinctly delineated, and we may yet discover those which shall furnish us with correct representations of their mode of dress. Indeed, I have seen one vessel with figures of men rudely painted in outline upon its sides, who were clad injiowinfj garments gathered 92 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. hy a belt around the ivaist and reaching to the knees." (The italics are used to call attention to the latter part of the statement.) Mr. Conant's prediction is fully realized in this pictograph. Here are portrayed, evidently with considerable correctness, the dresses and figures of leading personages of the Stone Grave race, the mound builders of Tennessee, as they appeared upon some im- portant occasion. Unfortunately, the faces of two of the four upper figures, the fanciful hair or head ornaments, the lower shield and some other details are partly lost by the disintegration of the stone, owing to its great age. Only faint outlines can now be seen. It would probably have been wnser to have made no attempt to illustrate these portions of the pictograph. The implements or objects in the hands of the separate figure below have also become somewhat obscure, but the pictograph, as it now appears, has been copied from the original stone, with truthful expression and exact- ness of details. It was well and deeply graven, probably with some implement of quartz or flint upon the softer limestone surface. The aboriginal art was even slightly superior to the art of the copyist, as represented in the illustration presented. Some slight analogies or resemblances to the figures in this pictograph are found in other prehistoric picture writings from the mounds. In the figures on copper from the Etowah mound of Georgia, illustrated in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, and in the two fine shell gorgets in the same report, the waist- bands and garters invariably appear, and there are traces of the pointed fashion of the skirts. The back hair-knot is frequently ob- served on the pottery heads, and shell gorgets from the stone graves, and may be seen elegantly arrayed in the Etowah plate figures. The rude head in clay (Fig. 19) found within the ancient earth-works, near Hickman, Tennessee, offers an illustration of two of the long and peculiarly formed back hair-knots in the stone picture.* Judge Haywood, in describing a large stone idol found in * This illustration is from Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee (Dr. Jones), page 63. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 93 Wilson county, Tennessee, says : " On the back of the head is a large projection, so shaped as to show, perhaps, the manner of tying and wearing the hair." * Fanciful head-dresses were worn by all Indians upon occasions of ceremony, from the eagle phimes of the wilder tribes to the elaborate feather crowns of the Aztec cliiefs. One of the branches of the Cherokee tribe was named the family of the " Long Hair." This was the badge or totem of the clan.f Bartram reports that the women among the southern In- dians "made diadems "| for the men's heads, and Parkman tells us that the northern tribes " wore their hair after a variety of gro- FiG. 19. — Pottery Head, with Long Hair Knot. tesque and startling fashions, "1| a statement that might be justly ap- plied to some of the fashionable head-dresses of more civilized races. § The neatly dressed female in the picture seems content with a chignon of modern style. Her prominence upon this public occa- sion, and the fact that she seems to have possession of the belt of wampum, are both indications of progress in the direction of civili- « * Natural and Aboriginal History ot Tennessee, page 438. t Ancient Society (Morgan), page 164. t Bartram's Travels, page 511. London, 1792. II The Jesuits, page xxxiii. § "Tufts of deer's hair, dyed of scarlet color, were worn as head-dresses." Rela- tion of Cabeza de Vaca, page 121. Paris, 1837. 94 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. zation. De Soto found " the beautiful young Indian princess, Xualla," ruling over the province of Cofacheque, on the Savannah river.* The tattoo marks on the faces of two of the chief fig- ures are significant. We find, from a series of rude drawings or " counts " of the Dakota Indians, illustrating the fourth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology (page 174), that the principal chiefs of the Dakotas were marked by three tattoo lines of paint across their cheeks ; and that, in the Indian picture writings, the holding of a war club or pipe was a sign of authority, and indicated Fig. 20. — The Eiggs J'ace Bowl (One-third). that these special chiefs had at some time led independent war parties, f According to the interesting pictograph presented, the chiefs among the mound builders of Tennessee had four lines of paint, or tattoo marks, on their faces upon occasions of ceremony. The prev- alence of this custom among the pottery makers of Tennessee and Arkansas may also be established by testimony, independently of the pictured stone. , * Conquest of Florida (Irving), page 219. t Pictographs of the North American Indians (Colonel Garrick Mallery), page 175. The Mandans, who have been mentioned by several writers as probable de- scendants of some of the mound building tribes, are a branch of the Dakota or Sioux tribe of Indians. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 95 One of the finest, if not the finest, face or portrait bowl yet dis- covered among the mound graves of Arkansas, and well illustrated in Fig. 20, as will be observed, is strongly marked with the four tattoo lines upon its face, thus confirming the story of the interesting pictograph from Sumner county. This terra cotta bowl was re- cently discovered in or near a mound on the St. Francis river, in Arkansas, near the mouth of the Tyronza river, by Mr. C. W. Riggs, an enthusiastic mound explorer, who kindly furnished us with excell-ent photographs of it, from which, with the aid of sketches from the original bowl, these illustrations were made. It is five and one-half inches high. The face of the bowl is so marked and well executed that one is astonished at its life-like appearance. Its expression is indeed so natural and human that it is not alto- gether agreeable. In color the face is a light clay, probably the tint of the natural clay of which it was made. The rest of the head is stained or painted red. The forehead is low, but prominent. The eyes small. The ears are finely modeled. The lips, which are tinted red, are parted, as if about to speak. What a history this little bowl could unfold, if permitted to tell the story of its life!* Returning to the pictograph, it will be observed that the pipe in the lower banner is of the familiar square pattern often found in Tennessee, and illustrated in the chapter upon pipes. Captain Carver, who spent three years traveling through the ■•■■ The writer saw this fine bowl in the Riggs collection, at the Cincinnati Cen- tennial Exhibition, in 188S, and takes pleasure in presenting to the antiquarian pub- lic probably the first good engraving of it. It is now in the Riggs collection, at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Mr. Riggs regarded it as worth more than the entire bal- ance of his pottery collection of several hundred perfect specimens. He called the ancient cemetery from which it was taken "The Royal Mound," as it appeared to have been the burial place of persons of distinction in their day and generation. Earth-works embracing about twelve acres (about the average area of our Tennessee works) inclosed the mound group. This bowd, well marked with the face and tattoo marks of some distinguished personage, perhaps belonged to the aboriginal set of terra cotta of some old chief. The physiognomy of this ancient gentleman, how- ever, like the heads and faces of the royal Peruvians and Central Americans, ex- hibits no special marks of a high blooded pedigree. 96 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. interior of North America, 1776-8, says the pipe " was used as an introduction to all treaties, as a flag of truce is among Europeans." A third banner or shield is faintly traced upon the reverse side of the stone tablet. They seem larger than ordinary battle shields, and may have been ceremoukil shields or banners. De Soto found a native chief, the haughty Tuscaluza, using a large ornamented banner.* The double serpent emblem or ornament upon the banner may have been the badge or totem of the tribe, clan, or family that oc- cupied the extensive eaKh-works at Castalian Springs in Sumner county, near where the stone was found. The serpent was a favorite emblem or totem of the Stone Grave race of Tennessee, and is one of the common devices engraved on the shell gorgets taken from the ancient cemeteries, as will be observed in subse- quent illustrations. A serpent totem in pottery, found in David- son county, but near the border of Sumner county, is also illus- trated in the next chapter. The circles or sun symbol ornaments on. the banners and dresses, are the ligures most frequently graven on the shell gorgets found near JSTashville. Father Membre in- formed us that the natives on the Red river, in 1686, wore " gala dresses," ornamented with " painted suns," and that they worshiped the 8un,f and when Bartram visited the southern Indians, in 1773, he reported that the Indian women " make moccasins, spin and weave curious belts and diadems for men, fabricate lace, fringe, embroider and decorate their apparel." X Hubert Bancroft tells us that the ISTavajos and Pimas, village Indians of Kew Mexico and Arizona, wore girdles around their waists, neat moccasins, leggins, aprons, and short petticoats of deer * " Beside him (Tuscaluza) was bis standard bearer, wbo bore on the end of a lance a dressed deer-skin, stretched out to the size of a buckler. It was a j^ellow color, traversed by three blue stripes. This was the great banner of this warrior chieftain."— Conquest of Florida (Irving), page 256. Shields of wood, skin, and hides were used by the natives.— History of Alabama (Pickett), Vol. I, page 58. t Discovery of the Mississippi (Shea), pages 217, 228. t Bartram's Travels, page 511. London, 1792. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 97 skins, and necklaces of beads and shell-work.* We are also told that belts and garters were a specialty of Navajo manufacture, f all indicating that the dresses of the figures on the engraved stone resemble the dresses of the old southern Indians and the village In- dians of the Far West. The details of this interesting pictograph, and the location in which it was found, clearly identify it as a relic of the Stone Grave race. It is entirely in harmony with our knowledge of the race derived from other sources. It is also in harmony with the gen- eral views expressed elsewhere in this volume as to the culture status of this ancient race. While it presents a true picture of In- dian life in its rude and barbaric state, its details, and the art which engraved it, indicates a status slightly above that of the historic Indians of the early frontier. We doubt whether any inscribed stone of more archaeological value has been discovered among the prehistoric remains of the Mississippi valley. It is to be regretted that the disintegration of the stone has partly obliterated some of the outlines of the faces and heads. Like the stone idol types, the faces are too rudely executed to be of ethnic value, yet prehistoric picto- graphs are so rare north of Mexico, that all their details are of interest. The images and effigy vessels of clay, from the stone graves of Tennessee and the burial mounds of Missouri and Arkansas, are, also, among the most interesting antiques yet discovered. They call back to life the personalty of the old mound builders more viv- idly than any other remains. While they can not be regarded as presenting individual or exact types of this ancient race, some of the faces are so marked and expressive that they must be at least par- tial imitations or reproductions of the lineaments and features be- fore the eyes or in the mind of the native artisans who made them. It is remarkable that they represent no uniform or particular type. The varieties of features and expressions are, indeed, as great as one * Native Races (Bancroft), Vol. IV, pages 531, 532. t Bureau of Ethnology Report, Vol. II, page 434. 7 98 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. would observe along the streets of a metropolitan city. Noses, lioman, plebeian, and Ethiopian, are all represented. Features of almost Caucasian regularity, the high cheek bones of the Indian, heavy African features, foreheads high and low, close fitting caps, and high pointed hats, may all be noticed among the characteristics of these statuettes of clay.* A group from the author's collection, all found in the ancient Fig. 21. — Terra Cotta Head, from Cemetery near Nashville. cemeteries near Il^ashville (one-third natural diameters or sizes), is presented as the frontispiece of this volume. It is engraved by the " Moss process," directly from a photograph of the objects, and is, therefore, an exact and truthful presentation of these images. It does not give the full strength of some of the faces and outlines, owino- to their light color, but it is a faithful reproduction of the * Charnay reports, as a remarkable fact, the great variety of types of faces and features in the terra cotta figures found among ancient Mexican remains. — Ancient Cities of the New World, page 132. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 99 photograph. The clay paste of which they were made, as will be observed, is of different colors. The majority of them are reddish- brown. Some are of a light cream or clay color ; and, occasionally, one is found of a rich and finely polished surface, nearly black. Like most of the earthenware from the graves, the clay paste has been mixed and tempered with pounded shells from the rivers, but it is usually finely ground and well burned. A front view of the lit- tle dark head in the upper line of the frontispiece is shown in Fig. 21. It is one of the best and hardest pieces of ware, as well as one Fig. 22. — Female Head, from Cemetery near Nashville. of the best specimens of art, found in the Noel cemetery. The il- lustration does not quite equal the original, either in outlines or ex- pression. The light female head, on the upper line of the frontis- piece, is presented in profile in Fig. 22. The photo-engraving does not do justice to it, owing to its light color. In fact, neither of the pictures fully illustrates the dignity and grace of the original. The head belongs to an image or efligy vessel, and the hole, through which the string was passed to hang or carry it, may be observed at the back of the neck. The holes for the earrings may also be seen, and a curious little loop or hole over the forehead, possibly intended to represent some custom of wearing a ring or ornament there. This fine female head was obtained from an ancient cemetery, on 100 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. the Byser farm, ou White's creek, about five miles north of ISTash- viile.* The square crown or ornament rising to a point in a series of layers on the large light head in the frontispiece was a favorite head dress of the Stone Grave race. We have not observed it on the pottery heads from other sections. It was, doubtless, copied from Fig 23. — Terra Cotta Image, from Cemetery near Nashville. the fashions of the times, in the Cumberland valley, and is not un- like some of the modern conceits of the white race. The rather rudely engraved figure (No. 23) will be also recog- nized as one of the statuettes of the frontispiece. He bears the historic name of " Sitting Bull " in our catalogue. The face of the original in its characteristics is of a marked red Indian type. The * It was kindly presented to the author by Mrs. J. M. Leech, of Nashville. There was a large cemetery on this farm, and a sepulchral mound, with layers of graves three or four deep, from which we obtained a number of fine relics; but, like most of the burial grounds near Nashville, no evidences of military or defensive works remain. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 101 next figure on bis left we call " Mrs. Sitting Bull," as both were found in tbe same grave, and appear to bave been the work of the same aboriginal artist. The two smallest images in the frontispiece are solid, and may have been toys or charms; the smallest — the tiny little fellow at the end— being quite perfect, but only about an inch and a half high. The rest of the figures are hollow, and all have holes in the backs of the heads, and may have been used as vessels or for some purposes useful as well as ornamental. Plate III is a reproduction directly from the photograph, pre- senting difterent views of some of the images of the frontispiece group, with others, that the reader may have a better idea of these interesting objects. It will be observed that the dark figure front- ing on the upper line has a contracted forehead, and features some- what resembling the Ethiopian type. This resemblance is much stronger in the original, and invests this unique image with special interest. The owl or bird-shaped vessel, with the well-painted feathers (Plate III), was taken from a grave in the ISToel cemetery. A similar one, of finely polished surface and better burned ware, was dug up by Prof. H. H. Wright, of Fisk University, in the same cemetery. Prof. Cj^rus Thomas, of the Bureau of Ethnology, recently exhibited a handsomely painted one to the writer, of the same form, found in East Tennessee. The ancient graves in Missouri and Arkansas have also fur- nished a number of similar figures,* and types almost identical of light clay, and with the same feather marks, are to be seen among the modern pottery of the Zuni Indians of the pueblos. f A well- formed owl, carved out of hard stone, and about four inches high, was found within the mound works, near Saundersville, in Sumner county, Tennessee. Nearly all the images and efiigy vessels of light clay were probably orignally painted or decorated in various colors, but the coloring has faded, or become very indistinct. It will be observed that a number of these statuettes are hunch- * Bureau of Ethnology, Vol. IV, page 422. t Bureau of Ethnology, Vol. IV, pages 364, 365. 102 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. backs. This is also a characteristic of many of the clay figures representing the human form found in Missouri and Arkansas. The hump is so large, so invariably of the same form, and so com- mon a feature, that there must have been some special design or object in its use, but we have not been able to discover it. The humps are generally beaded or ornamented, perhaps in imitation of vertebrse. The two outside images on the upper line of Plate III are solid,* but nearly all the large images are hollow, and have open- ings at the backs of the heads, as if used for bottles or other useful purposes. Possibly, they may have contained some kind of pre- historic " Worcestershire sauce," or aboriginal vinegar, or other Fig. 24. — Fragments in Terra Cotta (Two-thirds). t luxuries of the ancient cuisine. They are generallj^ called " idols." It is difficult to understand why they should be molded into incon- venient human forms for use as ordinary bottles or vases ; yet the fancy for the grotesque and for animal forms was so strong among the ancient races of America, that convenience of use was probably frequently sacrificed to gratify the desire for these peculiar forms. A large proportion of the pottery used by the ancient Peruvians was of grotesque and animal forms. This was also a characteristic of ancient Pueblo and Mexican pottery. These quaint figurines of terra-cotta found in the stone graves of Tennessee vary from about * The larger one (found near Nashville) is from the fine collection of the Ten- nessee Historical Society. The smaller one is the property of Mrs. James L. Gaines, of Nashville, and was found in West Tennessee. The rest are in the author's col- lection, and were taken from the Noel cemetery. t Author's collection. ^«as«*-.. • INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 103 an inch to a foot in height. Illustrations of their various and peculiar forms might be multiplied almost indefinitely. The large hand and foot in well burned clay (Fig. 24), found in Stewart county, indicate that some of these images must have been several times larger than any complete pottery figures yet discovered, and that they were probably well-modeled. More images or idols of stone have also been found within the limits of Tennessee than in any other state or section north-east of Mexico. Colonel Charles C. Jones, of Georgia, says that " Tennes- see, above all her sister states, seems to be most prolific of them." * While we can not be certain that any of these images were wor- shiped as idols, it is believed that they must have been in some way connected with religious or sacred ceremonies, or have been used as part of the religious machinery of the ancient native priests or medi- cine men. It does not seem probable that so much labor would have been expended upon these large and elaborately wrought figures of stone for purposes of mere ornament or amusement. They are ruder than most of the large stone images found in Mexico and Central America, yet the latter are usually of the same coarse, clumsy, and grotesque characters, and often so similar to our Ten- nessee images, that we are struck with the resemblance. "With the analogy of idol worship in these countries before us, we think there can be little doubt but that the large images of stone found here were worshiped or venerated as sacred objects, or used in some form of religious service. Three of the larger class of stone images or idols are illustrated in Plate IV by the photo-mechanical process, and are, therefore, more accurately presented m the picture than by any description we could give of them. The little figure on the left is an image in clay of a child bound to its cradle or hanging board, found in a stone grave of the ISToel cemetery. It will be more fully described hereafter. The three idols are in the collection of the Tennessee Historical Society. They are of gray sandstone, and are from twelve to thir- * Antiquities of Southern Indians, page 436. 104 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. teen inches in height. The image on the left is from Trousdale county, the center one was found by Dr. Frost, of ISTashville, in Williamson county, and the one on the right is from Smith county; all within the general section occupied by the Stone Grave race in Middle Tennessee. A large and well formed female head, of dark- gray sandstone, doubtless belonging to a similar image, was plowed up near the earth-works and stone graves of Castalian Springs (Sumner county), in the summer of 1888, and is now in the Smith- sonian Institution. These " idols " are usually " surface finds," but Fig. 25. — Stone Head Found near Clarksville (Front and Profile Views.)"* most of them have been discovered within or near the stone grave settlements. Dr. W. M. Clark, of Nashville, found one weighing twenty-seven and one-half pounds, in a grave near Nashville, lying beside a large skeleton, f Images and idols of stone and clay are found in great numbers in the ancient graves of Mexico and Central America, as we learn from Hubert Bancroft, Charnay, and others. ^ Their use as objects of worship in these countries is amply authenticated. * Johnson collection, Nashville, t Smithsonian Report, 1877, page 276. X Native Races, Vol. IV, page 385 ; Ancient Cities of the New World, Charnay, page 181. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDuLS, CRANIA. 105 The head of a large image of marble or crystalline limestone, illustrated in Figure 25, was found by Mr. H. L. Johnson, in 1887, in a mound on the Wallace farm, near Clarksville, Tennessee. The head had been broken from its body. The latter could not be found, though diligent search was made for it. The face was also considerably injured. The outlines of the head show very clearly the flattened or vertical occiput, a distinguishing character- istic of the crania of the Stone Grave race, the transverse or parietal diameter being fully as great as the longitudinal.