Copper Objects 



117 



partly worked nuggets of copper, which certainly would not have been 

 given to the Indians by traders or travellers. To present a technical 

 study of this wealth of copper would require a special monograph, but 

 it is not my purpose to consider in detail everything found in the mounds. 



The axes and adzes found range in size from very small examples, 

 4 or 5 cm long and 3 cm wide to the very large example shown in Plate 

 LIII, which weighs 38^2 pounds. A distinction must be drawn between 

 the adzes, which are concave on one 

 side and convex on the other, with 

 flaring edges (Plate LI), and the 

 axes, whose edges do not flare 

 (Plate LII). 



It is well to compare these copper 

 implements with the stone imple- 

 ments of the ungrooved axe class. 

 The same types have been found, 

 in stone, in village sites and graves 

 in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 

 Most of the better stone axes and 

 adzes have one side flat with the 

 other convex and an edge which 

 is often sharply beveled or curved. 

 The makers of the copper imple- 

 ments probably patterned the adzes 

 after the specialized stone adze- 

 blades, and the ordinary axes after 

 the stone ungrooved axe or celt. 

 Fig. 13a, drawn by C.C.Willoughby, 

 shows the outlines of copper adzes 

 and axes found in the Hopewell 

 mounds. The copper adzes and axes 

 seem to be particularly corroded. 

 Traces of the cloth were still visible 

 on some specimens, and of what was 



apparently fur on others. Willoughby thinks that most of the hatchets, 

 adzes, and celts had not been used. The suggestion naturally follows 

 that these objects, notwithstanding their form, were treasured valu- 

 ables rather than tools for every-day use. In Fig. 136 Willoughby has 

 drawn three specimens found with skeleton 176. The upper ends of 

 the two at the left are battered, and all show laminations, indicating 

 that at least some of these objects were used as tools. It is rather 



Fig. 13a. 



Outline of Copper 



Hatchets and Adzes. 



