276 ART IN SHELL OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



imen has sixteen marginal scallops. The larger specimen is somewhat 

 fragmentary, portions being broken away from opposite sides. It is 

 nearly four and a half inches in diameter, and the design has been 

 drawn and engraved with more than ordinary precision. The central 

 circle incloses a perforated circlet, and the involute lines are long and 

 shallow. The dotted zone has seven circles with inclosed circlets and 

 pits. The outer zone contains fifteen oval figures. 



Another example of these shell disks is illustrated by Professor Put- 

 nam, in the eleventh annual report of the Peabody Museum, page 310. 

 It is said to have been found near Nashville, Tenu., although its pedi- 

 gree is not well established. According to Professor Putnam, it is made 

 from the shell of a Busycon, and is apparently in a very good state of 

 preservation. It is about four inches iu diameter and is inscribed with 

 the usual design, a central circle and dot surrounded by a triple invo- 

 lute and three concentric zones. The narrow inner zone is plain, as 

 usual ; the middle dotted zone has six circles with central dots, the spaces 

 between being closely dotted, and the outer zone contains thirteen of the 

 oval figures, the outer edges of which form the scalloped margin of the 

 disk. The perforations for suspension are placed as usual near the in- 

 ner margin of the outer zone in the spaces between the oval figures. 



A fine example of engraved disks has been figured by Dr. Joseph 

 Jones, from whose work the illustrations given in Figs. 1 and 2, Plate 

 LVI, have been taken. As his description is one of the first given and 

 quite graphic, I make the following quotation: "In a carefully con- 

 structed stone sarcophagus, in which the face of the skeleton was look- 

 ing toward the setting sun, a beautiful shell ornament was found resting 

 upon the breast-bone of the skeleton. This shell ornament is 4.4 inches 

 in diameter, and it is ornamented on its concave surface, with a small 

 circle in the center, and four concentric bauds, differently figured, in re- 

 lief. The first band is filled by a triple volute ; the second is plain, 

 while the third is dotted, and has nine small round bosses carved at un- 

 equal distances iipon it. The outer baud is made up of fourteen small 

 elliptical bosses, the outer edges of which give to the object a scalloped 

 rim. This ornament on its concave figured surface had been covered 

 with red paint, much of which was still visible. The convex smooth 

 surface is highly polished and plain, with the exception of three con- 

 centric marks. The material out of which it is formed was evidently 

 derived from a large flat sea-shell. » • * The form of the circles 

 or ^ suns' carved upon the concave surface is similar to that of the jjaiut- 

 ings on the high rocky cliffs on the banks of the Cumberland and Har- 

 peth. • » » This ornament, when found, lay u^jon the breastbone, 

 with the concave surface uppermost, as if it had been worn in this posi- 

 tion suspended around the neck, as the two holes for the thong or 

 string were in that portion of the border which pointed directly to the 

 chin or central portion of the lower jaw of the skeleton. The marks of 

 the thong by which it was suspended are manifest upon both the an- 