* The features of the face are of a heavy Ethiopian cast, somewhat similar to those of the dark image in Plate Ill.f The strong peculiar lines across the face were probably intended to represent tattoo marks, or, possibly, wrinkles. Similar marks are found on the faces of some of the fine Ohio and Illinois stone pipes, and also on the face of the figure engraved on the fine shell gorget from Missouri, illustrated in Chapter IX. The hood or head cap resembles the head-dress of many of the clay images, and of the idol in the center in Plate IV. The original head, nearly life size, we have had carefully photographed and en- graved, that archaeologists may have the benefit of the type in con- sidering the characteristics of the ancient race inhabiting the Cum- berland valley. One of the finest stone images discovered in Tennessee was plowed up, in 1845, by Mr. Hartsfield, within the mound works about eight miles north of Paris, in Henry county.]: Its face (front and profile) is illustrated in Fig. 26. The features are well formed, strong, and expressive. It was carved out of compact white fluor- spar, a mineral unknown in this portion of the Mississippi valley. •■'■ The ancient Egyptian sculptures showed the forms of the heads of the succes- sive races that peopled Lower Egypt. t According to Biart, who writes very intelligently concerning the ancient Mexi- cans, the Aztecs were a " flat nosed " race. — The Aztecs (Biart), page 46. t The illustration aud description are from Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee (Jones), page 130. 106 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. The head only is now preserved, the image having been broken and partly destroyed by fire. It offers another illustration of the va- FiG. 26. — Head of Stone, from Henry County (One-fourth). riety of types of faces found among the ancient remains in Ten- nessee. The stone idol, rather rudely represented in Fig. 27, was dis- covered in a cave on the bank of the Holston river, near Strawberry Fig. 27. — Stone Idol (Knox County). Plains, in Knox county, Tennessee. It is composed of crystalline limestone, and was evidently made out of one of the large stalactites INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 107 of the cave. Dr. Joseph Jones was of opinion that the cave was used as a place of worship,* A number of stone images have been discovered in Smith county, Tennessee. The line specimen from that county, repre- sented in Fig. 28, has unfortunately been burned and destroyed. It belonged to the collection of Mr. W. E. Myer, who kindly sent us good photographs of it, from which we have had the illustrations Fig. 28. — Stone Idol (Smith County, Tennessee).! engraved, in order to preserve a likeness of it. It was plowed up in a field some years ago. Traces of the garments upon the body are sometimes to be found upon the images of clay. The hands of the clay figures are also frequently found in the same position. The holes in the back of the head were evidently made for suspension. Similar holes are The illustration and description are from Aboriginal Remains (Jones), page 128. t W. E. Myer collection. 108 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. found upon the back of the hollow clay images. The stone idol probably hung by a cord passed through the upper hole, in order to keep it in a vertical position. It was about fifteen inches high. Haywood and other early writers record interesting accounts of similar images discovered by the pioneer settlers. Some were " surface finds," others were found in caves, or within the mounds or mound works.* * In the beginning of this century, Mr. Jefferson was presented with two "Indian busts," which were unearthed by some laborers who were excavating along th.e bank of the Cumberland river, near Palmyra. They are described thus: " The human form extends to the middle of the body, and the figures are nearly of the natural size. The lineaments are strongly marked, and such as are peculiar to the copper colored aboriginal inhabitants of America. The substance is extremely hard. It has not been ascertained whether they are idols or only images of distinguished men. It will be an interesting object of research for antiquarians to discover who were the ancestors of the jjresent Indians capable of executing such a good resem- blance of the human head, face, neck, and shoulders." — Antiquities of Southern In- dians (C. C. Jones), page 435. Judge Haywood, the early historian of Tennessee, also gives the following ac- count of an antique idol : " Upon the top of a mound at Bledsoe's Lick, in Sumner county, Tennessee, some years prior to 1823, was plowed up an image made of sand- stone. On one cheek was a mark resembling a wrinkle, passing perpendicularly up and down the cheek. On the other cheek were two similar mark's. The breast was that of a female, and prominent. The face was turned obliquely up toward the heavens. The palms of the hands were turned upward before the face, and at some distance from it, in the same direction that the face was; the knees were drawn near together, and the feet, with the toes toward the ground, were separated wide enough to admit of the body being seated between them. The attitude seemed to be that of adoration. The head and upper part of the forehead were represented as covered with a cap or miter, or bonnet, from the lower part of which came horizon- tally a brim, from the extremities of which the cap extended upward conically. The color of the image was that of a dark infusion of copper. If the front of the image were placed to the east, the countenance, obliquely elevated, and the up- lifted hands in the same direction, would be toward the meridian sun." — Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, pages 123, 124. Haywood describes another image, dug up on the McGilliam farm, on Fall creek, in Wilson county, as follows : " The figure is cut out of a hard rock, of what kind Mr. Rucker could not determine. It was designed for a female statue. The legs were not drawn. It only extended a little below the hips. It is fifteen inches long, and thick in proportion. It has a flat head, broad face, a disproportionately INSCKIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 109 The little head of sandstone, nearly two inches high (Fig 29), was recently found by Mr. John Blunkall, in a stone grave cemetery a few miles west of Nashville. We present back and front views of it, as the cap and dressing of the hair are quite interesting. A wide band or tassel seenis to fall from the back of the cap or head-dress. Dr. Gerard Troost, the learned geologist of Tennessee, also de- scribed a number of Tennessee images and idols. One of these images of sandstone is now in the fine archaeological collection of Mr. A. E. Douglass, at the Museum of Natural History, in New Fig. 29. — Small Stone Head (R. A. Halley Collection). York City. In its general form and appearance, it resembles the image on the right of Plate IV. Haywood, Dr. Troost, Dr. Ram- sey, and Dr. Jones all report evidences of the existence of phallic long aquiline nose, low forehead, thiek lips, and short neck. The chin and cheek bones are not prominent, but far otherwise. On the back of the head is a large pro- jection, so shaped as to show, perhaps, the manner of tying and wearing the hair. (See Historical Society pictograph.) The nipples are well represented, though the breasts are not sufficiently elevated for a female of maturity. The hands are resting on the hips, the fingers in front, and the arms akimbo ; around the back and above the hips are two parallel lines, cut, as is supposed, to represent a zone or belt. The ears project at right angles from the head, with holes through them. It was found a few inches beneath the surface of the earth. No mounds are near, but an exten- sive burying ground of great antiquity."— Natural and Aboriginal History of Ten- nessee, pages 162, 1G3. Some of the pottery images are marked with two belts or parallel lines across the back above the hips, like this stone image. 110 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. rites or worship in ancient Tennessee. In some of the images and objects discovered, the membrum generationis is prominent. The latter is sometimes found separately carved or molded with much labor and skill in stone and clay.* The most interesting image from Tennessee described by Dr. Troostf is illustrated in Fig. 30. Fig. 30. — Image Found in a Sea Shell. It represents a small, nude human figure in clay in a large tropical shell (Cassis flammea), from which the interior whorls and column, and the front have been removed, to form the shrine or sanctuary within which the image was placed. The point of the shell was also cut, or ground off, to form a pedestal for it to stand upon. The image occupied its place in this large shell when plowed up in the Sequatchie valley. ■■•■" Dr. Troost had in his collecticfn a number of carefully carved representations of the male organ of generation. Similar objects have been found in Georgia and other adjacent states. — Antiquities of Southern Indians (C. C. Jones), page 439; Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee (J. Jones), page 135. t Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, Vol. I, pages 355-365. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. Ill Tliis curious relic presents evidence of some value that tlie ancient inhabitants of Tennessee were addicted to the worship of idols or images, or regarded these objects with special veneration; and the presence of tlie large number of figures of stone would seem conclusive on this point. It is certain that the ancient Mexi- cans and Central Americans worshiped similar objects, some of them equally rude. Images of stone and little earthenware figures, like the rude idols of Mexico, have also been found in the graves of the pueblo districts and other sections north of Mexico.* According to the testimony of Adair, Bartram, and Timber- lake, the Cherokees and most of the modern tribes of southern Indians were not given to idolatry. Some of the southern tribes venerated the sun, the moon, and other material divinities,, and nearly all Indians appeared to have some general, but rather ob- scure, conceptions of a Great Spirit, and " a happy hunting ground" in a future world. f It was the custom of all American aboriginal tribes, savage, barbarous, and semi-civilized, to bury their dead with provisions, vessels, implements, or other evidences of their faith in some kind of a future existence. Statues of wood, we are told by De Soto's chroniclers, were found at the entrance to the temple or mausoleum at Talomeco. They were of gigantic size and were carved with considerable skill. J Adair describes "a carved human statue of wood" at the chief town of the upper Muskogee country, but this, like the wooden statues at the temple, was doubtless regarded as a memorial, or venerated only as the efiHgy of some hero. Among the modern In- dians, the N^atchez, one of the most ancient and advanced tribes, "•■■Prehistoric America (Nadaillac), page 239; Native Races (Bancroft), Vol. II, page 800. t According to Colonel Garrick Mallery, the " Spirit Land " or " Happy Hunting Grounds " of the North American Indians, like the Paradise of the Japanese, liad neither a heaven nor a hell, and, in fact, was an abode without very well defined limits as to time or place. t Narratives of De Soto (Buckingham Smith), page 31. New York, 1866. 112 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. were probably worshipers of idols, as we learn from Father Petit that " the Natchez have a temple filled with idols. These idols are different figures of men and women, for which they have the deep- est veneration." In another passage he is more explicit: ''Their idols are images of men and women made of stjne and baked clay, heads and tails of extraordinary serpents, stuffed owls, pieces of crystal, and the jaw-bones of great fishes;"* a startling unorthodox Fig, 31. — Image in Clay, from Stone Grave near Nashville.I and polytheistic assortment of divinities, indeed ; but Father Petit's statement is not wholly at variance with the strange mythology and religious beliefs of the Indians. | * Quoted by C. C. Jones (Antiquities of Southern Indians, page 427). t Author's collection. X We are informed that the Kiowa Indians, now living in the Indian Territory, "are idolaters, having ten idols symbolizing the stars; and an eleventh, about the size of a large doll, is called the 'Pleasant Life,' and is regarded with great venera- tion. The priestly office is hereditary in the family of the tribe by whom the wor- ship and ministrations to the gods are performed." — Philadelphia Presbyterian, Jan- INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 113 Among the iirch^ological treasures found in the -'tone graves of the Xoel cemetery, recently discovered near Nashvdle, was the unique little image, in clay, of a child or papoose strapped to its cradle-board, photo-engraved in Plate IV, and also illustrated in Fig. 31. It was found in a child's grave by Mr. George T. Halley, of N"ashville, an intelligent young explorer and collector, from whom we obtained it. The illustrations are correct in their details, but slightly magnify its rudeness, as will be observed by turning to the more exact photo-engraving. It is nine inches long, and four inches wide, and was doubtless placed by the hands of some weep- ing Indian mother in her child's grave, as a memorial tribute, or as a toy or doll of which the child was fond. It establishes the fact, heretofore only presumed, of the use of the cradle-board, in infancy, by the natives of the Stone Grave race, and aids in explaining the form of their crania — the flattened occi- put being the most marked cranial characteristic. The little pa- poose presents the appearance of a flat head, as if the head board to the cradle had also been used to depress its frontal, after the manner of the Chinooks or Flathead Indians ; but, as there is little or no evidence of frontal depression among the crania found in the stone graves, the flattened forehead of this little image may represent an unusual type, or may have resulted from accidental modeling, rather than from design. The illustrations of the toy cradles of the Zunis of the Arizona pueblos (Fig. 32), Indians of the village or sedentary class, will give uary 26, 1889. Some of the Indians on Puget Sound are also known to worship idols made of wood. — Smithsonian Keport, 1886, Part I, page 294. James Stevenson says : " The clay images or statuettes obtained from the Shinumo pueblos are not objects of worship, as supposed by many persons, but appear to be used to adorn their dwellings, just as similar articles are used by civilized races." " If they are objects of worship, it must be in the family only, or a secret worship, of which I have no information. Images are used, however, in their dances and religious rites, but these are of wood," etc. — Second Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, page 387. 114 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. a better idea of the use of tlie cradle or papoose board than the image.* The custom of fastening their infants to these boards or cradles was probably universal among all known tribes of I^orth American Indians, and the discovery of this little image adds another link to Fig. 32. — Toy Cradles of the Zunis., the chain of identities connecting the prehistoric race of mound builders with the modern Indians. Crania. — Having presented various types of heads in clay and stone, it will be of interest in this connection to consider the crania of the Stone Grave race. As may be expected, they will be found to be similar in general conformation to the types represented in the images. They are fortunately in a better state of preservation than the crania of the mound building tribes in most other portions of the mound area. The rude, box-shaped sarcophagi from which * Second Eeport Bureau of Ethnology (Powell), page 371. I INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 115 they are obtained have protected them from pressure, and from the injuries incident to other methods of burial, and the explorer usu- ally finds them in their original form, free from post-mortem distor- tion. There is, therefore, little difficulty in obtaining crania in good condition and in sufiicient numbers for comparison and classifica- tion. The Smithsonian Institution has published the results of Dr. Joseph Jones's faithful explorations and studies in this department.* The Peabody Museum has also published the very intelligent ob- servations of its assistant curator, Mr. Lucien Carr, upon some sixty-seven crania carefully taken from the stone graves and mounds of Middle Tennessee. f Careful measurements are given, and types compared and classified. The results are of great interest, but in the present somewhat confused state of the science of craniology, there is still much work to be done in this general department before satisfactory conclusions as to the ethnic status and connec- tions of the Stone Grave race can be reached by cranial evidence. The characteristic type of nearly all the skulls found in the ancient graves of Middle Tennessee is well defined. It is short and round, or, in scientific parlance, it is brachycephalic in form.f The frontal bones are elevated, but somewhat retreating. So far as we have observed, they show little or no evidence of artificial depression. The parietal bones are round and full. The occiput is almost invariably flattened. This is one of the distinguishing features, and most marked peculiarity, of the great majority of these crania. In many cases the occiput stands almost perpendic- ular. The vertical diameter is nearly the same as the parietal. * Aboriginal Remains (Jones), page 110. t Eleventh Annual Report Peabody Museum, page 361. t The scientific principle upon which the classification is made, is as follows : Taking the length of the skull to be 100, as an index : First. When the breadth is as 73 or less, to 100, they are called dolichocephalic, or long skulls. Second. When they are from 74 to 79 in breadth, as compared with the length (100), they are orthocephalic, or oval. Third. When they are 80 or more in breadth, as compared with the index length (100), they are brachycephalic, or short. 116 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. Comparatively few of the crania are symmetrical in outline, and sometimes the posterior flattening is so irregular or one-sided as to constitute actual deformity. The cheek-bones are large and prominent. The lower jaw is also large and projecting, or prognathic. Some of the skeletons are over six feet in length, and must have belonged to men of unusu- ally large and powerful physical structures, but the majority of them do not materially differ in size or form from the remains of the aborigines of other sections. Figs. 33 and 34. — Typical Crania fro>5 the Stone Graves. The most common forms of crania* are rather rudely illus- trated in profile in Figs. 33 and 34. The outlines of Fig. 34 scarcely do justice to the upper or intellectual features of these crania. Comparatively few of them have a relatively greater longitu- dinal diameter than is represented in these figures. In some of the types, the occiput is even more flattened, indicating how uni- versal must have been the use of the cradle- board among the an- cient inhabitants of the Cuniberland valley, a custom evidently con- tinued through many generations. Three crania in our small col- lection have transverse of parietal diameters greater than the longi- * These crania have been sketched from types in the author's collection. The latter is numerically small, consisting of but fourteen well-preserved crania, but they have been selected from many times that number of imperfect or broken ones, dug up by the author and his employes from the cemeteries and mounds in the im- mediate vicinity of Nashville. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 117 tudinal diameters, showing the enforced swelling or bulging out of the parietal bones, consequent upon this posterior pressure in in- fancy. One of these types is represented by Fig. 35, an engraving copied from photographs of the original. It gives a much more correct impression of the forms of these skulls than the profile il- lustrations. Kegarding these crania, Dr. Jones states : " The vertically flat- tened occiput is by no means characteristic of the entire series of crania of the Stone Grave race ; and I have been led to regard this peculiarity, not as a typical characteristic dependent on the specific Fig. 35. — A Typical Short Skull."-' differences of race, but as pre-eminently, if not entirely, the result of artificial modification during infancy." f The irregular and unsymmetrical forms of these crania, re- sulting from unequal pressure on the head, is shown in Figs. 36 and 37. Fig. 36 represents a Tennessee skull dug up by Dr. Jones, in the ancient cemetery on the bank of the Cumberland river, opposite Nashville; and Fig. 37 is from a mound grave in south-east Missouri. * Ideographic Encyclopoedia, Vol. I, Plate 52. t Aboriginal Remains (Jones), page 115. 118 ANTIQUITIES OP TENNESSEE. The crania of the pottery making tribes of south-east Missouri and Arkansas are very similar in form to those of the Stone Grave race of Tennessee, as might be presumed from the many other indica- tions of their near relationship. This abnormal deformity of the occiput characterizes a large proportion of the crania of both of these sections.* The detailed results of Dr. Jones's measurements and classifica- tion ol the crania collected by him will be found in a note at the end of this chapter; also a table of measurements of the author's collection. The twenty-one crania measured by Dr. Jones were Fig. 36. — Typical Skull, from Tennessee Mound.! Fig. 37. — Typical Skull, from Missouri Mound.! classified by him as short and round, or brachycephalic in form. Under the rule of measurement laid down, the crania in the author's collection also belong to the same type. The few skulls from the stone graves in the vicinity of Nashville, in the collection of the Tennessee Historical Society, are of the same general form. One similar in type, found in a cave near McMinnville, and thickly in- crusted with stalactital or crystallized lime, deposited in the cave, is also to be seen in the same collection. This can not be regarded as a reliable indication of very great age, as the crust of lime may have been formed within a comparatively recent period. * Conant, page 104. t The illustration is reduced from a similar one in Conant's Footprints of Van- ished Races, page 106. I INSCKIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 119 Professor Carr, after a careful examination of the sixty-seven crania collected by Professor Putnam from the stone graves near Nashville, states that, while the " mean" measurement brmgs them, as a whole, within the round or short class, there are some crania in the collection that can not be regarded as brachycephalic. After an elaborate analysis, in his table of measurement he finally classes five as dolichocephalic or long ; eighteen as orthocephalic or oval ; and forty-four as short or brachycephalic* In exploring the extensive cemeteries of the Ohio mound build- ers, at Madisonville, near Cincinnati, Prof. Putnam and Dr. Metz examined about one thousand four hundred crania, and of this num- ber about one thousand two hundred were pronounced short or round. The rest were oval or long, indicating the introduction of these latter types among the Ohio mound tribes in somewhat the same proportion as they were found in the ancient cemeteries of Tennessee. Prof. Carr pays our prehistoric Tennesseeans a rather doubtful compliment, in stating that their crania, judged by the ordinary rules of measurement, would rank higher than those of the ancient Peruvians, the Australian, or the Hottentot.f He also states that the crania from Tennessee, in the Putnam collection, show little or no evidence of artificial frontal flattening or depression. Our observations have led us to the same conclu- sion. The prevalence of the custom among the N^atchez and neigh- boring tribes of flattening the foreheads of their children in infancy by artificial means, as reported by Adair, Du Pratz, and other early writers, would seem to indicate that the Natchez were probably not closely related to or descendants of the mound building tribes of Tennessee. This test, however, can not be regarded as con- clusive. One of the skulls found by Dr. Jones in the burial mound on the bank of the Cumberland river, opposite Nashville, had an internal capacity of one hundred and three cubic inches, nearly * See tables at the end of this chapter. t Eleventh Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, page 384. 