PREHISTORIC ART. 



489 



identify them beyond all doubt as aboriginal. Their use is unknown, 

 although it has been suggested that they served as stamps fori mi)ress- 

 ing colored ornamental figures iipon cloths or prepared skin. A 

 peculiar class of these tablets of intaglio scuplturing are those repre- 

 sented in figs. 140 and 147. Fig. 146 represents the celebrated "Cin- 

 cinnati tablet," now in the Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, where it 

 has been deposited by its owner, Mr. Gest. The authenticity of tins 

 tablet has been disputed.' It was found in December, 1841. The 

 material is a compact, fine-grained sandstone of a light-brown color. It 



Fig. 142. 



STONE MASK. 



Etowah mound, Georgia. Coai'se marble. 



Thomas, Twelfth Ann. Kept. Bur. Ethuol., 1890-91, p. SOS, %. 191. Cat. No. 9III11, U.S.N. XI. V, nrUural siie. 



is 5 inches in length, 3 inches in breadth, and about ^ iiich in thickness. 

 The figures are cut in low relief, the lines being- not more than tt^ inch 

 deep. This tablet had stood, from the time of its discovery until the 

 meeting- of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 ;it Springfield, August, 1895, without any serious attempt at explana- 

 tion or translation, when this work was attempted by Professor Put- 

 nam and Mr. C. C. Willoughby under the title "Symbolism in Ancient 

 American Art." 



'Tlie question is argued at length in the Transactions of the American Ethnolog- 

 ical Society, II, and in Squicr and Davis's "Ancient Mounmcuts of the Mississippi 

 Valley," p. 274, ligs. 194 and 195. 



