SMITHSONIAX ARCILEOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 



55 



stone imag-e, more than twenty inches in length and weighing thii'ty-sevcn 

 pounds and four ounces, wliich was discovered in a cave near Strawberry 

 Plains, sixteen miles east of Knoxville, Tennessee.*' This remarkable relic, 

 which is in a very good state of preservation, consists of crystalline limestone, 

 the fracture of which can be seen at the back of the head, where the figure 

 seems to have been detached from the rock out of which it was sctilptured. 



215 



220 



SCULPTUltt-S. 



It is possible, however, that the fracture indicates the former presence of some 

 sort of handle oi' projection by which the image was carried or attached. The 

 face shoAvs a somewhat prominent nose and strongly marked brows, and the 

 eyes consist of small oval cavities, while the mouth is ring-shaped, as in many 

 Mexican representations of the human countenance. A groove extends across 



^•^An account of the discovcrv of tliis image is given in the Smithsonian Report for 1S70, p. 385. 



