278 ART IN SHELL OP THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



not anywhere appear that ornamental stone plates were in general 

 use." ' 



This specimen, or one identical with it, is in the possession of the Nat- 

 ural History Museum in New York. It was plowed np in 1859 on the 

 lower terrace of a large mound near Cartersville, Ga. 



Other specimens somewhat similar to the one described by Professor 

 Jones have been obtained from the .same region, two of which are now in 

 the National Museum. One of these from a mound on the ^^'arrior Ki v. is 

 made of gray slate, and is about eight inches in diameter. It is smooth, 

 symmetrical, and doubly convex. There are three shallow, irregular lines 

 near the border, and the periphery is ornamented with twenty-one scal- 

 lops. Another specimen, a cut of wliich has already been published by 

 Dr. Eau in " The Archteological Collection of the National Museum," 

 p. 37, is illustrated in Plate LVII, Fig. 1. It is nearly one-half an inch 

 iu thickness, and about ten inches in diameter. A single incised line 

 runs parallel with the circumference, which is ornamented with nine 

 rather irregularly placed notches. The stone disk, of which an outline 

 is given in Fig. 2, Plate LVII, was obtained from the Lick Creek 

 mound, in East Tennessee. Its resemblance to the shell disks is so 

 striking that it must be regarded as having a similar origin if not a 

 similar use. The division into zones is tbe same as in the shell disks ; 

 the outer is divided into twelve lobes, and the cross in the center takes 

 the place of the involute rosette with its central circle. The fact that 

 this particular design is engraved on heavy plates of stone as well as 

 upon shell gorgets is sufficient i)roof that its origin cannot be atti-ibuted 

 to fancy alone. 



I have seen at the National Museum a curious specimen of stone disk, 

 which should be mentioned in this place, altbough there is not sufiicient 

 assurance of its genuineness to allow it undisputed claim to a place 

 among antiquities. It is a perfectly circular, neatly-dressed sandstone 

 disk, twelve inches iu diameter and one-half an inch in thickness. 

 U])on one face we see three marginal incised lines, as iu the example 

 just described, while on the other there is a well-engraved design which 

 represents two entwined or rather knotted rattlesnakes. An outline of 

 tbis curious figure is given iu Plate LXVI. Within the circular space 

 inclosed by the bodies of the serpents is a well drawn band in the palm 

 of which is placed an open eye ; this would ])robably have been omitted 

 by the artist had he fully appreciated the skeptical tendencies of the 

 modern archseologist. The margin of the plate is divided into seventeen 

 sections by small semicircular indentations. This object is said to have 

 been obtained from a mound near Carthage, Ala. The rever.se is shown 

 in Fig. 4, Plate LVII. A similar specimen from a mouud near Lake 

 Washington, Mississippi, is described by Mr. Anderson.^ 



The short time at my disposal has barely permitted me to collect the 



'Jones: Antiqiiilies of the Southern Indians, pp. 373-5. 

 'Anderson, in the Cincinnati Quarterly Journal of Science, October, 1875, p. 378. 