120 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. equaling the capacity of the largest recorded Caucasian skull. Prof. Carr also reports one of extraordinary size, far above the European average, in the Putnam collection. The capacity of the smallest adult skull in the list was less than sixty per cent of this one, showing the great variations in brain measurement among crania, probably of the same tribe. It is reported that the crania of the modern Indians show a greater average cubical capacity than those from the mounds, but the size of the brain and the shape of the skull are now regarded as aifording no certain indi- cations of the intellectual capacity of persons or races ; and, unless the quality, as well as the quantity, of brain can be determined, it Fig. 38. — Typical Pekuvian Skull. seems that no satisfactory conclusions can be reached by such evidence. The crania of the northern Indians — the Iroquois, the Hurons, the Chippewas, the Algonkin tribes— are relatively long in form, and are usually classed as dolichocephahc, although a few short or round types are found among them. A large proportion of the skulls from the ancient graves of Peru have a striking similarity in form to those of the Stone Grave race, as may be seen from the illustration presented. Fig. 38. Dr. Ten Kate, who accompanied Frank Gushing, in 1887, in his explorations among the ancient pueblos of Arizona, and carefully examined and preserved the cranial remains, reports that the ci'ania discovered did not differ from those of the modern pueblo Indians, and " were round or brachycephalic and flattened at the occiput." " There was no exception to this rule." * * Frank Gushing, in Science, July 11, 1SS9. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 121 Prof. 0. C. Marsh also stated "that in a series of comparisons of Indian skulls, lie had been struck with the similarity between those of the pueblo Indians of New Mexico and the mound builders. As the shape of the mound builder's skull is very peculiar, the coincidence is a striking one." * The flattened occiput is also a very marked characteristic of the crania discovered among the remains of the clift' dwellers of Sf%' Fig. 39, — Cuff Dweller's Skull, from New Mexico. t ISTew Mexico, who were neighbors and kindred of the pueblo builders, as is shown in Fig. 39. The variations in the forms and capacity of the crania found in the stone graves and in the burial mounds of the Mississippi valley have led to much controversy. Types nearly as different as the average Caucasian and Ethiopian skulls have occasionally been found in the same ancient cemeteries, and sometimes in adjoining graves, within the mound area of Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Ohio. It is cliflicult to classify some of them. The predomi- nant type, however, is the short and round or brachycephalic.;{: * Smithsonian Contributions (Morgan), Vol. IV, page 202. t Engraving copied from Harper's Weekly of September 7, 1889. The skull of the cliff dweller is artificially distorted in infancy ; the papoose boards fira so well preserved as to show plainly the marks of the cords used to tie the head firmly in place, and all of the skulls found present the back of the head perfectly flat, with abnormally high foreheads, where the skull has been crowded forward. The skulls and bones were all found covered with debris, back of the cliff dwellings, between the house wall and the wall of the cave. — A. F. Willmarth, Colorado Letter, Febru- ary 19, 1890. t Under the leadership of Dr. Daniel Wilson, of Toronto, supplemented by the 122 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. This is the typical form of the crania of the ancient inhabitants of the southern portion of the United States, of the ancient Peru- vians, the Old Mexicans, the pueblo tribes, and the cliff dwellers. The mound builders, and the stone grave builders of Tennessee, and the ancient peoples of the South-west were evidently closely re- lated, or were originally of the same general family stock, if their origin or relationship can be determined by the similarity in the forms of their crania. As a general rule, the crania of the ancient tribes of northern Indians belonged to the long or dolichocephalic type.* results of recent investigations, the theories of Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, the eminent craniologist, as to " the ethnic unity " of the aboriginal races of America, so long accepted by scientists, have in part been set aside. Dr. Wilson insists that there is "no uniform cranial type," and, therefore, that no unity among the red races of America can be established by the crania. — Prehistoric Man (Wilson), Vol. II, pages 172, 200. * The most satisfactory theory yet offered in explanation of these variations in cranial types, is that of Prof. Putnam, the intelligent archaeologist and curator of the Peabody Museum, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. In a lecture before the Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland, Ohio, he stated in substance that: "There were four great antique races on this continent, or the people, if of one race, show a greater diversity than any other on earth. For instance, we found in one cemetery in Ohio one thousand five hundred skeletons, and these were of various sizes and dif- fered in their characteristics. The four great races can be resolved into two— the long-headed people and the people with short and broad heads. There is evidence that the long-headed people came from Northern Asia, and crossing Behring Strait, continued their «'ay downward as far as California. Then they crossed the great lakes, went down the St. Lawrence, made their way along the Atlantic coast as far south as North Carolina, and spread themselves into Ohio and Pennsylvania. There is evidence that they resembled the people of Northern Asia in face and form. The short-headed people had characteristics of the people of Southern Asia, and resembled the Malay race. The first traces of them we find in Peru and Cen- tral America. From there, they worked toward the north into Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, and, following the rivers which empty into the Gulf of Mexico, notably the Mississippi, they mingled at last with the long-headed people in Tennes- see and Ohio, and were finally absorbed by them. The Indian is a descendant of those two races." INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 123 DR. JOSEPH JONES'S TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS OF CRANIA. From the Stone Graves of Tennessee, Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee, page 110. Number of the Cranium. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 IS 19 20 21 Maximum. Minimum. Mean 76.5 80 75 76 81 80 78 81 80 77 82 82 75 82 82 75 78.8 B £. o 78 78 82 84 68 103 80 79 76 90 SO 81 92 79 5' 3 103 08 81.44 6.3 6 6.1 6.2 6.5 6.4 7 6.6 7 6.3 6.9 6.8 6.9 6.1 6.1 7.2 6.1 6.5 6.7 6.5 6.4 6 6.5 B n ^ 5.4 5.6 5.7 5.7 5.8 4.9 5.9 5.6 5.2 6 5.6 5.2 5.5 6.4 5.8 5.7 5.5 5.8 5.5 5.7 5.9 6.4 4.9 5.68 4.3 4.4 4.3 4.1 4.4 3.9 4.8 4.3 3.9 4.4 4.3 4.1 4.3 4.4 4.6 4.6 4.1 4.5 4.2 4 4.6 4.8 3.9 4.21 ^ 2 "^ 2". o 5.5 5.4 5.6 5.5 5.8 5.5 6.4 5.5 5.8 5.4 6 5.8 5.7 6 5.5 5.9 4.5 4.6 5.5 5.6 5.7 FB g-2. 6.4 4.5 5.56 15 14.6 15 15.2 15.5 13.9 16.8 15 14.7 15.7 15.7 15 15 16.5 15 16 14 15 15 14.4 15 16.8 13.9 15 „3 5 5.1 5.2 5.4 5.2 4.5 5.3 4.6 4.6 4.6 4.8 4.7 4.8 5.4 4.8 4.6 4.4 5 4.9 5.4 4.4 4.57 ^2. -I -I 13.5 13.2 13 14 14.3 13.8 15.7 13.8 15.2 13.8 14.8 14.4 14 13.8 13.4 15.2 13.6 13.5 13.3 14 -t o ►5-2. c 2 ^ E cr ' 15.7 13 13.88 19 18.9 19 19 19.9 18.2 20.8 19.3 19.5 19.4 20.3 19.5 19.6 19.8 18.9 20.8 19 19.4 19.1 19.2 19 20.8 18.2 19.8 124 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS. Author's Collection. M ^ ^ <1 P 2 -^:? ^^^r si Number of Cranium. CO p 5« S' i^o, B B B QO Hj.. 5.6 1 6.3 4.2 6.1 o 5 9 6 4 8 5 7 3 6.1 5.8 4.1 5.6 4 6 5.7 5.5 6.1 6 6.3 7 6.3 5.8 6.1 6.1 7 5 5.2 5.2 6.4 5.7 5.7 5.8 5.6 6 5.6 5.1 6.4 4.1 3.8 3.6 4.4 4.7 4.2 4.1 4.3 4.2 4.6 4.1 4.7 5.4 5.3 5.3 6.2 5.9 5.8 6.2 5.7 5.8 6 5.5 6.2 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Maximum . . . Minimum . . . 5.5 5 3.6 5.3 Mean 6.1 5.62 4.2 5.7 There are three unusually small crania in the collection ; No. 6, was that of a young per- son, not fully grown, judging from the denti- tion. An ordinary pair of calipers and a fine decimal rule were used in making the measure- ments. They are made with accuracy ; but the writer makes no claim whatever to scientific at- tainments as a craniologist. These crania were selected and placed in our collection mainly because of their good state of preservation, and without reference to their forms. INSCRIBED STONES, IMAGES, IDOLS, CRANIA. 125 LUCIAN CARR'S TABLE. Mean Measurements of sixty-seven Crania, from the Stone Graves of Tennessee. (Capacity in cubic centimetres ; length, breadth, etc., in millimetres.) Si td ffl 1— 1 P 13 ^ ns p (T> a- &. 1— «• o p CfQ pa OQ o O o ^ri &. Cr >i X ^ o p' t=- cl- o o ""^ Index irt- C3- ctq' >— hi 3 of breadth. p" 1 Dolichocephali 5 1325 184 13"? 149 716 775 94 730 and under 2 Orthocephali 18 1346 172 134 141 .775 .819 89 .740® .800. 3 Brachycephali 29 1284 165 141 142 .856 .865 90 .800® .900. 4 Much flattened 15 1461 156 152 145 .973 907 93 126 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. The Art Instinct in Ancient America — The Pottery of the Historic Tribes — Superior- ity of Southern Ware — Methods of Manufacture — Bottle and Jar Shaped Ves- sels — The Coloring — Decorated Vessels — Bowl and Kettle Forms — The Fine Head Handles — Animal Forms — The Best Types — The Indian Dog — The Large Vessels — The Trowels, Rattles, Implements, Totems, and Ornaments in Pottery — Earrings, Wheels, Medicine Bottle — Fiji Pottery. The rude forms of art in clay were probably among tbe earliest inventions of the human race. Birch, m his work on "Ancient Pottery," states that " clay is a material so generally diffused, and its plastic nature so easily discovered, that the art of working it does not exceed the intelligence of the rudest savage."* The Hot- tentots and Fuegians, races grading very low in the scale of civili- zation, made and used pottery. f The cannibals of the Fiji Islands, one of the most savage tribes of the Pacific, made fine vessels of pottery, of varied and graceful forms, some of them resembling the best grades of Peruvian ware. Schoolcraft tells us the arts of plant- ing corn and making pottery came together. Writing of this natu- ral artistic faculty among certain savage tribes, Sir John Lubbock states " that their appreciation of art is to be regarded rather as an ethnological characteristic than as an indication of any particu- lar stage of civilization." X This artistic faculty seems to have been a characteristic of the aboriginal races of America. The Toltecs, the Aztecs, the Mayas, the Peruvians, and Quichuas illustrated it in its highest state. The pueblo builders of the "West, the mound builders and pottery makers "•■■ Introductory, page 1. t Prehistoric Times (Lubbock), pages 551, 555. i Prehistoric Times, page 549. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 127 of the Mississippi valley, the north-west coast Indians, and the more nomadic tribes of Red Indians, possessed the same natural gift in varying degrees. Even the Esquimaux, in their hyperborean homes, execute carvings with force and fidelity, surpassing any similar work found among the remains of the mound building tribes. This natural art instinct doubtless belonged to the parent stock or stocks of native Americans, an inheritance, at a remote period, perhaps, from Northern or Southern Asia, or both. It has been a character- istic of the eastern races of Asia from time immemorial. It fol- lowed them out into the far islands of the Pacific ocean.* These precedents and reflections are suggested in advance, to enable us to form a more correct estimate of the condition of society that existed in ancient Tennessee, as represented by the remains of the potter's art. In no other branches of industry, or artistic w^ork, had its prehistoric people made such advances. Through these remains, therefore, we may hope to unlock some of the secrets of ancient domestic life, and perhaps discover traces of the ethnic history of the mound builders of Tennessee. The stone graves of our old cemeteries, those enduring receptacles of archaeological treasures, have fortunately preserved, for our in- spection, the remains of the native ceraniic arts. IS'early all tribes of modern Indians also manufactured pottery when first visited by the Europeans, and it is not always easy to distinguish the historic from the prehistoric ware. The northern tribes made clay pipes and utensils of the ruder class, sometimes or- namented with medallions and decorative markings. Nature kindly contributed to the ease of living at the south, and seemed to have favored a higher development in the humbler arts and industries. According to the accounts of the early writers, the pottery of some of the southern tribes was finely finished, and of varied and svm- metrical forms. The Gentleman of Elvas, one of the journalists of De Soto's campaign, declares that the vessels of pottery used by the ■-■•■ Sir Daniel Wilson has suggested that the forms of ancient Peruvian pottery- may yet be traced back into Mongolian and Eastern art. — Prehistoric Man, Vol. II, page 43. 128 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. natives of Arkansas, and elsewhere, in 1541, eqnaled standard Span- ish ware, " little ditiering from that of Estremoz or Moutemor;"* and that '' they had great store of walnut oil, clear as butter, and of good taste, and of the honey of bees preserved in pots." Mar- quette, the discoverer of the Mississippi, in his account of his visit to the Indians in Arkansas and Mississippi, in 1673, writes that "they used, in cooking, large earthen pots, very curiously made; also, large, baked earthern plates, which they used for different pur- poses." t Adair and Lieutenant Timberlake both mention the use and manufacture of pottery by the Cherokees. The former states that when he visited them — as late as 1774 — they made " earthern pots containing from two to ten gallons, large pitchers to carry water, bowls, dishes, platters, basins, and a prodigious number of other vessels of such antiquated forms, as would be tedious to describe and impossible to name;" a statement that certainly accurately de- scribes the motley assortment of pottery wq find in our Tennessee mounds and graves. The Natchez Indians were so skillful in mak- ing their "red-stained pottery," that Du Pratz, the historian of Louisiana, states that he had them make for him a set of plates for his table use.| Captain John Smith says, " the Indians of Virginia used pot- tery of clay made by women," and Bartram also mentions the fact that the Indians of Georgia made and used utensils of earthenware in 1773, the date of his visit among them.H * Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part II, page 201 ; Narratives of De Soto (Buckingham Smith), page 165. t Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part II, page 295. t The women make pots of an extraordinary size, jars with medium size open- ings, bowls, two pint bottles with long necks, pots or jugs for containing bear's oil, which hold as much as forty pints, and, finally, plates and dishes in the French fashion.— Histoire de la Louisane (Du Pratz), A^ol. II, page 279. II Bartram's Travels (London, 1792), page 511. In Harlot's Virginia, we are in- formed that " their women know how to make earthern vessels with special cun- ninge, and that so large and fine, that our potters, with thoye wheles, can make noe better ; and then remove them from place to place, as easelye as we can do our THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 129 The Mandan Indians of the Upper Missouri, we are told by Catlin, manufactured excellent pottery. " Earthen dishes or bowls," he states, " are a familiar part of the culinary furniture of every Mandan lodge, and are manufactured by the women of this tribe in great quantities, and modelled into a thousand forms and tastes. They are made by the hands of the women from a tough, black clay, and baked in kilns which are made for the purpose, and are nearly equal in hardness to our manufacture of pottery, though they have not yet got the art of glazing, which would be to them a most valuable secret. They make them so strong and serviceable, however, that they hang them over the fire as we do our iron pots, and boil their meat in them with perfect success. I have seen some few specimens of such manufacture which have been dug up in Indian mounds, and tombs in the southern and mid- dle states, placed in our eastern museums, and looked upon as a great wonder, when here this novelty is at once done away with, and the whole mystery ; where women can be seen handling and using them by hundreds, and they be seen every day in the summer also, molding them into many fanciful forms and passing them through the kiln where they are hardened." * These historic accounts of the manufacture and general use of pottery ware, even in its ornamental and fanciful forms, among the later tribes, arrest the attention, and show us how narrow are the lines of distinction that separate the arts of the mound building tribes from the arts of some of the modern Indian s.f The custom of placing food vessels, utensils, and implements in the graves with their dead having been almost universal with the ■brassen kettles." — Quoted by C. C. Jones in Antiquities of the Southern Indians, page 448. * Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, etc., of the North American Indians, Vol. II, page 116. t Prof. Cyrus Thomas states that, at a recent date, Indians residing on the gulf near Mobile, remnants of the modern Alabama tribes, made pottery of good quality and glazed it. Specimens of this ware may be found in the National Museum, at Washington. 9 130 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. ancient and modern tribes, the foregoing citations admonish us that we can not be certain that all the pottery found in the graves and mounds is prehistoric, or necessarily of very ancient date, notwith- standing the popular impression to the contrary. The superiority in art and industry of the more advanced tribes of southern Indians at the dawn of history would seem to strengthen the traditions of the northern tribes, that the mound builders of the Ohio valley had been forced to the southward. A culture above that of the nomadic tribes of the l^orth, and not of very ancient date, has, without doubt, left its impress upon these southern tribes. The decline of the potter's art among the historic tribes dates from the introduction of European ware. It could not compete with the better utensils of the early traders, and pottery making soon became one of the lost arts. It is now unknown among the native tribes, excepting the pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, who still continue the manufacture of earthenware, in its quality, coloring, methods of fabrication, and, indeed, in many of its forms, not unlike some of the ware now found in the stone graves of Tennessee, and in the pottery districts of Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Illinois, and other sections of the mound area.''^ A number of early writers have also favored us with minute ac- counts of the methods adopted by the southern Indians in manufac- turing earthenware. Dumont, in his Historical Memoirs of Louisi- ana, published in 1753, states "that, having amassed the proper kind of clay, and carefully cleaned it, the Indian women (of Louisiana) take shells, which they pound and reduce to a fine powder ; they mix this powder with the clay, and, having poured some water on the mass, * Mr. James Stevenson, of the Bureau of Ethnology, who, in 1879, in company with Frank H. Gushing, made a valuable collection of the pottery of the Zunis and other pueblo tribes for the National Museum, reports : " The resemblance of this Indian ware, in the form of the vessels, to that found in the ancient mounds of this country, is so marked, that it is scarcely necessary to remind the reader of the fact." —Reports Bureau of Ethnology, Vol, II, page 333. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 131 they knead it with their hands and feet, and make it into a paste, of which they form rolls, six or seven feet long, and of a thick- ness suitable for their purpose. If they intend to fashion a plate or a vase, they take hold of one of the rolls by the end, and fix- ing here with the thumb of the left hand the center of the vessel they are about to make, they turn the roll with astonishing quick- ness around this center, describing a spiral line ; now and then they dip their lingers into water, and smooth with the right hand the inner and outer surface of the vase they intend to fashion, which would become ruffled or undulated without that manipula- tion. In this manner they make all sorts of earthern vessels, plates, dishes, bowls, pots, and jars, some of which hold forty to fifty pints. The burning of this pottery does not cause them much trouble. Having dried it in the shade, they kindle a large fire, and when they have a sufiicient quantity of embers, they clean a space in the middle, where they deposit their vessels, and cover them with charcoal. Thus they bake their earthenware, which can now be exposed to the fire, and possesses as much durability as ours. Its solidity is doubtless to be attributed to the pulverized shells, which the women mix with the clay.* It will be observed that in mixing pounded shells with the clay, and in other details of the potter's art, the processes used within the historic period, could not have substantially differed from the earlier methods of manufacture. f * Dumont's Memoirs, Vol. II, page 271. t The methods of pottery making among the Zunis and other pueblo tribes, as described by Stevenson and others, are somewhat similar to those adopted by the southern Indians. The pueblo women, as usual, are the potters. Not having a sup- ply of wood for charcoal, Stevenson says, the Zunis cover their ware ready for burn- ing, with an oven made of dried manure. In the absence of shells, the pueblo In- dians mix their clay with fragments of old pottery ground up, and with crushed lava and other materials. Similar colors are also used in ornamentation. Like the Stone Grave race oi Tennessee, they also use smoothers or little trowels of clay. — Annual Reports Bureau of Ethnology, Vol. II, pages 329, 330. Hunter also describes the methods of makinL: pottery adopted by the modern Western tribes, as follows : " In manufacturing their pottery for cooking and domestic purposes, they collect 132 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. Having very briefly reviewed the accounts of the potter's art among the modern Indians, we will defer further comparisons and suggestions as to the relative merits of the old and the modern ware, and proceed to examine the remains of this art found in the stone graves and burial mounds of Tennessee. Recent explorations in the ancient cemeteries near ZSTashville have fortunately yielded collections that will enable us to present, with convenience, speci- mens of most of the varieties of pottery heretofore discovered in the state. In order to present some of the types with accuracy of form and appearance, the author has had a number of plates of the pot- tery in his collection engraved by the new photo-mechanical pro- cesses of engraving, which illustrate the objects with photographic accuracy. The accompanying plate (No. V) presents various forms of vases, bottle-shaped vessels, and jars (a little less than one-fourth natural diameters or sizes). Some of the forms are common, others are rare. All of the vessels with fanciful, animal, or human heads have holes at the backs of the heads, doubtless for practical use. The top-knots, rather faintly shown on two of the heads, were evi- dently molded in imitation of the head-dresses of that time. The owl, the bear, the fox, and the human face are familiar types. There is no evidence of the use of the wheel or lathe by the ancient pottery makers of Tennessee or the Mississippi valley. The ware is hand made, and has been built up with the aid of rude molds, and in baskets, and in cloth and matting bags. Clay trowels tough clay, beat it into powder, temper it with water, and then spread it over blocks of wood which have been formed into shapes to suit their convenience or fancy ; when sufficiently dried, they are removed from the molds, placed in proper situa- tions, and burned to a hardness suitable to their intended uses. Another process practiced by them is to coat the inner surface of baskets made of rushes or willows with clay to any required thickness, and, when dry, to burn them as above de- scribed. In this way, they construct large, handsome, and durable ware ; though latterly, with such tribes as have intercourse with the whites, it is not much used because of the substitution of cast-iron ware in its stead." — Hunter's Manners and Customs of Indian Tribes, Philadelphia, 1823, page 296. