EARTHWORKS ON THE BIG HARPETH RIYER. 



77 



Fig. 44. 



Fig. 4S. 



Fig. 44. Profile view of a small, hollow 

 image, from an aboriginal mound in tlio 

 valley of the Cumberland. 



Fig. 45. Front view of the image repre- 

 sented in Fig. 44. 



three crescentic lines, both on the anterior and posterior surfaces; and the painted 

 vases, with the crosses and scalloped arches, from the burial mounds on the banks 

 of the Big Harpeth, were accurately divided by bands of black pigment, each into 

 three circles, inclosing the crosses and scalloped bands. 



A circular shell ornament, with a distinct cross carved in the centre, which had 

 been fiUed with red pigment, was taken by Colonel 

 Putnam from the breast of a skeleton iu a stone 

 grave near Nashville, Tennessee. 



Haywood, in his "Natural and Aboriginal His- 

 tory of Tennessee," records the fact that in the 

 small graves near Sparta, Tennessee, vessels with 

 the cross painted on them, and also a round shell 

 with two holes, a cross, and two circles cut in it, 

 were exhumed. Haywood also states that, in dig- 

 ging into a mound at Chillicothe, Ohio, the remains 

 of a man were found, and over the place where 

 his breast was supposed to have been, was a cross 

 and a string of beads. The cross was completely 

 converted into verdigris. The trees which grew 

 upon the mound were of the same size as those of 

 the surrounding woods. 



When the Spaniards arrived in America, they are said to have found stones cut 

 iu the figure of a cross which were reverenced by the Mexicans. 



The principal object in a tablet described by Mr. Stevens, from the ruins of 

 Palenque, is a cross surmounted by a strange bird, and covered with indescribable 

 ornaments. The two figures on either side of the cross are evidently those of 

 important personages, perhaps of sacerdotal character. Both are looking towards 

 the cross, and one seems in the act of making an offering, perhaps of a child. 

 This tablet of the cross has given rise to more learned speculations than perhaps 

 any others found at Palenque. Uupaix and his commentators, assuming for the 

 building a very remote antiquity, or at least a period long antecedent to the Chris- 

 tian era, account for the appearance of the cross by the argument that it Avas 

 known and had a symbolic meaning among ancient nations long before it was 

 established as the emblem of the Christian faith. In Egypt it was venerated from 

 the greatest antiquity as the symbol of matter ; amongst the Irish it was the symbol 

 of knowledge ; and Garcilasso afiirms that the ancient Peruvians had a cross of 

 white marble which they held in great veneration, but did not adore, and could 

 give no reason for the respect which they paid it. ]\Ir. Stephens, in the second 

 volume of his travels in Central America, expresses the opinion that this particular 

 building in which the cross was found, was intended as a temple, and the inclosed 

 inner chamber containing the cross was an adoraforio. In the only statue found 

 at Palanque, the face of which has an expression of serene repose and a strong 

 resemblance to Egyptian statues, the form of the cross is plainly marked in the 

 head-dress. Mr. Stephens denies any very great antiquity to these ruins, and 

 holds that they are the work of a people who had not yet passed away— but who 



