322 



bushnell: textiles from ozark caves 



Figure 5. (U. S. N. M. 230,533). Fragment of a loosely 

 woven mat or bag. The technique is similar to that of the pre- 

 ceding example. The material has 

 not yet been identified. 



Figure 6. (U. S. N. M. 230,714). 

 This was recovered ''From a rock 

 shelter on the farm of Mrs. Hardin. 

 The shelter is below a high bluff, 

 known as Eden Bluff, on the north 

 bank of White River and 1 mile south 

 of the town of Monte Ne, Benton 

 County, Arkansas. It was found in 

 a mass of dry ashes, intermingled 

 with fragments of limestone. Above 

 the ashes, to a height of 5 or 6 feet, 

 and extending for a distance of 60 or 

 70 feet, were numerous pictographs 

 in red paint. Other objects found in 

 the shelter were grains of charred 

 corn, corncobs, a strand of coarse 

 grass with a knot, hickory nuts, 

 charred oak, stone implements, bones, 

 shells, etc."" 

 This piece, of unknown use, is about 35 cm. in length. It is 

 made of the inner bark of the basswood, Tilia americana. At 

 each end the strands of fiber have been formed into rather tightly 

 wrapped rolls, which, however, do not contain any other sub- 

 stance. The strands extending between the rolls are loose. The 

 fiber is in a remarkably perfect state of preservation. 



The Osage at the present time make use of the barks of the 

 basswood, the slippery elm, and the pawpaw. 



The, discovery of fragments of basketry in a cave within the 



« Quoted from the notes by E. H. Jacobs, by whom the material was collected. 

 The rock shelter at Eden Bluff is mentioned in the article by Peabody and Moore- 

 head (op. cit.): "The rock-shelter was used in early times for burials, and five 

 or six skeletons have at different times been exhumed; a feature was the 'wild hay,' 

 dried, found in connection with the burials." Unfortunately the 'wild hay' 

 was not identified, and it may, in reality, have been basswood bark. 



Natural size 



