OVERLAYING WITH COPPER BY THE AMERICAN 

 ABORIGINES. 



By Otis T. Mason, 



Curator of the Department of EthnoJo(]ii 



In a recent paper* Prof. F. W. Putnam gives an account, with fig- 

 ures, of several objects made of wood and covered witli copper. In a 

 later report t is an account of copper objects sbeatlied with silver, a 

 pendant of copper sheathed with gold, ear ornaments of copper sheathed 

 with silver and meteoric iron, and bracelets of copper sheathed with 

 silver. Since that time Prof. Putnam has found many other specimens 

 from Ohio, and calls attention to Atwater's statement, in Archicologia 

 Americana, describing objects as being- overlaid with silver. 



Numerous specimens have been discovered by others, notably by Mr. 

 Warren K. Moorehead, in his explorations of mounds near Chillicothe, 

 Ohio. These examples are quite sufficient to show that the American 

 aborigines in the Mississippi valley and in South America had the art 

 of cold-hammering copper, of beating it to overlie and tit upon a warped 

 or curved surface, and of turning the edges under. 



This process must not be confounded with the mere hammering out 

 of implements, nor with that other process of making a sheet of copper 

 as thin and uniform as a ship's sheathing and then producing figures 

 by rubbing or pressure. Some doubt had been expressed concerning 

 the genuineness of such work, but Mr. Cushing's late experiments|: 

 change the status of the problem. But of the overlaying and turning 

 under there can be no reasonable doubt. It is entirely within tlie com- 

 pass of tools known to have been used. That there might be no mis- 

 take about this, Mr. Joseph D. McGuire has hammered out a nugget of 

 Lake Superior copper into a sheet as thin as the one figured, and by 

 grinding the surface with common sand has removed all marks of the 

 stone hammer and stone anvil. These experiments were conducted in 

 the National Museum by the simi)lest processes. No attempts were 

 made to do the overlaying. This is to be regretted, as the warjiing of 

 the sheet so as to lie close to the uneven surface must have required 

 great skill. 



* Report of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass., 1881. 



t Op. cit., 1883, p. 171. 



i Am. Antliro]toloo;ist, I, 1894. 



Procee(liiij;.s of the U. S. National Museum, Vol. XVII— No. 101.''). 



475 



