122 Hopewell Mound Group 



of the finest ornaments from the Hopewell mounds. In fact he selected 

 one on which there was a symbolic design. In the paper detailing at 

 length his experiment he records that, as the nugget was hammered, 

 the outer edge of the sheet became hard and brittle, and showed a 

 liability to crack and break. The cracks usually extended toward the 

 centre. He therefore placed the copper on a fire made of drift wood 

 and, after heating the metal, allowed it to slightly cool, then continued 

 the hammering. By repeating this process he was able to reduce the 

 copper to proper thinness. After the sheet of copper had been prepared, 

 he pointed a stone and drew a circle of the required diameter. With 

 the aid of his bone implement he made a groove around this circle, 

 producing a corresponding ridge on the opposite side. He ground this 

 ridge away with a flat rubbing-stone, and had a flat circular disk of 

 nearly uniform thickness. Believing that the Indians had a model of 

 either wood or clay over which they pressed the thin sheet copper, he 

 constructed a form from pine-wood with the aid of stone implements 

 and fire. He carved the circle with its radiating arms (which was on 

 the original Hopewell ornament) upon the form with a stone knife. 

 He bent the metal over the form and forced it into the grooves with 

 his narrow bone tool and a small water-worn pebble which he used as 

 a hand hammer. He found it necessary to anneal the copper, as the 

 bone implement tended to harden or temper the metal. He finished 

 the edges of the disks by rubbing them upon a flat stone, and then 

 polished the object. He concluded that a number of plates could be 

 thus fashioned over the same mould or form. He states that sheet 

 copper can be readily drilled with a pointed stone, provided the point 

 is not too sharp. He made a careful study of the construction of these 

 ornaments, and his drawings illustrating the various steps in the manu- 

 facture are reproduced in Fig. 17. He may well be satisfied with the 

 results of his labor, as the ear-busk made by him is very much like the 

 one in Plate LVII, No. 1, of the Hopewell collection, although it is, of 

 course, brighter and fresher. 



Thirty to thirty-five copper anklets, bracelets, and disks were 

 found with skeletons 260 and 261 and in the other copper deposits and 

 altars. The small washer-shaped disks have been described elsewhere. 

 The bracelets and anklets are made both from solid copper and from 

 sheet copper rolled. They vary in thickness. Two are shown in Plate 

 LVIII, — one solid, the other of sheet copper, edges turned over. The 

 largest one is 9.5 cm in diameter. In the one made of sheet copper it 

 will be observed that there is an opening extending entirely around. 

 The edges are made smooth, so the bracelet could be worn conveniently. 



