278 ART IN SHELL OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



not anywhere appear that ornamental stone plates were in general 



use 



»i 



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

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

 lower terrace of a large mound near Oartersville, 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 Warrior Ei 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 Hues 

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

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

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

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

 in 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 the 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 sufBcient proof that its origin cannot be attributed 

 to fancy alone. 



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

 which should be mentioned in this place, although 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 in diameter and one-half an inch in thickness. 

 Upon one face we see three marginal incised lines, as in 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 

 this curious figure is given in Plate LXVI. Within the circular space 

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

 of which is placed an open eye ; this would probably have been omitted 

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

 modern archaeologist. 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 reverse is shown 

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

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



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



'Jones: Antiquities of the Southern luiliaus, i>p. 373-5. 

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