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 133 were used in smoothing and rounding the open vessels. The ex- actness and graceful outlines of many of the forms were probably due mainly to acquired dexterity and correctness of measurement by the eye, doubtless aided by various simple mechanical appliances, such as convenience would suggest. The wheel was unknown to the ppttery art of the pueblo Indians, and there is no evidence of its use in ancient Mexico or Peru. The vitreous glaze was also un- known to the potters of the Mississippi valley. Various devices were used in substitution. The ware was rubbed, oiled, and pol- ished, and doubtless the finer grades of clay paste were applied to the surface to give it a fine and glossy finish. Some of the vessels have almost the ring of glazed ware. The absence of a vitreous glaze is a characteristic of all or nearly all the pottery of ancient America, even in the localities of its highest development. A few glazed fragments have been reported to have been discovered among the ancient ware of Central America and Mexico. The pueblo Indians had no knowledge of it. Some of our Tennessee and Mississippi vessels have as hard and fine a gloss and finish, as we have noticed upon any of the ware of the pueblos. Nearly all of the pottery from the stone graves of Tennessee has passed through some process of burning or hardening by fire, as may be presumed from the good condition in which much of it is found. Some of it is as compact and well-burned as vitrified ware. It is not probable that it would have retained its form and hardness in the moist climate of Tennessee and in graves, often in the sandy loam of the river terraces, if originally only sun dried ; but we have succeeded in taking from the graves some perfect ves- sels that have evidently never been subjected to the action of fire.* About half of this earthenware is of a grey or stone color, the familiar color of much of the Missouri and Arkansas ware. The "•■• In cleaning some pottery from burial grounds on the river bank near Nash- ville, the writer's wife, who was assisting liim, dipi^ed a fine, and apparently hard frog-shaped bowl, into warm water to wash it. In a moment it was almost dis- solved into its original clay, and she only saved it from total destruction by jerking it out and partly remodeling it while in its pliable condition. 134 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. finest vessels found in the large ISToel cemetery, near l^ashville, and in some of the neighboring burial grounds, were generally reddish brown, a specialty of this section representing the best develop- ment in the pottery art. Others are of a very light clay color, the vessels usually retaining the coloring of the clay of which they are made. Occasionally a vase or head is found, of fine and nearly black ware. A large proportion of the finer vessels and images of light clay were originally painted or decorated with colors, some of them well burned or painted into the clay ; but, in the intervening centuries of burial, the paint has faded and become indistinct. Vases hand- somely decorated, when lifted from their beds in the graves, soon lose most of their colors by exposure to the air, unless protected by a coating of shellac, or some other impermeable substance. Ochre, in its several shades, and other pigments and dyes, some of them purple or bluish tints, were used in coloring. Vessels con- taining finely-powdered mineral paints have occasionally been found in the caves and graves.* The coarse, red mineral paint decorations, frequently found on the light clay-colored ware from Arkansas, are rare in Tennessee ; indeed, fewer vessels ornamented with colors have been discovered in the Cumberland valley than in the pottery districts west of the Mississippi. The Tennessee ware, as a class, is darker, but the deco- rations on the light-colored vases appear to have been usually skill- fully and deeply burned or painted into the clay, and polished or burnished in finishing, instead of being laid or painted on the out- side, and left unpolished, as seems to have been the custom in Ar- kansas. A few vessels of lustrous black ware have been found in Tennessee. They are, however, more common in Mississippi and in the lower Mississippi valley. They are symmetrical in form, well * Colonel AV. A. Henderson, of Knoxville, has an ancient vessel of earthenware found in a cave near McMinnville. When discovered, it was partly filled with pow- dered red ochre. We are indebted to him for a good sample of it. Du Pratz men- tions the fact that the Natchez Indians colored their pottery a beautiful red by using ochre, which becomes red after burning.— History of Louisiana, page 179. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 135 burned, and in quality are above the grade of the average ware of the old pottery makers. Adair tells us the method adopted by the southern Indians, in "glazing" their vessels of pottery with this fine black polish, was by placing " them over a large fire of smoking pitch pine, which makes them smooth, black, and firm." * The faint outlines of the decorations on some of the vessels in Plate V may still be noticed. They were very indistinct in the photograph engraved, although still plainly marked upon the orig- inal objects. Better examples of decorated vessels may be seen in Fig. 40. The bottle, or water jar, ornamented with the figure of an open hand (N^oel cemetery), was discovered since Plate Y was engraved. Unfortunately, its long burial has partly obliterated the design and coloring, but enough remains to show their general outlines. The design was evidently ideographic, and probably possessed some pe- culiar significance. A vessel of the same size and form, and simi- larly ornamented, but with an up-raised hand, was found in Frank- lin county, Northern Alabama, near the Mississippi line, and is well illustrated in the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, * History of the American Indians, page 4. London, 1775. James Stevenson informs us tliat ttie Santa Clara, and otlier Indians of the eastern pueblos of New Mexico, color their black ware in substantially the same manner. In describing their methods of burning in rude kilns, he states: "Those (vessels) which the artists intend to color black are allowed to remain, and another application of fuel, finely pulverized, is n^ade, completely covering and smothering the fire. This pro- duces a dense, dark smoke, a portion of which is absorbed by the baking vessels, and gives them the desired black color. It is in this manner that the black ware of these eastern pueblos is produced." — Reports Bureau of Ethnology, Vol. II, page 331. Mr. Stevenson also informs us, in the same report, that "the only colors used" by the pueblo Indians " in decorating pottery, are black, red, and some shades of brown," the colors chiefly used by the old pottery makers of the Mississippi valley. His descriptions of the methods of fabricating pueblo pottery show many other points of identity. The ancient pottery arts of the tribes living upon or near the upper tributaries of the Arkansas river, in New Mexico, were doubtless known to the tribes living upon the same river in the State of Arkansas during the prehistoric period. 136 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. page 433. The two vessels are so nearly alike that they appear to have been decorated in the same aboriginal paint shop. The other two vessels in the figure, painted with circles, are fa- miliar types of ornamentation in the Nashville district. The black Fig. 40. — Decorated Vessels Found near Nashville (One-fourth)."* and purplish colors have been so well and smoothly burned or worked into the clay that a good washing does not injure them. A good example of ancient pottery decoration is illustrated in the little bowl, Fig. 41. Fig. 41. — Ornamented Bowl, Noel Cemetery (One-third).* Another form of ornamentation is shown in Fig. 42, a vessel discovered by Dr. Jones, within the ancient inclosure on the Big Harpeth river, near Franklin, Tennessee. "■■■ Author's collection. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 137 The vase is of a light yellow clay color, and on its sides are painted three crosses of dark brown — almost black color — sur- rounded by ornamental circles.* Fig. 42. — Decorated Vase Found near Franklin (One-fifth). Fig. 43. — Vase from Big Harpetii AVorks (One-third). In one of the stone graves of the Big Harpeth works, Dr. Jones discovered the vessel fashioned somewhat in the shape of a child's foot and leg — represented in Fig. 43. It was found beside * Aborif^inal Remains (Jones), page 57. Mr. J. B. Nicklin, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, has in his fine collection of antiquities an ancient bowl and water bottle, 138 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. the skull, and was painted, but the faint lines of coloring soon dis- appeared.* A pipe of somewhat similar form is iigured in the next chapter. The effigy vessel, or image, Fig. 44, was found by Dr. Jones in a child's grave of the large burial mound on the bank of the Cum- berland river, opposite the city of JSTashville. It is of hard black ware, with a polished surface, and is hollow, with the usual aperture at the back of the head, indicating that it may have been utilized as a vase or bottle. It is certainly unique in its anatomy. f Fig. 44. — Image Found Opposite Nashville (One-sixth). In exploring the ancient earth-works, near Lebanon, Tennes- see, which he designates " the remains of a fortified Indian village," Prof. F. W. Putnam, of the Peabody Museum, discovered, buried under the earthen floors of the Indian huts, or houses, a number of antiques of clay, stone, and shell, showing the high attainments of found in the Coxe mound (near Stevenson, Alabama, a short distance south of the Tennessee line), in form and of materials similar to our Tennessee ware; but the painted decorations upon it, in strong red or maroon coloring, are artistically exe- cuted, and are better preserved than any ornamental work in colors we have ob- served upon the ancient ware of Tennessee. * Aboriginal Remains, page 60. t Aboriginal Remains, page 44. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 139 these ancient village Indians in some of the arts. In a child's grave in one of these houses, near the large mound, Prof. Putnam obtained the "water jar" represented in Fig. 45. It is mounted on three legs, the cavities of which connect with the body of the jar, while the cross-bars between them are solid.* Ajar very similar in form is illustrated in Plate VIII. Some- what similar types are also found in Missouri and Arkansas. Fig. 45. — Jak from House within the Lebanon Works.J Prof. Putnam also found within the inclosure, near Lebanon, Tennessee, the tine jar (Fig. 46) representing a badger or some other clumsy animal. It is of a yellow clay color, and when found was * Eleventh Annual Report Peabody Museum (Putnam), page 35(5. t Contributions to Archteology of Missouri, Plate IV; Reports Bureau of Eth- nology, Vol. IV, ])age 420. + Peabody ^luseum, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 140 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. painted with a number of concentric figures, but they soon faded and became indistinct.* Jars of this form are rare in Tennessee. They have occasion- ally been found in the pottery districts west of the Mississippi. A fine specimen is illustrated in Plate IX. Examples of ancient Tennessee pottery of the bowl and kettle form (one-fifth actual diameters) are shown in Plate VI. (Author's collection.) Nearly all of them were obtained from the stone Fig. 46. — Vessel from Lebanon Works (One-third). t graves of the Noel cemetery. A larger number of these vessels of various shapes might have been presented in the photo-engraving, but only a limited selection of standard patterns were placed in the group, to avoid confusion of outlines. The kettle-shaped vessels found in Tennessee vary in size from little toys an inch wide to large pots a yard in diameter. The set of bowls on the right is made of excellent well-burned ware. Most of them are sym- * Eleventh Annual Report Peabody Museum, page 359. t Peabody Museum. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 141 metrical to exactness. They are polished within and without, and some of them are as hard as modern stoneware. The largest bowls in this form are about twelve inches in diam- eter, AVell-made vessels in imitation of sea shells are frequently- found. Since this engraving was made, we obtained from the ISToel cemetery a double shell with delicate flaring edges, much more artistically made than the double shell represented in the picture. Tiny shell forms of pottery are also found. They may have been toys, or possibly the individual salt-cellars of some aristocratic native. Attention is called to the painted figures on the little light- FiG. 47. — Ornamented Vessel (One-half).* colored bowl, and also to the half-circle lines and ornamentations on the kettles in the picture (Plate VI), These indented lines are very common styles of decoration. Some of the work of this class has been executed with considerable taste and skill, as is shown in Fig. 47 from the l^oel cemeter3^ The figure with the pointed cap (Plate VI) is unique, and is one of the most interesting objects yet discovered within the pottery districts of the Mississippi valley. It is of rich, well-finished ware. The bowl is as symmetrical as if made on a potter's wheel. The cap has a graceful tassel at the top, which falls behind. The arms encircle the bowl. The feet and legs project in front. The face * Author's collection. 142 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. of the original is a better specimen of physiognomy than the picture represents. The head on the bowl or drinking cup to the left is one of the best pieces of modeling in terra-cotta from the cemeteries about Nashville. The features are so obscure in the photo-engraving that we have had a separate engraving made of it (Fig. 48). The cap or helmet is a good example of this style of head gear. It is so fre- quently observed on the pottery heads from the graves that it must Fig. 48. — The Head or Handle of Terra Cotta Bowl (Three-fifths).* have been one of the familiar costumes of the Stone Grave race. The graceful form of this fine dark bowl may be seen in the little outline sketch. These ornamental handles to vessels, modeled in imitation of the human head, are a specialty of the ancient pottery of Middle Ten- nessee. They are found in Southern Kentucky, Illinois, and else- where within the Middle Mississippi district, but we think not in such numbers, and probably not of equal artistic merit. Earthen- ware bowls, with head handles of the same general form, are also * Author's collection. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 143 found among the ruins of Central America.* Other pottery han- dles of this form are illustrated in Fig. 49. The head with the hat and tassel is similar to that of the " man bowl," in Plate VI. The larger head on the right is hollow, and is filled with clay pellets. When shaken, they sound like a child's rattle. It forms the handle to a large bowl about eight Fig. 49. — Terra Cotta Heads — Handles of Drinking Cups (Three-fifths). t inches in diameter. Pottery heads and head handles, filled with pellets, are occasionally found. It was doubtless a fancy of the old pottery makers to manufacture them in this way. Unfortunately, many a fine head has been broken or bored into, from mere idle curiosity, to find what treasures it contained. Vessels with hollow * Ancient Cities of the New World (Charney), page 443. t Author's collection. 144 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. handles, fashioned in imitation of bird heads and other grotesque forms, and filled with clay pellets, are also found in the Missouri pottery district, but they are usually not so artistically executed as our Tennessee specimens.* The same idea is illustrated in the ancient earthenware of Mexico and Chiriqui, where rattling clay pellets are found in the grotesque figures or legs of the tripods and vessels of pottery.f Some of the drinking cups of this reddish brown ware are or- namented with lines skillfully drawn or cut around the border, as represented in Fig. 50. The same beautiful scroll pattern will be Fig. 50. — A Dkinking Cup (One-third). t found on some of the engraved shell gorgets from the graves of the E^ashville district. An almost exact duplicate of this vessel from Perry county, Missouri, with the same tracing upon the border (in the collection of the Chicago Academy of Sciences), was unfortunately destroyed in the great fire at Chicago of 1871. || The handles of the bowls and cups are often modeled in imi- tation of animal and grotesque forms, somewhat after the fashion * Five of them are illustrated in Plate 15 of Contributions to the Archaeology of Missouri. See also page 27. t Native Races (Bancroft), Vol. IV, pages 19, 388; Ancient Art of Chiriqui (W. H. Holmes), page 98. X Author's collection. II See illustration in Prehistoric Races (Foster), page 246. Similar ornamental lines are found on Arkansas ware. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 145 of ancient Peruvian ware. The heads of ducks, owls, bats, dogs, foxes, bears, and even the entire bodies of animals, are sometimes represented in these handles, though, like many of the little heads of terra-cotta found in Mexico, they are usually broken from the Fig. 51. — Terra Cotta Bowi. Handles (One-halfj.* vessels and images, and are found as fragments. Examples of these head-handles and forms are shown in Fig. 51. Some of them are very spirited, and, like the human heads in clay, are executed with considerable fidelity to nature. Fig. 52. — A Chicken-head Buwl Handle (Two-thirds).® It is quite certain that the mound builders of Tennessee must have been a sedentary and agricultural people, as the pottery bowl- head illustrated in Fig. 52 shows that they had chickens. The pottery makers have imitated some old rooster's comb in a very creditable way. * Author's collection. 10 146 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. Head-handle bowls and grotesque ornamentations are also found among the ancient ware from the burial mounds of Arkansas. Fine examples may be seen in Fig. 53. These two vessels were recently discovered in a mound, near ITodena, Arkansas, upon the plantation of our friend, James B. Craighead, Esq., who kindly sent them to us for examination. ^Nfodena is on the Mississippi river, in the center of the ancient pot- tery district of North-eastern Arkansas. The types illustrated are rare; a little turtle is basking upon one end of the head-bowl. The pointed cap was also fashionable in Tennessee. Four lizards orna- ment the other bowl. This pottery has not been so well burned /<*>_ vrrr-, Fig. 53. — Arkansas Pottery (One-third).* and finished as our best stone grave ware, but it is of the same gen- eral character. It seems also that there were, probably, dogs in ancient Ten- nessee, a fact tolerably well authenticated by one of these pottery cup handles (Fig. 54), representing a dog, or perhaps a bear or panther, holding a bone or stick in his mouth and paws. The cup is nearly perfect, and is of fine, well-burned ware, from the Noel cemetery. If intended to represent a dog, the prehistoric canine could not have been an ordinary cur of low pedigree, such as be- longed to the Indian from immemorial times, but a respectable full grown mastiff' or bull dog. * J. B. Craishead collection. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 147 Since the last paragraph was written, we have obtained from the Noel cemetery the perfect and graceful little bowl, illustrated in Fig. 55, representing the same idea. A frog or some grotesque ani- mal grasping a stick forms the handle. The toad or frog was the Fig. 54. — Handle to Drinicing Cup (Three-fifths).* totem of one of the families of the Creeks, Such conceits in art, so well executed, will be a surprise even to archaeologists, especially to those who fail to bear in mind the intuitive artistic faculty that Fig. 55. — Artistic Bowl Handle (One-half).* belonsrs to some of the native tribes, and their natural capacity for progress toward civilization, under favorable conditions. Mr. W. H. Holmes, curator of pottery of the National Museum, in considering " the forms and ornaments in ceramic arts " in * Author's collection. 148 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. ancient America, states that the same idea is well expressed in the handles of wooden bowls from Alaska. A beaver grasping a bone or stick in his mouth and paws forms the handle of the bovW. He reports that a similar pottery bowl-handle has been found in the mound district of Arkansas.* If these unusual and peculiar forms and expressions of art can not be regarded as evidences of ancient intercourse or contact between these distant sections, they are, at least, remarkable coincidences. The animal represented in pottery, Fig. 56, was probably de- FiG. 56. — Animal Head (Two-thirds).! signed to imitate a wolf or panther, as an efib/*t was evidently made, and with some success, to show its large teeth and give it a fierce expression. It is well burned, and is still stained with its original red paint. The head probably belonged to a full clay figure of the animal, as it shows no evidence of having been the handle to a vessel, and it is larger than the heads used for that purpose. Plate VII presents a photo-engraving of a group of pottery from the graves, of fish and animal forms, one-fourth diameters (author's collection). These were familar models of the old pottery makers, especially the sun-fish and the frog. The latter were favor- * Keports Bureau of Ethnology, Vol. VI, page 451. t Johnson collection. 1^ THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 149 ite family names or emblems of the southern tribes. Similar forms are also found in Arkansas and Missouri. The uniform thinness and regularity of the walls, the careful burning, the ex- actness of outlines, and the glossy finish of some of these vessels, show considerable artistic skill. As the little turtle-bowl on the left is an unusual type, separate engravings of it are presented Fig. 57. — Turtle Bowl from Cemetery near Nashville (One-half).* (Fig. 57), showing its outside and inside forms. The engravings, unfortunately, are stiff, and lack the graceful lines of the original. It will be observed that many of the bowls (Plate VII) are pierced with holes for suspension. Some of them were probably vessels for cooking, and others were doubtless used as hanging ves- sels in the ancient homes, and may have contained condiments, tattoo paints, bear's oil, or articles of daily use or for the toilet. * Author's collection. 150 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. De Soto's Spanish chroniclers report that they found the resi- dence of one of the native chiefs hnng with festoons of feathers, beads, and shells. His soldiers were often struck with the gay ap- pearance of the inside decorations of the Indian houses. In har- vest time, the rafters were doubtless lined, after the Indian fashion, with a golden tapestry of maize. From the number of hanging vessels of terra cotta found, it would seem as if the ancient habita- tions may also have been festooned with them, as well as with shells. Bancroft tells us there were many hanging ornaments and vessels in the rooms of the Moqul pueblos.