502 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



BIUD FIGURE. 



Fij;-. 151. 



THIN COl'PER PLATE RE- 

 POUSSK. 



Mound, Union County, Illinois. 



Thomas, Twelfth Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethnol., 1890-91, p. .309, 

 fig. 192. Cat. No. 91507, U.S.N.M. i-j, natural sizi-. 



a limnan skull with a unique head covering made principally of copper. 



It consisted of a large sheet 16 or 18 inches long, intended to be bent 



over the head, from the edges of which, 

 about the center on either side, sprang 

 a pair of imitation elk horns, as shown 

 in the plate. They were not real elk 

 horns, but had been carved out of wood 

 to represent elk horns. The wood of the 

 horns was entirely covered with thin 

 sheet copper neatly and artistically 

 placed so as to have tbe appearance of 

 solid copper, and it was not until after a 

 considerable examination that their real 

 character was detected. The antlers 

 were 213 inches high and 19 inches across 

 the upper points. Plate 63 represents 

 another object of a similar tyjie from the 

 same mound ; it also is a copper head 

 dress with two short rounded horns 

 springing from the top as shown. They 

 were also covered, but the copper had 

 been broken from the top of the two 



horns, leaving the naked wood i^rojecting. These latter figures are 



unique, and their right to a presentation in a pai^er on art lies in the excel- 

 lence of the mechanical execution, 



and the difficulty of performing it. 



No one who has insjiected these 



objects, and who considers all to 



have been aboriginal savage work, 



but would admit them to a place 



in a paper on prehistoric art. 

 Found in the same mound, and 



associated with the foregoing ob- 

 jects, was a piece of human bone 



(femur) which bore an engraved 



design, which is here rejDroduced 



(fig. 154) from the pamphlet of 



Prof. F. W. Putnam and Mr. 0. C. 



"W illoughby.^ On this they based 



an elaborate system of symbolism, 



involving an explanation of the 



"Cincinnati tablet," previously 



mentioned (fig. 140, p. 401). 

 The Hopewell group of mounds was prolific in art objects and it 



made large and valuable contributions to American prehistoric ancha;- 



Fig. 152. 



H0MAN FIGURES IN GROTESQUE ATTITUDE. THIN 

 COPPER PLATE, KEPOUSS^. 



Union County, Illinois. 



I'homas, Kifth Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethnol., 1883-84, p. 100, tij;. 49. Cat. 

 No. 88142, U.S.N.M. Jj natural size. 



' "Syiiibolisiu ia Ancient AineriLiin Art," I'loc Anier. Assn. Adv. Sci., Springtield, 

 Massachusetts, 1895. 



