HOLMES] ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 107 



Georgia, and Missouri ; nodular cherts in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, 

 and Tennessee ; and hematite ore for implements and ocher for paint 

 in Missouri. The ice sheets of the glacial period distributed over 

 the northern borders vast bodies of detritus from the far north, filled 

 with fragments and rounded masses cjf granitic and other durable 

 rocks, which were utilized by the inhabitants of the region. Copper 

 from the Lake Superior mines had taken an important place in the 

 arts, and much skill was shown in its manipulation by malleating 

 processes. The tribes of the middle region, the greatest of the mound 

 builders, mined mica in western North Carolina, and the evidences 

 of their operations are of astonishing magnitude. 



As a result of the mineral riches of the area, the range of lithic 

 artifacts is greater than in any other region north of 

 thf LitbiVA^rts *^ ^^^^ vallcv of Mcxico. By the fracture processes vast 

 numbers of cutting, scraping, boring, piercing, dig- 

 ging, and hammering implements y\'ere manufactured. The sword- 

 like blades of Tennessee approach the highest place among American 

 chipped products, and the agricultural implements of the Illinois 

 region constitute a mii(iue and remarkable class without parallel in 

 any country. 



The large class of implements and other articles shaped by peck- 

 ing and grinding processes, often as secondary to chipping, is of 

 great archeological interest. The grooved axes, celts, adzes, and 

 chisels are of superior make, and the discoidal chunkey stones, to- 

 bacco pipes, banner stones, and other objects of faith and ornament 

 are remarkable for their perfection of form and high degree of finish. 



Among the specially noteworthy features of the area are the caches 

 or hoards of stone implements employed as mortuary offerings. Per- 

 haps the most remarkable of these hoards is a deposit of many hun- 

 dreds of obsidian implements found in an Ohio mound; the beau- 

 tifully made implements are of unique shapes and were not designed 

 for use, but as offerings merely. They had been ti-ansported from 

 unknown sources in the Rocky Mountains a thousand miles away 

 or from California or Mexico. A single deposit in a mound at 

 Plopewell, Ohio, contained upward of 8,000 well-made flint disks 

 of large size. There are also the hematite objects of the central 

 districts, the pigment palettes of Alabama, the engraved shells and 

 the sculptured utensils and idols of the middle districts, the skill- 

 fully executed implements and ornaments of copper, and the remark- 

 able and very puzzling repousse figures in sheet copper obtained 

 from mounds in Georgia and Illinois. Among the most noteworthy 

 examples of the handiwork of the mound-building peoples are cer- 

 tain relics obtained by Putnam from the Turner group of mounds 

 in Ohio. 