* A number of fine types of pottery are illustrated in Plate YIII (one-fourth natural diameters). All are from the cemeteries of Middle Tennessee, excepting the dark polished jar, ornamented with the scroll pattern, which is from Mississippi, as its appear- ance indicates.f The three legged jug was recently obtained from a stone grave in a mound on the George P. Allen farm, about six miles south- west of Clarksville, Tennessee. The handsome " idol pipe," of ser- pentine, illustrated in the next chapter, Avas found in an adjoining grave. The jug is ornamented with well-painted circles, but they have faded, and were very indistinct in the photograph. The light colored "water jug," with the elaborate head-dress, is from a grave in the Byser farm cemetery, on White's creek, near j^ash- ville. Many fine objects have been obtained from this ancient set- tlement. The other vessels in Plate VIII are from the ]^oel cemetery. They are all fine pieces of ware, especially the bowl-shaped ves- sels. The little cup with the excellent face has a hole in the pointed cap, for hanging. We have had separate engravings made of the finely executed medallion bowl, to show its grace and ex- * Native Races, Vol. IV, page 668. t The Mississippi jar and the light "water jug" with the label on it belong to the fine collection of the Tennessee Historical Society, at Nashville. The lower bowl with the medallion faces is from Mr. Otto Giers's collection. The remaining seven pieces are from the author's collection. THE ANCIENT POTTERY, 151 actness. Vessels with rude medallion faces have been found in the mounds of Arkansas,* but not of this form, or so artistically mod- FiG. 58. — Medallion Bowl (One-fourth). t The interesting man, or "leg bowl," is an excellent piece of ware — well formed and perfect. Its design is a curious conceit. Fig. 59. — Terra Cotta Bowl (One-third). J A vessel of similar form, from a small cemetery near the Cumber- land river, five miles west of IS'ashville, is also illustrated (Fig. 59) to present another view of this peculiar type. It must have been * Report Bureau of Ethnology, Vol. IV, page 414. t Otto Giers collection. t Author's collection. Mr. Frank Morrow, of Nashville, has in his poBsession a similar bowl, a little larger; and there is another in the collection of Mr. Warren Moorehead, in the Smithsonian Institution, from the Missouri mound district. The latter is somewhat larger than the specimen illustrated, and, as we remember it, is a little more rudely molded. The vessel represented in Fig. 59 was obtained from a stone grave by Mr. W. W. Dosier. 152 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. a clumsy and inconvenient bowl, but like some of the more civil- ized native tribes of America, these old villagers of the Cumberland valley were sometimes more devoted to the grotesque in art than to practical convenience. Since Plate VIII was engraved, the writer has obtained more than a hundred new specimens of pottery from the Foel cemetery, and other burial grounds in the immediate vicinity of l^ashville, many of them types of special interest. A number of them are presented in Plate IX. The light clay-colored ware, and the dark, rich, reddish brown ware, the specialty of the l^ashville district, appear in contrast in the photo-engraving. The decorations upon the light specimens can also be plainly seen. The central figure of the plate is unique. This nondescript animal is eight and a half inches long; the ves- sel is nine inches high. The circles and lines with which it is ornamented have evidently been painted by a skillful and ex- perienced hand. It was taken from a stone grave on the Bosley farm, about four miles west of jN'ashville (in January, 1890), by Mr. Ed. Carlton, from whom we obtained it.* The body and legs are fashioned somewhat like the badger or bear jar figure discovered by Prof. Putnam within the earth-works of Lebanon. In its day and generation this fine vessel doubtless occupied a conspicuous place upon the dining floor or sideboard of some old mound builder's resi- dence. Were it not for its canine head, and the suggestive curl of its tail, its otherwise elephantine form might pose before " the scien- tists " as a mastodon. The truth requires us to state, however, that a fat, waddling Indian dog was probably the animal that suggested this design. f A somewhat similar figure in pottery, with the head, face, and curled tail of a dog, apparently of the same * Prof. F. W. Putnam and Major J. W. Powell conducted explorations upon this farm in 1877, and discovered many fine vessels of pottery and interesting remains of stone and shell. t Among the modern Indians, dog feasts were quite common. Perhaps the dogs were fattened for the occasion. We are told that they made Hendrick Hudson THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 153 pug-nosed pedigree, was found in the New Madrid mound district of Missouri, and is illustrated m the Archaeology of Missouri, pub- lished by the St. Louis Academy of Science (Plate IX), but the latter is not so well formed or so artistically decorated. A dog's head also appears upon a bowl in Plate TX. These heads give us a tolerably accurate representation of the pre-historic canine. The type does not appear to diiier much from the modern dogs of the Cherokees and other tribes. Mr. Frank Morrow, of Kashville has in his collection of pot- tery a bowl with a dog's head handle, and in the wide-spread jaws of the dog there is a small, rudely molded human head. So far as we can learn, the dog was the only domestic animal possessed by the native tribes of Xorth America prior to the Co- lumbian discovery. The South Americans had also the llama, a patient animal, very useful as a beast of burden. The first horses and cattle came with the Spanish conquerers. Unfortunately, the aborigines of early ages Avere without these civilizing agencies. Their presence would doubtless have contributed greatly to advance the condition of society in ancient America. The two images in Plate IX must originally have been deco- rated with some taste and skill, if we may judge from the traces of painting still visible. The hands of the larger figure are well molded in relief. The hands of the small image are painted. Both images are hollow, and have openings at the backs of the heads. The large handsome "fish bowl" is nine inches long. Vessels of this form are very numerous in the graves, notwithstanding the heads, tails, and fins upon some of them, must have rendered them inconvenient for practical use. Doubtless, the fish was a totem, or family or tribal emblem. Both the Creeks and Chiekasaws had a "fish" family, or clan in their organizations.* The Creeks had also a family branch named after the toad or frog, as stated.* welcome, on his first visit to the Hudson river, by " killing a fat dog." The form of this vessel was, therefore, very appropriate. — Collections New York Historical So- ciety, Vol. I, Second Series, page 198. * Ancient Society (Morgan), pages 161, 163. 154 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. The handsome eagle bowl, in Plate IX, will also be noticed, and the large center bowl (ten and one-fourth inches long) on the lower line, with the finely formed head handle. The latter is full of rat- tling little pellets. We have not seen a finer specimen of the pot- FiG. 60. — Pottery Head from Large Bowl (One-half).* ter's or molder's art among the ancient ware of the Mississippi val- ley. The face and head are very finely formed. The pointed cap has a long tassel that falls gracefully behind in a double fold. Another of these very finely molded bowl heads, with a strong and almost handsome' face, is rudely illustrated in Fig. 60. Fig. 61. — Ornamented Bowl (One-third).! As the oblong bowl, with an ornamented rim, is but poorly rep- resented in the plate, we present a better illustration of its form in Fig. 61. It is a very symmetrical and graceful piece of ware. * Historical Society collection. T Author's collection. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 155 There may be old or modern vessels of pottery from the pueblo districts equaling some of these highest standard types from the stone graves of Tennessee, but they have not come under our ob- servation. The tiny bowls and jars (Plate IX) were probably used as toys, or may have served some useful purposes. They are well molded, and as hard as the large ware. The other vessels illustrated in the plate will show some of the unusual types. It would be impossible, within a single volume, to present illustrations of all the interesting vessels and images in the local collections. The excellent photo-engravings presented, give a softer and more finished appearance to this ware, perhaps, than it merits, as they sometimes relieve the coarseness of the materials, and allow the graces of form full effect, but they show the objects with photo- graphic fidelity. We have seen no pottery from Missouri or Arkan- sas of superior quality, and very little from those sections equaling it; neither have the elaborate mounds or the ancient cemeteries (.)f the Ohio valley yielded pottery so well made, and with such graces of form, so far as we have been able to judge from the best speci- mens observed in the various archaeological collections in Cincinnati and elsewhere.* ■•■• Sir Daniel Wilson and other writers seem to have tlie impression that the mound builders of Ohio were much in advance of other mound building tribes in their knowledge of the ceramic arts. This is an error. The Ohio ware did not sur- pass the standard earthenware of other sections of the mound area, and was not equal to some of the pottery of the Central and Lower Mississippi districts. Squier and Davis, in their valuable work on the Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, gave an illustration of an Ohio vase as evidence of an advanced state of art ; but Dr. Rau, the able archaeologist of the Smithsonian Institution, who examined the Squier and Davis collections, asserts that it was not superior to the Cahokia creek pottery of Illinois, the ordinary Illinois and Missouri ware. — Smithsonian Re- ports, 18G6, page 349. Comparatively little pottery has been found in the mounds or ancient cemeteries of Ohio. A single cemetery near Nashville, or a single burial mound of INIissouri or Arkansas, has probably yielded more perfect vessels of pot- tery than have been discovered within the limits of the State of Ohio since its first settlement by the whites. The fact that the ancient pottery of Ohio has disap- peared, or has generally crumbled into fragments, is an additional indication of its 156 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. The vessels of pottery of each of the various sections of the mound area, like the mounds of these several districts, have their marked and distinguishing features. The ware of Tennessee, Ar- kansas, South-east Missouri, and Southern Illinois, and that found along some of the water-ways of the lower Ohio valley, is probably of one period, and of the same tribes, or closely allied tribes. Al- though the local types differ, it is homogeneous, and can generally be distinguished from other ware. The ancient earthenware from the Ohio mounds is usually of somewhat coarser grades and simpler forms. Comparatively -few perfect vessels of pottery have been dis- covered in l^ew York, New England, the middle Atlantic states, and other sections outside of the territory of the mound builders, and they are generally of a rude character. The ancient pottery of Georgia and Florida is well made, but, as a class, the vessels discovered appear to be of ordinary types, and not equal to the best w^are found in the Cumberland valley. As we approach the Lower Mississippi district, the remains of the ceramic arts improve in character. They reached a state of comparatively advanced development within the present limits of the States of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Southern Arkansas. The ware of this general section is homogeneous, easily identified, and in finish and ornamentation appears to be equal to that of any other portion of the mound area. It is not surpassed by any pottery yet discovered north or east of Mexico. A group of unusually fine specimens of the lustrous black ware of Mississippi is shown in Fig. 62. The ornamented jar of this dark ware, in Plate VIII, looks like an exotic. It will be readily recognized as a Lower Mississippi type, and shows us how strongly marked are the characteristics of the pottery of the difterent mound districts. These general types in fact often differ from each other nearly as widely as they differ from the pottery of the pueblos, yet they inferior quality, as compared with some of the -svell-burned southern specimens. Some of the Tennessee pottery seems as durable as Etruscan or Egyptian ware. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 157 all unite in establishing the homogeneous character of the ware of the Mississippi valley. The similarity of some of the specimens of this ware to Peruvian pottery is very remarkable. The author has but four ancient vessels from the graves of Peru in his collection. They have peculiar shapes, yet vessels of nearly the exact forms of three of them have been found in the Middle Mississippi district. Engraved sketches of these vessels will show the similarity of forms. (Figs. 63, 63a.) The vessel in the center is also a Mexican type. Many suggestive coincidences and similarities of form might be presented, showing analogies and traces of connection between Fig. 62. — Mississippi Pottery.* the ancient ware manufactured in the pueblo districts and the pot- tery of the Mississippi valley. Plate X is a photo-engraving of a section of a large earthen- ware vessel, about thirty-one inches in diameter, twelve inches high, and having a capacity of twelve to tifteen gallons. (Author's col- lection.) A section of a similar vessel (on the inside) was photo- graphed, to show more clearly the texture of the basket, matting, or cloth fabric in which these large vessels were molded. The little pot, an inch and a half in diameter, was placed on the rim, in contrast The large vessel was found within a few yards of the " Sul- * These vessels were obtained from a mound near Lake Washington, Missis- sippi, by W. M Anderson. The illustration is reproduced from Prehistoric Man (Wilson), Vol. II, page 23. 158 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. pliur Spring," or the old " Frencli Lick," at ITasliville, in exca- vating for the foundations of the new spring house. This sulphur and salt spring was doubtless the central feature of a populous aboriginal settlement for centuries. Extensive burial grounds were found on both sides of the " Lick Branch," and many fine imple- FiG 63. — Peruvian Pottery. "^ Fig. 63a. — Vessels from Arkansas and Missouri. t ments and specimens of earthenware have been obtained there. These large vessels, or " salt pans," were probably used in boiling the saline water of the spring, to make salt.;}: * Author's collection. t Fourth Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, pages 418, 422 ; Archaeology of Missouri, PJate 23. t The workmen, in excavating, had removed this large vessel a few yards from its original bed in the bank, a short time before the author reached the spot, so that THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 159 The early white settlers also manufactured salt there in con- siderable quantities. The vessels were rudely but strongly made, being sometimes an inch thick below the heavy rims. Pieces of coarsely pounded mussel shells, an inch long, are frequently mixed with the clay. As will be shown by the plate, the large earthen- ware pots or boilers were built up or molded in sacks or bags of fine matting or cloth, or of some woven fabric, that has left a last- ing impression on the surface of the clay. When the vessel was molded, it was probably left standing or was dried in tlie sun until it was hard enough to permit the re- moval of the cloth before burning. From the fineness and regu- larity of the imprints, some of these fabrics must have been skill- fully woven. The variations of the thread also show that patched or separate pieces of the cloth were used to hold the sides of the vessels during the formative process. The large kettles were not all used as " salt pans," as we find many sections and fragments of them in other aboriginal cemeteries near ITashville. The graves are fre- quently lined and covered with them, instead of slabs of stone. They may have been used as sugar boilers, or cooking kettles, or for other purposes in the domestic economy of the Stone Grave race.* We have accounts, however, of the use of clay vessels of the same character by the pottery making tribes of Southern Illinois and Missouri at other saline springs in these states. f he was unable to ascertain exact details as to its position. Some bones and frag- ments of similar vessels were found with it. We are indebted to M. W. Woods, Esq., of the Sulphur Spring Company, for this fine specimen. ■■■■ Hunter, in his account of the modern tribes west of the Mississippi, says : " When the.se (pottery) vessels are large, as is the case of the manufacture of sugar, they are suspended by grapevines, which, wherever exposed to the fire, are con- stantly kept covered with moist clay. Sometimes, however, the rims are made strong, and project a little inwardly quite around the vessel, so as to admit of their being sustained by flattened pieces of wood slid underneath these projections, and extending across their centers." — Hunter's Manners and Customs of Indian Tribes, etc., page 29G. Philadelphia, 1823. t Colonel George E. Sellers (now of Chattanooga, Tennessee), reported, in 1859, the discovery of similar large " salt pans " at the " salt springs " near Saline river, in Southern Illinois, a locality where salt was formerly made by the Indians. '•' Sev- 160 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. The few large vessels discovered, as compared with the great number of small ones, was doubtless mainly due to the preserva- tion of the latter as food and water vessels, in the graves ; yet it also seems to indicate that in prehistoric times the food may have been prepared in the big family pot, after the communal fashion, and then divided in the small vessels to the many members of the household. Fragments of pottery ware of various intermediate sizes are found in great abundance in the ancient burial grounds and set- tlements of Tennessee, but entire vessels are comparatively rare. A fine large pot is illustrated in Fig. 64. Its greatest diameter is eighteen inches. It is seventeen inches high, and has four strong handles. The rim and neck are orna- mented with " finger-nail indentations." * In the collection of the Tennessee Historical Society, at Nashville, there is one almost identical in form and size, from a mound in East Tennessee. Mr. Otto Giers discovered in the Noel cemetery, near Nashville, a vessel eighteen inches in diameter in the form of an ordinary flat dinner eral acres," Colonel Sellers states, "are covered with broken vessels, and heaps of clay and shells indicate that they were made on the spot. They presented the shape of semi-globular bowls with projecting rims, and measuring from thirty inches to four feet across the rim, the thickness varying from one-half to three- quarters of an inch. This earthenware had evidently been modeled in baskets. The impressions on the outside are very regular and really ornamental, proving that these aboriginal potters were also skillful basket makers." — Smithsonian Re- ports, 1866. Brackenridge (Views of Louisiana, 1814) states : " The saline below St. Gene- vieve, Missouri, cleared out some time ago and deepened, was found to contain wagon-loads of earthenware, some fragments bespeaking vessels as large as a barrel, and proving that the salines had been worked before they were known to the whites." Du Pratz mentions a locality in Louisiana where the aborigines collected salt in earthen vessels made on the spot, before they had been supplied with kettles of metal by the French. — Du Pratz, Vol. I, page 307. And the Knight of Elvas also describes the method of making salt employed by the natives at the saline springs of Arkansas in De Soto's time (a. d. 1541). '•■■ Fourth Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, page 397. We are indebted to Major Powell for an electrotype of this fine illustration. THE ANCIENT POTTERY, 161 plate, a very unusual variety. It must have been a strong piece of ware to have done service in that form. The skeleton was resting upon it when found. The stone grave cemeteries of Tennessee have yielded many other objects of pottery — pipes, trowels, implements, beads, paint cups, discs, totems, toys, amulets, and other articles — some of them unique and of much interest. Fig. 64. — Large Vessel of JPotteky ^Hale's Point, Tennessee). Fig. 65 represents some of the clay trowels, or smoothers, used in molding and manufacturing vessels of pottery. They are often found with the large ware, and seem especially fitted for this pur- pose. In fact, it is difficult to assign them to any other duty. Their troweling surfaces are circular and, therefore, unfitted for smoothing skins. They are curved according to size, the smaller trowels being the most curved, to suit the circular sides of the small vessels, and the largest sizes being nearly flat, to fit the curves 11 162 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. of the large vessels, boilers or salt-pans. The handles are evidently shaped to be held conveniently in the hand m molding. The illus- tration scarcely does justice to these interesting little implements. A few years ago, two smoothing Implements or discs of very hard pottery, with handles resembling flat-iron handles, were dis- covered in the large stone grave cemetery on White's creek, about five miles north of IS'ashville (the Byser cemetery). They were pre- sented to the Tennessee Historical Society and are now in its col- lection. Upon examining them, we supposed they might have been used for smoothing skins or some mechanical purposes. The larger one, about four inches in diameter, had too flat a surface to trowel. Fig. 65. — Pottery Implements — Small Trowels. or smooth the circular sides of even the largest vessels. Dr. Joseph Jones also found one, and described it as an implement " probably used for crushing parched corn and beans, or for dressing and smoothing hides." * But a short time since, however (January, 1890), old "Uncle Arthur," one of our exploring " experts," found five of these " smoothers" in one stone grave in a cemetery, adjoin- ing or near the Noel cemetery, and on seeing them, we at once dis- covered their true character, or what we regard as their true character, and pronounced them plastering trowels. The two largest, six inches in diameter and circular in form, have been already illustrated in the chapter upon the houses of the mound builders. Two of the smaller ones are shown in Fig. 66. * Aboriginal Remains, page 143. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 163 \ One has a flat oval smoothing surface, and is five and one-half inches long. The other is disc shaped, and about four inches in diameter. These implements are evidently not suitable for pestles or corn-pounders, and the large ones are apparently too heavy for smoothing or dressing hides. We do not think we can be mistaken in their use. A class of implements entirely different in form were used in crushing corn, and will be illustrated hereafter. From the well-known mortuary custom prevailing among the Indians, of burying their worldly treasures with the dead, it seems reasonably clear that these five implements were the tools or outfit of a plasterer whose remains were buried with them. The Fig. 66. — Plastering Trowels (Two-fifths).* clay of which they are made has a surface finish as hard as stone, yet some of them are considerably worn, showing that they were probably used upon a harder and more wearing material than hides or skins. f "VVe have no knowledge of the discovery of similar implements in other pottery districts. We, therefore, regard the information furnished by this set of old trowels as of much archaeological value. Tools of the same general character were doubtless used in building * Author's collection. t Upon examining these trowels closely, we find a thin film of smooth, hard- pressed, red clay adhering to the original hard-burned pottery surfaces of some of them, which offers additional evidence of their use as plastering trowels. 