470 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



covered in a cave near Strawberry Plains, IG miles east of Knoxville, 

 Tennessee. The body is rudimentary. The face is fairly well repre- 

 sented and shows the two peculiarities of the sculptures of that south- 

 ern region, that is, the retreating forehead and the ring-like mouth. 



Fig. 123 represents two views, back and front, of a rude sculpture of 

 the female figure. It is of yellowish sandstone, is from Williamson 

 County, Tennessee, and is about 8 in(;hes high. Like the former speci- 

 men, the body and head are rude, being little more than indicated. 

 The mammae show it to have been intended for a 

 female figure. The arms are only indicated on the 

 stone and are not separated from the body. The 

 figure is seated or kneeling, the hands upon the 

 knees. The spinal column is i)romineutly indi- 

 cated. There is the same sloping face and re- 

 treating forehead, with the ring-mouth as before 

 remarked. 



Fig. 124 is another represeutaMon of a female 

 figure, 15 inches high, of yellowish sandstone, 

 from the same locality (Williamson County, Ten- 

 nessee). The body is much better represented 

 than the former, and as a work of art is more 

 complete and better finished. The figure is 

 kneeling with the hands crossed and pressing 

 against the abdomen. The occiput is provided 

 with a knot through which is a perforation, as 

 though for suspension, although its actual use is 

 unknown. 



Prof. Cyrus Thomas' published an investigation 

 into the geographic extension in the Southern 

 States, of sculi^tures with the peculiar fillet ex- 

 tending from the head down the back, and con- 

 cludes that "the conventionalized form is indica- 

 tive of local origin." His attention in this regard 

 was first arrested by the examination of a small 

 stone image found in a box-shaped stone grave at 

 Castilian Springs, Sumner County, Tennessee, 

 sent to the Bureau of American Ethnology by 

 "'"■'■■ Mr. S. S. Bush, of Louisville, Kentucky. 



Fig. 125 represents two views of a cast of this image (Cat. No. 

 175041, U.S.K.M.). It is to be remarked that this image, while it has 

 the retreating forehead, has no semblance of the ring mouth heretofore 

 noticed. Though reported to have been made of stone, the photographs 

 from which these figures were made was a clay model or plaster cast, 

 and the eyes and nose differ widely from the stone images of that local- 

 ity, being almost exactly like those made of clay and which abound on 

 the pottery bowls and bottle vases. 



'<m-Miiu 



Fig. 122. 



HUAIAN I!\IAf)E, OP CRYSTAL- 

 LINE LLMESTONE. 



Height, 20 iiicliea; weight, 



37 pounds. 

 Cave, Strawberry I'laiiis, 



near Jvuoxvillb, Teiines- 



aee. 



C-Ht. No. 04112, U.S.N.M. 1 natiiriil 



' Amer. Authrop., IX, December, 1896, p. 404. 



