330 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



Our archaeological collection now consists of 350 copper-beads, 14 

 copper awls, 33 copper axes, 62 mound-builders' pipes, 4 inscribed 

 tablets, 250 vessels of ancient pottery, also of Indian relics, 1,100 

 stone implements and 15,000 flint— principally arrow and spear-heads. 

 In evidence of the value of this part of our collection, not as speci- 

 mens in a museum, but as proofs in the study of the history of man- 

 kind, as guide-posts in the search for truth regarding the earliest inhab- 

 itants of this country, I need only call your attention to the original 

 essays of Dr. Farquharson, Prof. Seyffarth and Mr. Putnam, found in 

 our own proceedings. 



Dr. Farquharson wrote in 1875 concerning our copper axes, and 

 the article attracted wide attention. At that time there were but 

 eleven copper axes besides the twenty-five we had in our collection, 

 known or reported in this country. Did the mound-builders possess- 

 ing copper axes belong to the copper period corresponding to the 

 same period in Europe? As these axes were covered with cloth, did 

 they not make cloth ? If not, where did they get their copper axes, 

 and who made them? 



Concerning the inscribed tablets found in 1877 on the Cook farm 

 below Davenport, Prof. Seyffarth writes : " They are the first discov- 

 ered phonetic and astronomic monuments of the primitive inhabitants 

 of this country which sooner or later will cast unexpected light upon 

 the origin, the history, the religion, the language, the science and in- 

 tellectual faculties of our ancient Indians." Further on he says: 

 "The Northmen, it is true, discovered America prior to Columbus, 

 but the Indian characters on the Davenport monuments point us 

 clearly to the Chinese syllabic figures and not to the alphabetic 

 runes." Again, speaking of the third tablet, he says : " This is, no 

 doubt, the most interesting and most important tablet ever discovered 

 in North America." 



These essays, with that of Mr. Putnam, bring out strongly the dif- 

 ferent views of archaeologists as to the origin of the mound-builders 

 and their great antiquity. Prof. Seyffarth claims that one of these 

 tablets is a memorial of the Noachian deluge, while other eminent 

 scientists translate it as a hunting scene, and believe its great value is 

 due to the representation of an elephant thereon. When we consider 

 that there are at present but few inscribed tablets in this country, and 

 that we have the largest and most complete collection of curved-base 

 pipes and copper implements, it ought to stimulate the society to de- 

 vote most of its time and work to this particular branch of archaeo- 

 logical research. 



February ig, 18^4. — Trustees' Meeting. 



(Held at the Rooms of the Business Men's Association, Masonic Temple.) 



President Allen in the chair ; six members present. 



The meeting was called to consider a proposition from Mr. D. 