164 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. or finishing the clay plastered, grouting, and adobe houses in Ar- kansas and other sections. The little terra-cotta rattle, Fig. 67, was found by young Ormsby Johnson in the stone grave of a child near the Noel ceme- tery. It was w^ell burned, but was slightly fractured in digging. The hard clay pellets found inside of it, and represented in the little Fig 67. — Child's Rattle Found near Nashville (One-half), pyramid, may have quieted many an urchin in prehistoric days. There is a hole in the end for suspension. Similar rattles are found among the remains of ancient Mexico. Tylor, in his Anahuac, siiys : " The terra-cotta rattles in the Museum of Mexico are very characteristic. They have little balls in them, which shake about, and they puzzle us as much as the apple dumpling did King George, for we could not make out very easily how the balls got Fig. 68. — The Marbles They Played with (One-third).* inside. They were probably attached very slightly to the inside, and so baked, and then broken loose "f — a piece of scientific reasoning scarcely up to the standard of George III! It seems the boys, or the men, probably, played marbles in pre- historic days, as thirteen well-burned marbles, or pottery balls, were ® Author's collection. t Quoted by H. H. Bancroft. — Native Races, Vol. IV, page 557. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 165 recently found lying together by W. W. Dosier, in a stone grave at Clees Ferry, a few miles west of Nashville. Some of them are illus- trated in Fig. 68. We did not notice any " white alley " in the lot. It may have been won by some other fellow. Marbles or round balls of pottery and stone are frequently found in the graves, but so many have not been heretofore found together. If not used as marbles, they were probably some kind of gaming balls. Fig. 69, representing a turtle, is not nearly so spirited as the terra-cotta original (ISToel cemetery, author's collection). This little object of rich brown ware was probably a totem or badge of an Indian family or gens. The turtle was a favorite fam- FiG. 69.— Terra Cotta Turtle. ily emblem among the modern Indians. It is fcnuid in their rude picture writings, and graven on pipes and shells. It is the model for some of the animal mounds of the north. The turtle was also a favorite animal figure among the ancient Mexicans. It is found among the pottery remains in the graves, and also in stone. In the National Museum of Mexico, there are " little stone turtles perfectly carved," * and in the Smithsonian Institution there is a fine speci- men, carved in stone, from New Mexico. f The serpent totem, illustrated in Fig. 70, is rather rudely molded in blue grey clay. It is about two and a half inches in diameter. It was plowed up about nine miles north of Nashville, and not far from the ancient works of Sumner county, where the in- * Native Races (Bancroft), Vol. IV, pages 590, 601. t Smithsonian Report, 18S6, Part II, page 108. 166 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. scribed stone, with the double serpent emblem, was discovered. The head was broken by the plow, l»ut has been restored. The serpent appears to have figured in the mythology of most of the native American tribes, nomadic and semi-civilized. Some of the great earth-works are built in its form. It is the figure very frequently found upon the shell gorgets from the graves and mounds of Tennessee. A very spirited antique in pottery from Mexico, representing a coiled serpent, may be seen in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington.* Fig. 70. — A. Serpent Totem (Two-thirds). t H. H. Bancroft tells us that numberless little figures of animals in terra-cotta are to be seen in the museums of Mexico — birds, dogs, and serpents, and small idols of clay and stone, and that " many of these small images and figures were doubtless worn suspended round the neck or hung on the walls of houses, as several were pierced with holes for cords." X As will be observed, similar customs must have prevailed in ancient Tennessee, as a very large number of the small pottery ob- jects, images, vessels, birds, animals, and totems are pierced with holes— an analogy of some siguificance. Fig. 71 represents a little terra cotta bat, or some not very well * Archfeological Collections (Rau), Smithsonian Institution, page 87. t W. D. Buchanan collection. t Native Races, Vol. IV, pages 545, 555. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 167 identified animal (one-half) ; also, a little toj bird or amulet (actual size) The little group (Fig. 72) represents a cunning little image of Fig. 71. — Small Tkrra Cotta Figures. Fig. 72. — Ear-rings and Images or Amulets. Fig. 73. — Terra Cotta Ear-ring (Actual Size). fine terra cotta, well burned and finished (actual size) ; also, a gro- tesque head (one-half size), an ''ear-bob," and an ear-ring of well- * Author's collection. 168 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. finished terra cotta ware. A larger ear-ring of well-glossed pottery is shown in Fig. 73 (author's collection). We have a number of these ear-rings with holes for hanging. They have a familiar ap- pearance, and are not unlike the large metal rings worn in modern society. All are from the ISToel cemetery, or from the stone graves of the Sumner county works, near Saundersville. Two views of a small terra cotta wheel or ear-ring pendant, found in a stone grave in Stewart county, Tennessee, are shown in Fig. 74. This symmetrical ring is just two inches in diameter. It has been so carefully made of very fine ware that it must have been Fig. 74. — Terra Cotta Ear-ring or "Wheel (Actual Size).* intended for some special purpose. It also bears the marks of use. Two of these rings, of the same size and form, were found in the same stone grave, in Stewart county, near the Cumberland river, and were placed in Miss Killebrew's collection, at Clarksville, Ten- nessee, where we first saw them. From the careful construction of the grave, it evidently contained the remains of some important personage, or at least of some one who was honored with a very re- spectful burial. Miss Killebrew subsequently presented one of the rings (the specimen illustrated) to Captain Johnson, who kindly gave it to the writer. Portions of the delicate rim were mottled with some substance resembling green paint ; but it looked so foreign to the light colored surface of the ring that it did not then * Author's collection. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 169 occur to us that the green coloring might be copper. Subse- quently, however, and since the terra-cotta ring was engraved for this volume, Mr. James Cox (January, 1890) discovered a very sim- ilar ring of stone, well plated with copper, in a stone grave within the group of ancient earth-works at Mound Bottom, on the Har- peth river, about twenty miles west of i^asliville. The stone ring was sent to us by Mr. Cox, and is illustrated in Fig. 75. It at once revealed the nature of the green coloring upon the pottery ring, which, upon closer inspection, proved to be frag- FiG. 75. — Ear-rixg or Ornament op Stone Plated with Copper.* ments of copper plating. This remarkable stone ring is two and three-eighths inches in diameter, and is perfect in symmetry and finish. The projecting flange or rim has been entirely and most skillfully covered from center to circumference with a thin plating of hammered copper of uniform tliickness, which laps around the outer edge as if melted into its place. The surface of the copper is now green with oxydation, but the plating is still nearly perfect, as is shown in the engraving. The copper is the malleable native ore from the old mines of Northern Micliigan. This is a suggestive little ring. It is dijSicult to realize that it was the work of an Indian even of the most advanced sedentarv or * Author's collection. 170 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. village type. It seems to represent the typical arts of the Toltecs or the Peruvians. Did we not know of the skill of the Xavajos in silver and jewelry work, and of the north-west coast Indians in manipulating iron, and, indeed, of the general instinctive art faculty of the native American tribes, we would be disposed to attribute the art thus illustrated to some race superior to the ISTorth American Indian of the highest class. It seems, however, to be more con- sistent to regard such evidences of unusual mechanical skill, as representing occasional instances of individual excellence, or local development, among known tribes, rather than as the work of some superior and unknown race. The uses of these rings or wheels we can only conjecture. They look something like little pulleys or mechanical appliances, but we must remember that they belonged to a period when per- sonal ornaments were more used than mechanical inventions. Cop- per wheels, of somewhat similar form, found in the cemeteries and mounds of Ohio, have been pronounced ear-rings or personal orna- ments by Prof. Putnam and other archseologists. A pair of them was found beside the skull in a grave, where ear-rings would be naturally placed. Mr. A. E. Douglass, of l^ew York City, has in his fine collection of antiquities an ancient stone pipe, from Ohio, representing a human head, with ear-ring ornaments carved in the stone, circular in form, and nearly as large as these copper and cop- per-plated rings. It seems to confirm the view that these rings or wheels were pendants or ornaments for the ears.* The fact that two of them were found in the same grave in Stewart county also favors this view.f Yery similar and equally symmetric " ear-ring pendants " of stone, will also be illustrated in the chapter upon ob- ••■■ Our friend Mr. Douglass showed us this pipe, and kindly presented a photo- graph of it. t A copper spool or wheel similar to the double copper rings found in Ohio was found by Dr. W. M. Clark in a stone grave a few miles south of Nashville, some years ago, and is illustrated in the Smithsonian Reports. Verrazzano, who visited the Atlantic coast of America in 1524, reported to his patron, the French king, that he found the natives using ear-rings and other ornaments of copper. — Aboriginal Trade (Ran), page 90. THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 171 jects of polished stone, and copper pendants or ear-rings like the copper spools or rings found in the Ohio mounds will be shown in the chapter upon copper remains. The ear-ring pendants are among the most remarkable antiques found among the ancient remains of the Ohio and Tennessee mound builders. Similar discs or rings will be seen carefully engraved as ear ornaments upon the human figures on the shell gorgets found in the ancient graves of Ten- nessee and Missouri. They frequently appear upon the figures in the Aztec pictures, and upon the idols of Mexico and Central Fig. 76. — An Ancient Terra Cotta Bottle (Two-thirds). America. Beautiful ear pendant discs of copper or terra cotta, three or four inches in diameter, are also to be found among the antiquities of Peru. These large ear-ring ornaments seem to have been worn by all the southern and south-western peoples of ancient America. A little jug or bottle of unusual interest is illustrated in Fig. 76. It was found in Stewart county, Tennessee, in a carefully built stone grave containing a very large skeleton. A fine clay image was also found in the grave, all indicating the burial of some im- portant personage. The little jug is of light colored clay, but 172 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE, is well burned and finished. The fairly-well executed head has holes at the sides for ear-rings, and one at the usual place at the back of the neck for a cord. A roll of curled or plaited hair hangs down behind. On the side of the bottle there is a carefully molded hole, as represented in the engraving. When laid in the grave it doubtless had a stopper, but the latter had probably de- cayed, as the hole was found to be plugged with the clay that had filtered into the grave. "When discovered,the bottle was nearly filled with dark round slate-colored pellets, about an eighth of an inch in diameter. AVe found one hundred and fifty-five of them, when we examined it. Dr. W. L. Dudley, professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt University, made a careful analysis of them. They were found to contain car- bonate of lime, and a slight quantity of bituminous shale or clay. He reported that his analysis "failed to indicate the presence of any drugs or medicines;" also that "a careful microscopic examina- tion did not reveal any cell structure, which therefore, excludes the presence of herbs and barks." The latter may have disappeared by decay or absorption. These little pellets are soft, small, and wholly unlike those found in the pottery rattles and heads. They do not rattle when shaken. The modern Indians did not use medicine in the form of pills, yet, notwithstanding the absence of herbs, we are inclined to think this little terra cotta bottle of pellets may have been used by some priest or medicine man for some medicinal purposes, or w-ith their decoctions, incantations, or curing ceremonies. Like the modern " Indian doctor," the ancient medicine man was prob^ibly " a fraud," and may have dosed his patients occasionally with "bread pills," without either herbs or drugs. In any case, it speaks well for him and his friends that they were willing that he should take his own medicine, on his way to the spirit-land. This little "medicine bottle " is in the collection of Miss Killebrew, of Clarks- ville, Tennessee, who kindly loaned it to the author to be examined and engraved. Many other interesting objects in clay from the ancient graves THE ANCIENT POTTERY. 173 of Tennessee might be described and illustrated if time and oppor- tunity permitted. It is, in fact, difficult to select the most useful illustrations from the vast store of available material. The native art in pottery is richer in details, and apparently more advanced, than any other branch of ancient industry. To properly estimate it, as an exponent of the culture status of the Stone Grave race, it must be surveyed as a whole, and must be considered, also, in its re- lations to other arts and industries. Races very low in the scale of civilization have occasionally developed an almost abnormal state of culture in particular arts. For purposes of comparison, we iii- FiG. 77. — Pottery of the Fiji Islanders. troduce an illustration from Dr. Wilson's Prehistoric Man (Vol. I, page 188), of the pottery of the savages of the Fiji Islands (Fig. 77). The double vessel suggests an analogy to some of the peculiar Peruvian forms. ^Notwithstanding their low state of cannibalism, the Fijians excelled the other races of Polynesia in the ceramic arts, and in a certain subtle appreciation of beauty of form. They are artists by nature. The vessels illustrated seem equal, if not supe- rior, to the best ancient types from Tennessee.* Unfortunately, we have not as yet sufficient data to enable us to mark the lines of distinction that separate the historic from the ■*■ "As examples of intuitive art, the pottery of the Fijians is superior in outline to the generality of decorated earthenware in civilized countries. They display a wonderful power of fertility and originality of design." — Uncivilized Races (J. G. Wood), Vol. II, page 920. 174 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. prehistoric ware of the Mississippi valley; yet we have no positive evidence of the existence within historic times of an art equal in excellence of manipulation and in its graces of form to the best ex- amples from the stone graves. While this art is not believed to be beyond the natural capacity of some of the more advanced tribes of historic Indians of the Mississippi valley, under favorable condi- tions, some of its manifestations certainly indicate a culture un- known to the historic period, and somewhat in advance of our ac- cepted ideas of red Indian art. It has many features in common with the pottery of the pueblo Indians, and in fixing its relative status in the scale of civilization, we think it may be justly classed in the same grade with the ceramic arts of tribes like the Zuni and Moqui villagers.* ■■■■ The discovery of the fine types of pottery and other antiques in the Noel cemetery excited much local interest upon this general subject, and nearly all the remaining stone graves in the immediate vicinity of Nashville have been excavated and examined. We have greatly regretted that a more systematic exploration of these old cemeteries has not been made, but there was no fund in the treasury of the Tennessee Historical Society for this purpose, and the archaeological field was too extensive to be controlled by individual effort. We have endeavored, however, to prevent indiscriminate ransacking and pillaging by inexperienced relic hunters, and we have urged upon all the duty of examining the graves with care and intelli- gence, with a view to preserving all objects and articles, however insignificant, in any way illustrating the industries and habits of these ancient tomb builders. The writer personally superintended the exploration of a number of cemeteries. He also engaged the services of several " experts" in this work, from time to time, and thus acquired for his collection a large proportion of the fine specimens re- cently discovered, embracing some four or five hundred perfect vessels of pottery. Messrs. John, Edward, and Eobert Blunkall, Frank Lawrence, and " Uncle Arthur," who resided near the Noel cemetery, became very expert with the trowel, and found some of the finest specimens. Mr. Otto Giers, E. C. Wells, Frank Cheatham, Geo. T. Halley, W. W. Dosier, George Wood, and others were also enthusiastic explorers. There are a number of collections of pottery in Nash- ville from the graves and mounds of Middle Tennessee. The Historical Society has a large collection. Messrs. Otto Giers, E. C. Wells, W. D. Buchanan, Captain J. R. Johnson, Norman Farrell, Frank Morrow, Dr. R. A. Halley, Frank Cheatham, Van- derbilt University, Prof. Wright (of Fisk University), Miss Mary Maxwell, Mrs. J. P. Drouillard, Mrs. John Overton, and perhaps others, have collections or small THE ANCIENT POTTEKY. 175 cabinets of ancient pottery. J. B. Nicklin of Chattanooga, Dr. J. F. Grant of Pu- laski, The South-western University and Miss Killebrew of Clarksville, John G. Cisco of Jackson, and the Rev. C. F. Williams of Maury county, have some good specimens. One of the largest collections of Tennessee jiottery is in the Peabody Museum, at Cambridge, ^lassachusetts. There are some fine specimens, also, in the Smithsonian Institution. I 176 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE- CHAPTER \^I. THE PIPES. Tobacco in Ancient America — Pipes of Peace — Clay Pipes — Idol Pipes — Animal Forms — Bird Pipes — Tube Forms — Platform Pipes — Catlinite Pipes — Large Calumets — Flying Bird Types — Alligator Pipe — Square Form — Modern Catlin- ite Pipes — Iroquois Pipe — North-west Coast Types — Ancient and Modern Types Compared. The tobacco plant, as is well known,- is a native of America. The early discoverers reported that all the Indian tribes, savage and semi-civilized, knew of its uses ; and archceologists have brought to light the fact that smoking was an almost universal and iminemo- rial usage among the aboriginal inhabitants of our western conti- nent — the ubiquitous pipe having been discovered in intimate association with its most ancient monuments.* The pipe was invested with an interest and importance among the historic Indians, above the value of their other possessions. The time-honored calumet was sometimes looked upon with venera- tion by an entire tribe. It was present upon all ceremonial and religious occasions Father Hennepin called it the "Pipe of Peace." It performed the duty of a -flag of truce, and was his "safeguard" on his voyage of disco s^ery.f * Columbus and other discoverers not only report their astonishment at finding the natives " with fire-brands in their mouths and emitting smoke," but we have the authority of H. H. Bancroft for the statement that at the date of the Spanish conquest they smoked cigarettes and took snuff. — Native Races, Vol. II, page 288 ; Naidallac, page 160. Willow bark and the roots of herbs were also used by the In- dians as substitutes for tobacco. t " The Pipe such as I have described it," says Father Hennepin, " is a Pass and safe Conduct against all the Allies of the nation who has given it; and in all Em-' bassies, the ambassadors carry that Calumet as the Symbol of Peace, which is always respected. For the savages are generally persuaded that a great misfortune would THE PIPES. 177 Marquette and Charlevoix found the cahimet equally useful as a symbol of peace and friendship. Longfellow begins his Song of Hiawatha with a beautiful tribute to it. The pipe was the favorite companion of its owner, and all the skill of the native lapidary was lavished upon it. The prehistoric inhabitants of Tennessee were evidently invet- erate smokers. In no other portion of America have ancient pipes been found in greater numbers or varieties, or of more artistic forms.* The large stone calumets fashioned in the form of animals, many varieties of the finely modeled bird pipes, the "idol pipes" of human form, the ordinary forms in clay and stone, the disc pipes, the tube forms, the stone stem, curved base and platform types, of Ohio and West Virginia, have all been discovered in Tennessee. It is not always possible to distinguish the ancient from the comparatively modern types, although the practiced eye of the old collector can generally do so. The pipe makers of some of the his- befall 'em, if they violated the Public Faith of the Calumet. All their Enterprises, Declarations of War, or Conclusions of Peace, as well as ail the rest of their cere- monies are sealed if I may be permitted to say so, with the Calumet. They fill that pipe with the best tobacco they have, and then present to those with whom, they have concluded any great Affair, and smoak out of the same, after them. I had cer- tainly perish'd in my voyage, had it not been for this Calumet or Pipe." — A New Discovery, etc., Chap. XXIY, pages 93, 94. London, 1698. * The beautiful little animal-form pipes discovered in the mounds of the Scioto valley, in Ohio, and illustrated by Squier and Davis in the Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, are not surpassed in artistic execution by any ancient pipe work or carvings in stone discovered within the mound area. They are generally regarded as the best examples of ancient native art in stone. The high praise accorded them by Squier and Davis has, in fact, aided in creating the popular overestimate of the general state of art in the Ohio valley during the mound building epoch ; yet, after a careful examination of some of the originals and of casts of the collection in the Smithsonian Institution, the author is of opinion that, as types of the mound build- ers' art, the fine Tennessee and southern pipes are not inferior to the Ohio mound pipes; neither are the fine pottery heads found in Tennessee inferior to them as examples of art in modeling. 12 178 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. toric tribes occasionally made pipes in excellence of carving and artistic merit not inferior to the genuine antiques. Adair informs us that the Cherokees made beautiful pipes of stone in imitation of birds and animals, and sometimes of " nude human figures " that could not " much be commended for their modesty." * Lieutenant Timberlake, who visited the Cherokees in 1761, re- ports the additional fact that they made fine pipes of pottery ware. He says he was almost sufii'ocated with the great number of peace pipes he had to smoke as a pledge of friendship. f Captain John Smith, in his quaint " History of Virginia," de- scribed the stone pipes in which Powhattan and his wild courtiers smoke their tobacco — pipes like some of our antique western speci- mens, carved in the form of birds and animals, and, as Smith says, " heavy enough to beat out one's brains." The large stone calumets and bird-shaped pipes sometimes dis- covered as "surface finds" are, therefore, not necessarily of ancient date, and may be the work of the Shawnees, Cherokees, or other modern Indians. It is, in fact, diflicult to classify the various types chronologically or geographically, and we can only do so in a par- tial or general way. The pipes discovered in the stone graves and burial mounds of Tennessee, of course, indicate with considerable exactness the typical forms used by the Stone Grave race. They also aid us in determining the age of antiques of similar forms plowed up in the fields. Large funnel-shaped stem holes, sometimes even larger than the pipe bowls, appear to the author to have been one of the dis- tino-uishing characteristics of ancient southern clay and stone pipes, and we suggest to antiquarians the importance of this feature in the proper classification of these objects. * History oi the American Indians, pages 423. 424. London, 1775. According to Dr. Cyrufa Thomas, Adair also states that the Cherokees made pipes that must have been of the same general form as some of the Ohio platform pipes. — Problem of the Ohio mounds, page 39. T Memoirs, pages 38, 39. London, 1 765. THE PIPES. 179 The handsome slate and steatite platform pipes of the Ohio pattern found in Tennessee, with stone stems or mouth pieces, and with the small, carefully drilled stem holes, were also ancient types, certainly as old as some of ttie Ohio and West Virginia mounds, in which similar pipes have been occasionally found. The stem hole of uniform diameter^ for a closely fitting reed or cane stem, probably belongs to type comparatively modern, as this appears to be the usual form of stem holes drilled by the historic Indians. Steatite or talc, in its various colors, from North Carolina or the eastern borders of Tennessee, w^as the material generally util- ized in the manufacture of tine stone pipes. JSTo other stone was so suitable for this purpose. It is not injured by heat, and compact steatite is not easily fractured. It can be carved or drilled without very great labor, and some of the varieties have a surface nearly as brilliant as marble, when polished. Fine quarries of steatite are found near Roane Mountain, in East Tennessee. Sandstone, slate, limestone, serpentine, syenite, and other varieties of stone, were also employed in pipe making. In General Wilder's collection, there is a fine specimen made of rich banded jasper with brilliant red srripes. Any stone, attractive in its colors, convenient in form, or easily worked, seems to have been utilized by the old pipe makers. The material was sometimes transported great distances. In- deed, it would be hard to tell the location of the various quarries and ledges that furnished the material for the pipes and implements of Tennessee and the states adjacent. Pipes were bartered and ex- changed for other commodities. Doubtless, the pipe makers of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, where much of the stone was quari-ied, exchanged them in large numbers with the shell workers of the coast, and the hunters and pottery makers of Middle and West Tennessee. Lawson tells us the southern Indians also manufactured tobacco pipes of day to send to distant regions in exchange for skins and other merchandise.* In ante-Columbian times, as within the historic period, pipe making, like arrow * Carolina (Lawson), page 207. 180 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. making, was doubtless a special industry, followed by experts in the art.* We are told by the early writers that it sometimes took the native artisans many months to finish a single pipe. As most of the drudgery of living was borne by the women, time was plentiful, and, as Lawson says, the Indian men were " great enemies to pro- fuse sweating," or hurrying in their work. Fig. 78 represents the pipes of clay found in the stone graves near I^ashville and in the lower Cumberland valley. (Author's collec- tion.) They are introduced here as typical forms, and will aid us in classifying other pipes. The outlines give a fairly correct idea of Fig. 78. — Clay Pipes prom the Stone Graves of Tennessee (One-third). the originals, but are stifi', and not so graceful as the natural objects. The large stem holes will be observed. In the Johnson collection, there is a large clay pipe with a plat- form base, the stem hole of which is large enough to hold the entire bowl. These clay pipes are of light yellow or blue-gray color, and are usually rudely made, as compared with the finer grades of pottery from the graves. The pipes of clay found in the burial mounds of Arkansas and Missouri are also usually rude, and show little effort at artistic molding. It seems singular that so little care was taken by * Black marble pipes were made with great labor and patience by one person only throughout the whole nation. He lives in Natchez, and, being the only man that knows where the stone can be found, monopolizes the business entirely, and sells his common pipes at half the price of a blanket. — Schoolcraft, Vol. V, page 692. THE PIPES. 181 the artistic potters of the Stone Grave race in making and orna- menting these easily molded pipes of clay, when so much labor was expended in carving the elaborate pipes of stone. The explanation may be in the fact that the women of onr native races were usually the pottery makers, and the men the stone carvers and ilint chippers.* Ornamented pipes of clay are, however, occasionally found, A specimen, evidently of the stone grave period, from the character of the pottery, with the face of a wolf, dog, peccary, or some other animal, is shown in Fig. 79. It was found on the Rogers farm, at Little River, on the Lower Cumberland, in an ancient stone grave Fig. 79. — Ancient Pipe op Pottery ( One-half ).t settlement. Unfortunately, the stem end was partly cut oiF, to enable the discoverer to use the pipe more conveniently with a modern wooden stem. The great diversity in the forms of stone pipes, resulting from the individual fancies and tastes of the pipe-makers, renders it * Lawson tells us the Indian women of Carolina were addicted to smoking, as well as the men, and this was doubtless the case in other sections. An ornamented clay pipe, with a face molded upon it, was recently found in a grave on the farm of Robert Chadwell, Esq., near Nashville. It was evidently a " commercial pipe,'' of the pattern sold by the early traders. The grave was proba- bly that of a modern Indian, as large copper buttons and the remains of woolen cloth were found in it. We are indebted to the kindness of Mr. Chadwell for the pipe and some of the buttons. t Author's collection. 182 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. difficult to classify them in the order of their probable age. In considering this subject, we will, therefore, first present types of the stone pipes discovered in the stone graves and burial mounds, thus identifying them as types of the mound building tribes. The pipe represented in Fig. 80 was dug up, in 1887, by Messrs. AVinstead and Martin, in an ancient stone grave cemetery near the Cumberland river, on the farm of Mr. George P. Alien, about six miles south-west of Clarksville, Tennessee. It was found within the grave beside the head, having been placed there, doubtless, to be ready for smoking. Fig. 80. — Stone Pipe of Serpentine (One-half).* The three legged vessel (Plate VIII) was found in nearly the same position in an adjoining grave. There was a large artificial mound, six feet high, on the " upper terrace" of the cultivated field containing the burial grounds, and the remains of pottery and shell heaps indicated the site of an ancient town or village. The pipe is of dark green serpentine, a beautiful semi-translucent mineral, finely polished. It represents the human figure and face. The bowl and large funnel-shaped stem hole are at the back of the figure. It stands well on its feet, but the face is shown best as engraved, the position in which it would naturally be held in smoking. •■• Author's collection. THE PIPES. 183 In the large burial ground, within the ancient earth-works near Lebanon, Tennessee, Prof. F. W. Putnam found the interest- ing pipe, carved from green steatite, represented by Fig. 81. The tumulus contained " sixty stone graves arranged in the form of a hollow square, about the outer portion of the mound, in two or three irregular rows and in three tiers." The pipe was dis- covered between two of the graves, near the surface. We have not seen the original, but three sketches of ditferent views of it appear Fig. 81. — Steatite Pipe, from Works near Lebanon, Tennessee (Three-fourths).* in Prof. Putnam's report,! from one of which the illustration was copied. The stem hole of the ancient funnel-shaped type is at the back of the figure, reaching through to the bowl in front. There are four small handles on the sides of the bowl. By a singular coincidence, a pipe of the same niaterial, of this identical peculiar form, and of about the same size, was found some two hundred miles south-east of the Lebanon works, in the great Etowah mound, near Cartersville, Georgia, one of the largest artificial mounds in the South, and the most remarkable in its physical characteristics, and in the richness and variety of the objects of ■•■• Peabody Museum, Cambridge. t Eleventh Annual Report Peabody Museum, page 350. 184 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. ancient art obtained from it. No other single monnd or group of mounds north-east of Mexico has equaled it, and the adjacent smaller mounds, as treasure houses of aboriginal art, unless it be the earth-works at " Mound City," in the Scioto valley, where Dr. Davis, nearly a half century ago, struck the well-known archaeo- logical bonanza, consisting of nearly two hundred beautifully carved stone pipes. Fig. 82. — Steatite Pipe, from the Etowah Mound, Georgia (Three-fourths).* The pipe from Georgia is represented in Fig. 82. It is of dark, rich green steatite, glistening with mica-like particles of talc, and is one of the finest specimens of ancient pipe carving discovered in the mounds. It is larger than Prof. Putnam's pipe. The outer rim of the funnel-shaped stem hole at the back is nearly as large as the bowl. The legs of the figures of both pipes are broken in nearly the same manner. The three views of Prof. Putnam's pipe show such uniformity in both that they appear to be the work of the same native sculptor. * Author's collection. THE PIPES. 185 The recent discovery of box-shaped stone cists in the mounds of the Etowah group by the agents of the Bureau of Ethnology also seems to indicate intercourse or relationship between the mound builders of North Georgia and those of the Cumberland valley.* In this connection, we introduce another ancient stone pipe from the same great mound on the Etow^ah river (Fig. 83) as an illustration of the stone carving art of the old southern Indians. It Fig. 83. — Steatite Pipe, Etowah Mound, Geoijgia (One-half). t is of light gray steatite. The stem hole in the back is large and funnel-shaped. The abnormal, almost grotesque, Roman nose, pre- sents another instance of the variety of face types in ancient southern stone carvings. The two stone pipes from Georgia, now illustrated for the first time, are described from memory by Colonel C. C. Jones, the able historian and antiquarian of that state, in his w^ork upon the An- * Burial Mounds ( Prof. Cyrus Thomas's Fifth Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnol- ogy, page 106). t Author's collection. 186 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. tiquities of the Southern Indians, page 402. These pipes, "the best idol pipes we have seen," he states, " were ploughed up near the base of the pentagonal mound, within the inclosure formed by the moat, and the Etowah, upon the plantation of Colonel Lewis Tumlin, near Cartersville, Georgia." "They were obviously very old," he continues, " and, in all likelihood, antedated, by an indelinite period of time, the occupancy of this valley by the Cherokees. So far as recorded observation extends, nothing like them was noted in the use or possession of the modern Indians." In his valuable work, Colonel Jones figures no other pipes of equal interest or so skillfully wrought.* For comparison, and in further illustration of the pipe carvings of the mound builders of the South, in the states adjacent to Ten- nessee, we present a unique stone pipe carved in imitation of the American panther, or some similar savage animal (Fig. 84). It was found in digging a ditch near the base of the large mound of the Carthage group on the AVarrior river, near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This is one of the largest and most interesting collections of ancient mounds in that state. The large Indian town once located there was probably visited by De Soto in 1540. The main mound is said to be about eighty feet high.f The panther, or puma, was the * These two fine pipes from Georgia were kindly presented to the author, a number of years ago, by Mrs. J. C. Rice, of Nashville, and her daughter. Miss Ada Rice. Mrs. Rice was the daughter of Colonel Lewis Tumlin, of Bartow county, Georgia, the owner of the plantation upon which the Etowah mound group is lo- cated. She brought them to Nashville at the close of the war. The large stone idol now in the collection of the Tennessee Historical Society, and the remarkable cop- per-plate figures and engraved shells illustrated in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, are from the same mound or mound group. Colonel Jones describes these pipes from recollection, stating that, unfortunately, '" amid the de- vastations consequent upon the invasion of Georgia by the Federal armies, in 1864, these, with other valuable relics, were either destroyed or carried away by the soldiers." As will be observed, this was an error. t This pipe is described in a printed address delivered by Thomas Maxwell, Esq., before the Alabama Historical Society, at Tuscaloosa, July 1, 1876. The author obtained it from Dr. W. H. Harris, of Louisville, Kentucky, to whom it had been presented by Mrs. Prince, the owner of the farm upon which the Carthage THE PIPES, 187 totem or enil)lem of one of the families of the Creeks or Muskogees, a most warlike tribe of southern Indians, found by the whites in Alabama and Georgia at the period of discovery, and this fine pipe may have been intended to represent the family or clan of the panther. The wild cat was also a totem of the Chickasaws. The pipe is carved from a heavy, compact, cream colored tal- cose stone, and, as shown in the engraving, is decorated with much artistic skill. Unfortunately, the artist, in preparing the engraving, having I I Fig. 84. — Stone Pipe, from Carthage Mound, Alabama (Two-thirds).* only the photograph before him, failed to properly represent the feet and claws, which are as finely carved as the face. The tail is curled up over the body, reaching to the back of the head. The stem hole is nearly as large as the bowl. The sharp angles about the eye appear in some of the Ohio animal pipe faces, and were, doubtless, intended to give fierceness to the expressoin. It is a most spirited example of ancient carving in stone, skillfully and artistically decorated. The ancient art work is fully up to the group is located. A larger stone pipe, of an animal form, and many other objects of interest, have been obtained from these mounds. See Ancient Society (Morgan) pages 161, 163, as to tiger or panther totem. * Author's collection. 188 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. standard of the copyist, and was evidently the work of a master among the pipe sculptors of the mound epoch. As may he observed, the scroll decorations and the angles about the eyes are similar to the decorations on the fine black pot- tery from Mississippi, illustrated in the preceding chapter, clearly identifying the age of this pipe with that of the best southern pottery.* Fig. 85. — Image Pipe (One-half). The pipes heretofore illustrated were obtained from the ancient graves and mounds. The large stone pipe (Fig. 85), representing a kneeling human figure, is also an ancient type. It is in the fine collection of General J. T. Wilder, now of Johnson City, Ten- nessee,! ai^radford fiirm, in the midst of the stone grave cemeteries, a few miles south of Nashville, a number of years 208 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. ago. It has been carved from slate or shale — is finely polished, and is one of the most artistic pieces of carving in stone yet discovered. In our opinion, it equals the best types of art in pipe carving found in the Ohio valley or Iowa. The material of which it is made is much harder than the steatite usually used in the manufacture of the tine Ohio pipes. The stem hole is comparatively small, and of uniform diameter, like the stem holes of the pipes of the historic tribes and of the early French traders. We do not, therefore, regard this pipe as a very ancient type, but it is a genuine antique of much interest. Pipes in imitation of alligators were found by Squier and Davis in the Scioto mounds. They corroborate the many other evidences of ancient intercourse between the mound building tribes of Ohio and the tribes of the far South. The alligator was a totem or family emblem of both the Creeks and the Chickasaws, and probably of other southern tribes.* We have presented illustrations of some of the fine stone pipes discovered in Tennessee and the states adjacent, and have en- deavored to classify them in part in the order of their probable age. Fig. 113. — Stone Pipe, Sumner County, Tennessee (Two-fifths). t In considering this subject, some attention should be given to the more familiar plain, square, and round bowl pipes, quite com- ■••• Ancient Society (Morgan), pages 161, 163. t Author's collection. THE PIPES. 209 moil ill this general section. They do not differ materially from the ordinary types fonnd elsewhere in the Mississippi valley. Ex- pert collectors can usually distinguish the very old pipes from com- paratively modern specimens by their large funnel-shaped stem holes and other peculiarities. Fig. 113 represents an ancient pipe of the familiar square form. Several varieties of this type and of the round bowl form may be found in the Historical Society's collection and in the author's col- lection. The same pattern may be observed in the pictograph on stone of the group of mound builders (Plate II). In investigating the arts of the ancient pipe makers, and thereby endeavoring to as- certain the status of the prehistoric tribes in the scale of civilization, we have for many years carefully observed the work of the pipe makers among the historic tribes. We liave patiently watched the Dakota Indians when they were engaged in carving and polishing their fine catlinite pipes, generally with the aid of no better tools than common pocket knives. The art of pipe carving was one of the few prehistoric Indian arts that remained after the advent of the Europeans, and after the art of making pottery and flint imple- ments bad been forgotten. For |)nrposes of comparison, we have collected specimens of the pipes of the Cherokees, and of a number of modern tribes, and have arranged them upon a shelf in our cabinet beside the antique types. Contact with the whites and with European art has, of course, had its influence upon the carving of the historic Indians. The theory tbat the mound building tribes belonged to a dis- tinct and superior race, and that their arts and industries were very much in advance of the historic tribes, we think can not be es- tablished by comparing the ancient with the modern pipes, as some of tbe latter equal the best specimens of pipe carvings discovered in the mounds. The series of both types show the art instinct or natural appre- ciation of art among the nati\'e tribes, and add to the many other indications of the homogeneous character of the red Indian race. 14 210 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. To enable our readers to compare the various carvings, we pre- sent a number of illustrative specimens of modern or comparatively modern pipes. Fig. 114 is a poor illustration of a beautiful pipe of brilliant red Fig. 114. — A Dakota Pipe (Two-fifths)."* catlinite, carved in the form of a hatchet. We obtained it years ago in Dakota Territory, from a Sioux chief, who made it. It is Fig. 115. — Pipes op a Modern Chief.! as symmetrical and as highly polished as if made by a skillful, educated lapidary. * Author's collection. t From Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, page 230. In the Smith- sonian Report of 1885, Part II, page 410, many of the fine catlinite pipes of the Mandans and other trilii'S are well illustrated. Several of them are carved in the form of men and animals. THE PIPES. 211 Specimens of the work of the modern Indians in red pipe stone are also shown in Fig. 115. The finely carved pipe was nsed by the famons and eloquent Indian chief, Keokuk, of the Sacs and Foxes I Fig. 116. — A Chinook Pipe (Two-thirds).* of the North-west. We have a number of Sioux pipes of the same general form, some of them artistically inlaid with lead. The au- thors of the Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, expressed Fig. 117.— An Iroquois Pipe (Actum, Size). the opinion tbat pipes of this class do not show the high order of art disjjlayed in the pipe sculptures of birds and animals discovered by *■ Author's collection. 212 ANTIQUITIES OF TENXESSEE. them in tlie Scioto mounds. This may be in part true. We have, however, in our collection, a bird pipe (Fig. 116), carved by a Chin- ook Indian, which, as a specimen of carving in stone, equals in artistic execution and delicacy of finish, some of the best ancient types of Ohio. It is about the size of the Ohio pipes, and was carved from rich, dark-green steatite. The Chinooks or Flat- heads, of the Columbia river, were a fishing tribe of low grade in the scale of civilization.* The Iroquois pipe (Fig. 117) was dug in an old Iroquois ceme- tery in New York, in 1888, by Mr. W. W. Adams, of Mapleton, New York. It is a fine specimen of the clay pipes manufactured within the historic period by the Indians of that tribe, and belongs to a Avell-known Iroquois type.f Fig. 118 is a fine example of the stone carvings of the Ilaidah Indians of the north-west coast of America. It is a pipe of black slate, brilliantly polished. In skill and delicacy of execution, and in Fig. 118. — Slate Pipe, North-west Coast Indians (Two-fifths). | its general appearance, it resembles the fine jade carvings of the Chinese and Japanese, indicating the probable ancient Asiatic origin of this art faculty. It belongs to the Jackson collection at the Hermitage, and was doubtless presented many years ago to * This fine pipe was presented by the Chinook Indian who made it to Colonel Thomas Claiborne, of Nashville, in 1850, when he was stationed in Oregon as an officer of the United States army. Colonel Claiborne kindly added it to our collection. t Mr. Adams kindly sent us the electrotype for this engraving. t Hermitage collection, Nashville. THE PIPES. 213 President Jackson. The small stem hole runs through the elab- orate network of figures to the howl. "We have a carved slate pipe made by the Thlinkets, a neighboring tribe of the north-west coast, nearly equaling it in artistic execution. These Indians, the Haidas, Thlinkets, and other tribes, were probably less civilized than some of the historic Indians of the early frontier. They lived in rude huts in a semi-savage state, yet in some of the arts, especially in wood and stone carvings, they excel all other tribes of ISTorth American Indians. Some of their pipe carvings, we think, surpass the best examples of this art yet discov- ered in the mounds of the Mississippi valley. The fine typical pipes of the mound builders illustrate the culture of the most advanced tribes of Xorth American Indians at the period of their highest development. They are sometimes remarkable examples of indi- vidual skill, but they can not be regarded as representing a different or superior race. 214 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS. The Stone Age — The Flint Chippers of Tennessee — The Arrow Makers — The Agri- cultural and Mechanical Implements — The Axes — The Adze Forms — The Small Tools — The Chisels — Cutting Knives — The Daggers — Double-barbed Spears — The Long Knives, Swords, and Spears — The Large Ceremonials — The Chipped Stone Scepters — The Unique Implements and Family Totems — The Crawfish Totem — The System of ^Totems — The Turtle Totems — Disc Forms. The bronze and iron ages in the history of the early inhabitants of Europe, were unknown in ancient America. There was a lim- ited knowledge of smelting and of the uses of bronze and copper among the Toltecs, Aztecs, and the old Peruvians, arid of the malle- ability of native copper among the ruder tribes, but the uses of iron were unknown even to Mexican and Peruvian civilization. The ancient Scandinavians, the Lake Dwellers of Switzerland, and other primitive inhabitants of Central Europe, learned at a remote period to smelt metals in rude furnaces; a knowledge possibly borrowed from Phoenicia or the East : and several of the savage tribes of Africa knew something of the smelting and the welding arts, perhaps from contact with the early civilization upon the lower Nile; but the natives of the isolated double continent of America were slow to acquire a knowledge of the arts of metallurgy, especially of the more difficult processes of utilizing the ores of iron ; and north of Mexico the stone age continued down to the period of European settlements. With the advent of the whites, the weapons, implements, and tools of stone disappeared from use, almost immediately and entirely. We, therefore, have little historic evidence regarding them. From the ancient remains found within her borders, however, we have ample evidence that the inhabitants of ancient Tennessee were ex- CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS. 215 pert flint chippers. None of the monnd building tribes excelled them in this primitive art. In fact, we doubt whether the stone implements of this class, in any other portion of ancient America, north of Mexico, equal the Tennessee specimens in variety and beauty of forms and materials. Many of the types found seem to have been unknown, even to the advanced tribes that erected the great mounds of the Ohio valley. The best specimens from the north-eastern states, described and illustrated by Dr. C. C. Abbott, are rude and primitive when compared with them,* and even the fine flints of Georgia and other southern states, described by Colonel C. C. Jones,! do not appear to equal the art of the flint chippers of Tennessee. Nearly all known American types are represented here, from the dainty little barbed arrow points of the Pacific coast type, to the largest flint axes, spades, and spears. Leaf-shaped and agricultural implements, spades, chisels, knives, skinners, scrapers, and many other tools used in the primitive industries, and often worn smooth by use, may be found in the Tennessee collections. The longest double-pointed knife or spear- shaped implement, and the longest barbed or notched spear yet discovered in America, or elsewhere, as far as we can learn, have been found in Middle Ten- nessee, and will be illustrated in this chapter. They are finely chipped and symmetrical in form. Since this chapter was first written, we have seen the pictures and descriptions of the long and beautiful flints of the California Indians, illustrated in Yol. VII, "Wheeler's Geographical Survey, Plates 7, 8, and 9, yet we do not hesitate to say, that the flints of the Stone Grave race ecj[ual them in workmanship, and surpass them in size and variety of forms. Unique implements, totems, ceremonials, and tools, unknown to even the neighboring states, are found here. Their curious shapes often surprise antiquarians from other sections. Like the remains of ancient art in pottery, they indicate that the tribes who built the mounds and stone graves of the Cumberland and Ten- * See Primitive Industry, pages 77, 97. t Antiquities of Southern Indians, Plates VII, VIII, IX. 216 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. nessee valleys were as advanced in culture as any of the aborigines within the mound districts. The material used in manufacturing these implements abounded in East Tennessee and in the counties of the " Highland Rim " that surround the Silurian basin of the central portion of the state. Many of the ancient flint pits and quarries, and the remains of the old work-shops, may still be seen. Flint, jasper, chert, and cherty, and silicious limestones, were generally used, but arrows and implements are found of chalcedony, of transparent quartz, and of quartzite and other stones. The jas- pers occur in many brilliant colors. The old arrow and implement makers must have searched far and wide for some of these rich ma- terials. There is a popular impression that the method of making fine flints and flakes is one of the unknown arts. This is an error. There were arrow-smiths and flint chippers in most of the modern tribes, and arrow points are still occasionally made by some of the tribes of the Far West. Good specimens of the stone points of the ISTavajos, Utes, and other Indians, firmly fastened to wooden shafts, may be seen in the J^ational Museum, and other public collections. The methods of manufacturing them have frequently been de- scribed.* ■•■• Captain John Smith, writing of the Indians of Virginia in 1G06, says : " His arrow-head he maketh quickly with a httle bone wliich he weareth at his bracert (girdle) of any splint of stone or glass, in the form of a heart, and these they glue to the end of their arrows." — Quoted in Ancient Stone Implements (Evans), page 37. "The Hupa Indians, of California, chip arrow-heads with a hard deer-horn fast- ened to a wooden handle. The work is held in the palm of the liand, which is i^ro- tected by a buckskin pad, and the chips are flaked off' by pressing the edge of the flint Avith the tool held in the right hand, the ball ol the handle resting in the palm. The Point Barrow Eskimo also press downward in chipping with a similar tool."— Otis T. Mason, in Smithsonian Report, 1886, Part I, page 226. "The Viard arrow maker," says Stephen Powers, "takes a piece of jasper, chert, obsidian, or common flint, which breaks sharp-cornered and with a con- choidal fracture ; this he heats in the fire and then cools slowly, which splits it in flakes; then taking one of these flakes, he gives it an approxnnately right shape, by striking it with a rough hammer ; then slips over his left hand a piece of buckskin, with a hole to fit over the thumb (this buckskin is to prevent the hand from bein^? CHIPPED STOXE IMPLExMENTS. 217 In the chipping and flaking processes, sometimes percussion or hammering was used ; sometimes only pressure. A small, hard, little bone or horn implement was dexterously and steadily pressed against the brittle edges of the flint or jasper, and thus by a series of delicate flakings, on alternate sides, they were chipped into the desired forms. Necessity would soon teach the most inexperienced workman to fashion rough stones into convenient shapes; but the finer types required careful manipulation, and only experts with practiced eye and hand, and with an unusual natural appreciation of artistic forms, could have produced the rare and beautiful im- plements of flint, jasper, and chert occasionally found in Tennessee. Some of them equal the art work in obsidian of the old Mexicans. We shall not attempt to present paleolithic types of flint im- plements. In the vicinity of JSTashville there are no great gravel- beds or glacial deposits, such as occur in some other sections of the United States, where paheolithic remains, as distinct from the neo- lithic remains, might be found. We find many flint implements of wounded), and in his right hand he takes a pair of buck-horn pincers, tied together at the point with a thong. Holding tlie jiiece of flint in his left hand, he breaks off from the edge of it a tmy fragment with the pincers, by a twisting or wrenching motion. The piece is often reversed in the hand, so that it may be worked away symmetrically. Arrow-head manufacture is a si^ecialty, just as arrow making, medi- cine, and other arts. These pincers are probably only our compound chipper. With the Klamath Indians, a piece of bone is fastened to a wooden shaft, one and a half feet in length, the working point of which is crooked and raised to an edge, the force employed being all the time solely pushing. To guide the instrument with a steady hand, the handle is held between the arm and the breast, while the point, with but little play room, assisted by the thumb, works the edge of the flake, which again is held, for greater safety, in a piece of deer-skin. After the two sides have been worked down to a point, then another instrument is required, with which the barbs and projections are broken out. This is a needle or awl of about three inches iu length, and, by a pushing motion, the desired pieces are broken out, as with the fii'st-mentioned tool." — Smithsonian Report, ISSti (Otis T. Mason), Part I, page 226. See also Geo. E. Sellers, in Smithsonian Report, 1885, Part I, page 871. Mr. Sellers now resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When recently in that city, Mr. J. B. Nicklen handed the writer a number of well-made flint arrow points for examina- tion. He said that he obtained them from Mr. Sidlers, wlio stated that he had made them. They did not difler from the genuine ordinary types. 218 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. rude character, but we can not feel assured that any of them should be assigned to an earlier period or race than the neolithic imple- ments from the same section. Neither shall we attempt to illus- trate many of the ordinary forms of chipped stone implements. They are found in every section of the country, and indeed, in all countries, and have frequently been described.* The rare and curious types, some of them found only in this state, the implements used by the aboriginal mechanics, and the " ceremonials " and totems, are of more archaeological interest, and give more definite evidence as to the conditiou of society and the state of the arts and industries of the prehistoric period. We also find it impracticable, with the limited facilities at our disposal, to prepare engravings reproducing with exactness the natural chipped or flaked surface of many of these implements. Some of the engravings are but outline sketches. We have, how- ever, had a number of good specimens photo-engraved by the " Moss process," directly from the objects (Plates XI, XIII, XIV), that the reader may have a more correct and exact impression of thern ; and most of the small engravings have been prepared with the aid of photographic outlines. The long, double-pointed implement in Plate XI is of cherty flint, and measures twelve inches. It is very thin and delicately formed, no part of it being over a third of an inch in thickness (author's collection). The sharply pointed barbed spear of yellow jasper, eight inches long (Historical Society collection), is a marvel of the chipping art. It is symmetrically beveled on both sides, in rhombic form, as if to give it a rotary motion. Two arrow points are similarly beveled. The beautiful, curious, hook-shaped implement, a light brown flint, is seven and ■■•■ Arrow points of stone, antedating the period of earliest Roman history, are plowed up on the CampagnU, just outside of the walls of ancient Rome. They oc- cur in the gravel beds of the Thames and Seine, within the limits of London and Paris. They were unearthed by Schliemann among the ruins of Mycenae ; and chipped flint implements, older than the civilization of Egypt, are found along the banks of the Lower Nile, in the vicinity of Thebes and Memphis. These remains of primitive man seem to have been distributed throughout all countries. CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS. 219 a half inclies long (Historical Society collection). The other objects illustrated in Plate XI are of fine jasper and flint (author's collec- tion). The plate presents them with photographic fidelity. Fine examples of the work of the old arrow-makers are shown in Fig. 119. The two small points were chipped from translucent blue-gray chalcedony. They are very similar to the delicate arrow points found in J^ew Mexico and along the Pacific coast. The Fig. 119. — Arrow and Spear Points (Actual Size).* others are of fine, thin jasper. Arrows with the double or forked Bhank are not uncommon in this section. The largest specimen, of red and pur[»le hue, was probably used as a spear point. These objects are from Middle and East Tennessee. There seems to be no limit to the numbers and varieties of arrow points. It would be impossible to describe or illustrate them in an ordinary vohime. A number of the unusual forms are shown in Plate XII. It in- cludes also some otber objects classified as drills and scrapers.f * Author's collection. t The specimens illustrated in this plate were selected from the collections of Jno. G. Cisco and the author. 220 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. Chipped flint implements, used for other purposes, are also numerous. It is, in fact, difficult to classify or group the large amount of this material in the various local collections at l!^ash- ville and elsewhere in Tennessee. The village Indians who lived in the towns, forts, and settle- ments of the Cumberland valley, in the prehistoric period, must have been sufficiently advanced in the march toward civilization to have learned the use of a variety of implements of stone, wood, bone, horn, and shell. Sets of tools of chipped and polished stone, evidently the outfit of some ancient lapidary or artisan, are occa- 1 2 3 4 Fig. 120. — Agricultukal and Mechanical Implements, Tennessee (About One- eighth). sionally found lying together in the same grave. Eight well made implements, of various forms, all ground or polished by use, were recently found by Mr. W. AV. Dosier in a single stone grave on the bank of the Cumberland below ISTashville, lying beside three useful implements of bone. Mr. Jno. Blunkall found another set, mainly sharp stone chisels, and a horn handle, with a deep socket, in a neighboring grave. Caches of new flints, or cherts, in large num- bers, and of the same peculiar forms, are also found, all apparently just as they left the w^ork-shop of some old stone chipper. Fig. 120 gives the outlines of a number of large specimens, usually classified as agricultural and mechanical implements. The originals from which these sketches were made, as they lie on a table before the writer, form an interesting group : I CHIPPED STONE IMPLExMENTS. 221 'No. 1. An agricultural implement or " hoe," of flint}- chert, is from Madison county (J. G. Cisco's collection). It is about eight inches long, is slightly curved, and is symmetrical in form. The type is unusual in Tennessee. As it is quite common in Illinois, this fine hoe may have been an importation, in ancient times, from that section. No. 2. Is the largest perfect fan-shaped hoe or adze we have seen, and is a fine specimen of the chipping art. It is of flinty chert from Stewart county, is twelve and one-half inches long, and eight inches wide at the blade. Although so large, it is not over an inch thick at the center. It is slightly curved or adze-shaped, and at the blade end is symmetrically beveled to a thin, sharp edge. We have a number of large flints of this form. No. 3. A handsome, symmetric leaf-shaped type, from David- son county, is of fine chert — almost a pure flint — and is nearly four- teen inches long. The blade end is beautifully chipped to a fine edge all around. Like nearly all of the large implements of this outline, it is a "turtle back," or adze-shaped in form. This type is not un- common in Middle Tennessee. We have several similar specimens. Several years ago Dr. Kirkpatrick, who resided near JSTashville, and in the vicinity of the stone grave cemetery on White's creek, plowed into a cache of a dozen or more fine specimens, nearly all large, and of this general form. They were as perfect as when they left the old stone chipper's shop.* No. 4. A paddle-shaped flint from Stewart county, glossy with use at the blade end, is ten and one-half inches long, and is as symmetrical and delicately chipped as a fine spear point. It is also slightly curved or adze-shaped. No. 5. Is a small notched hoe, from Davidson county (author's collection). This form is not very rare. Some of these specimens seem to be too brittle and delicately made for use as common or field implements. They may have been used as adzes in chipping the charred wood from the trunks of ■•■■ We are indebted to Pr. Kirkpatrick for several of the finest of these speci- mens. 222 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. trees burned or hollowed out, iu making canoes, and for other me- chanical purposes. After Fig, 120 was engraved, it seemed to represent some of these fine flints so indifferently, that we have had four typical speci- mens (author's collection) photo-engraved (Plate XIII), in order to give a more correct and satisfactory impression of them. (The plate represents them a little less than one-third actual sizes.) The leaf-shaped flint illustrated is fourteen inches long, and the large fan-shaped specimen is twelve and one-half inches long and Fig. 121. — Chipped Flint Adze, Davidson County (One-half).* eight inches wide at the blade. These measures will indicate the dimensions of the others. These fine types appear to be rare or unknown in other portions of the Mississippi valley. We have not observed them in the archaeological collections of the North, They are not found in Great Britain, and we doubt whether the large flints of Scandinavia equal them in size and symmetry of form. A fine type of the adze form is illustrated in Fig. 121. The m.ost skillful lapidary could not improve upon the model of this tool, or cut a more useful adze in stone. f These large and slightly curved implements were too large and too long to fasten or haft in sockets. They were probably bound to wooden handles after the manner shown in Fig. 122. ' * Author's collection. t We are indebted to William Watkins, Esq., for this fine specimen. It was found on his farm, near Nashville. CHIPPED STONE fMPLT-MENTS. 223 Rough iinplemcnts, doubtless used with handles as axes, weap- ons, or perhaps as hoes, are shown in Pigs. 123 and 124. These varieties, although rude, are not common. Fig. 122. — Probable Method of Hafting the Adzes and Hoes. m\ iiii'ii \''4v Fig. 123. — Stone Imtlkment, Cumberland A' A LL E Y ( O N E- FO U RT H ) .* Fig. 124. — Stone Implement, Dickson Co. (One-half).! We have selected the spoon and tool-shaped flints and working implements, rather stiffly and inaccurately illustrated in outline in Fig. 125, from an assortment of a thousand or more Middle Tennes- see flints and ])oints in our collection, as representative specimens of the smaller class of blunt implements and working tools used by the * Di-. .J. .Jones collection, t Author's collection. 224 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. meclianics of the stone age in this section. The general outhnes of the forms of these pecuhar flints are correct. They were found in the counties near ISTashville. The variety of these small tools or Fig. 125. — Flint Tools or Implements, from Vicinity of Nashville (One-fourth).* tool flints indicates that there were probably separate trades or in- dustries, requiring the use of many different kinds of implements. In some ot the modern tribes, there were specialists in the difierent Fig. 126. — Scrapers, Side Views (One-third).* industrial pursuits. We are told that, among the Hupa Indians of California, the arrow smith flaked and chipped the flint and obsid- ian arrow-heads, and that a clifterent workman, an expert, made and trimmed the wooden arrow shafts to which the stone points were fastened. t Fig. 126 gives side views and a somewhat more correct idea of some of the "scrapers" and spoon-shaped forms. Most of them were notched or prepared for handles, and doubtless they made con- venient and useful implements. The many flint flakes and curious forms found, show that the "••• Author's collection. t Smithsonian Report, 1886, Part I, page COO. CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS. 225 old flint workers were very dextrous in chipping rough stones into any shapes that suited their convenience. Fig. 127 represents a chipped stone "implement," found in a field adjoining the Koel cemetery. It may have been used as a weight or plummet. Fig. 127. — Chipped Weight or Plummet (Two-ttiirds).* One of the most interesting chipped tools or implements we have seen was found in Montgomery county, near the Kentucky line. It is illustrated (actual size) in Fig. 128. Fig. 128. — Chipped Flint Implement, Montgomery County.* This pretty little rectangle of rich, clear, yellow flint or jasper, is as thin and delicately made as the finest arrow point. It has been carefully chipped and beveled to an exact form, with similar * Author's collection, 15 226 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. flat, sharp edges on all four sides, and must have been designed for some special use. It is one of the flint types that seems to indicate a condition of society and of the industrial arts above the ordinary stone hammer and spear stage of barbarism. A side view or section of it should have been presented to show its symmetry of form. Fig. 129. — Chipped Stone Chisel, Humphreys County (Two-tiiirds).* Much smaller, well-made, square flints, called "gambling flints," and doubtless used for that purpose, are found in Kew York. We have good specimens of them. Fig. 130. — Chisel-shaped Implements, Davidson County (T^v^o-thirds).* The stone chisel (Fig. 129) is chipped to a sharp edge, with square corners at the blade end, and would have done good service as a cutting tool. The chisel-shaped flints more frequently show evidences of ase * Author's collection. CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS. 'A'H than any other class of chip})ed stone implements. They are found in the stone graves and elsewhere in considerable numbers, and of various shapes and sizes, usually being slightly curved, or shaped like a flat adze. Illustrations of this class are presented in Fig. 130. Little short chisels are found that doubtless had handles of wood or bone. Others are long, and were probably used without separate handles. Five fine specimens of yellow and gray flint, and as sharp as an ordinary table-knife at the blade edges, were recently found in the same grave. The chisels, or the implements Fig. 131. — Flint Chisels, Davidson County (Two-fifths).* of that form, must have been favorite tools in the old work-shops, if we may judge from the numbers found in the ancient burial grounds. Three " chisels " from the set of five, are shown in Fig. 131. A stone cutting knife, with a well-ground edge, is shown in Fig. 132. It must have been a serviceable knife in its day, its edge being still sharp and well beveled. It was doubtless formerly fastened to a handle of w^ood or horn. The chipped cutting-knife, with the double ground edge seven inches long (F'ig. 133), was recently found by Mr. Blunkall in a * Author's collection. 228 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. grave of a small cemetery a few miles west of Nashville, on the Cumberland river. The deer-horn handle was discovered in the excavated earth a few feet from the knife. It is partly decayed at the end, but from the oval shape of the deep socket in the horn, it Fig. 132. — A Flint Cutting Knife (Two-thirds).* evidently originally held the knife or some similar implement. The knife end of the horn is pierced with rivet holes, in which, perhaps, the string was fastened that aided in binding the knife to it. A similar handle was found by Mr. Blunkall with a kit of flint Fig. 133. — Flint Knife and Horn Handle, Davidson County (Two-thirds).! chisels in a grave of the same cemetery. These are the only ancient horn handles from this section that have come to our notice. It seems singular that they are not more frequently found, considering the number of tool handles that must have been used. Perhaps * Johnson collection. t Author's collection. 1 CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS. 229 the latter were chiefly made of wood, that has entirely decayed from lapse of time. Ancient chipped flint implements, with horn handles, have frequently been found on the Pacific slope and in Europe. Many of them were preserved from decay in the caves and in the lakes of Switzerland.* The implements illustrated in Figs. 13-4 and 135 (author's col- lection) were probably not spears, but, judging from their forms, were intended for cutting-knives, and doubtless had short handles suitable for that purpose. ISTo. 134, as will be observed, is a fine Figs. 13-4 and 135. — Flint Knives (Two-thirds) piece of chipped work. The small flake grooves are rounded or arched over the blade, with a regularity and precision that appear very remarkable. In I^o. 135 the end of the flint, formerly hafted, still shows the different or mottled surface, caused by the glue or handle, while the rest of the flint is bright and clean. These knives were found in the cemeteries in the vicinity of Nashville, the larger one in a stone grave. Fig. 13(3 represents two small implements from the graves, * Tn exploring the houses of the clitF dwellers of Colorado, Hint knives with wooden handles were recentlv foun