422 CRYSTAL RIVER REVISITED. 
in it, and to our mind there remains no doubt that the plating on the ear-ornament 
found by us at Crystal River was originally meteoric iron (which is metallic) similar 
to that found in the Ohio mounds in small masses and as plating on copper ornaments. 
Professor Putnam writes: 
“Т have read your notice of the finding of an ear-ornament overlaid or covered 
on the upper surface with meteoric iron, and 1 am much interested in this very 
decided proof of the close connection of the prehistoric peoples of Florida who 
buried their dead in earth mounds, with those of the Ohio Valley region. You 
have shown, by many other objects which you have found in the Florida mounds, 
that this connection is exemplified by the arts of the people, and that there was 
much in common between some of the peoples of Florida and Ohio. This use of 
meteoric iron in covering the characteristic ear-ornaments, which are so common in 
the ancient mounds of Ohio and have not to my knowledge been found in the 
burial places of the recent Indian tribes, is very strong evidence of the unity of 
the ancient culture of the two regions. In other Florida mounds you have found 
such ear-ornaments made of copper.. * * * The fact that the ancient Floridians 
made these copper ornaments in the same manner as did the builders of the ancient 
earthworks of Ohio, and that both used meteoric iron for covering the outer surface, 
is most instructive in tracing the connection of these ancient peoples. 
“ Similarly covered ear-ornaments have been found in considerable number in 
the Ohio mounds. I first found them on the altar of the Great Mound of the Tur- 
ner Group and afterward with skeletons under the Great Mound of the Liberty 
Group (afterward known as the Harness Group). While Mr. Moorehead was work- 
ing under my direction for the World's Columbian Exposition he found a number 
of these ornaments in a mound of the Clark, or Hopewell Group. 
“Not only have we these ear-ornaments made in part of meteoric iron, but, 
on the altar of the Turner Group, we found other ornaments made of meteoric 
iron, as well as pieces of meteorites, while in the Liberty and Clark Groups celts 
made of meteoric iron were also found. 
“This shows that the ancient people must have found masses of meteoric iron 
which they treated by hammering as they did native copper and native silver; and 
the great interest of your discovery in the Florida mound is that the people who 
made that mound at Crystal River had either found a mass of meteoric iron which 
they utilized in the same manner as did the ancient earthwork builders of Ohio, or 
else this ear-ornament which you found must have been obtained from the latter. 
“Tt is probable that the meteoric iron from the Turner Group was derived 
from two distinct meteorites, as there is a slight difference between two of the 
smaller masses. Тһе larger mass from the altar is known in the catalogues of 
meteorites, as the Andersonville Prehistoric Meteorite (Andersonville being the 
township in Ohio where the Turner Group is located in the Little Miami Valley).” 
The latest discovery of meteoric iron in a mound is that of Wm. C. Mills, 
М. Sc., in the Edwin Harness mound, Ohio." 
1 «Explorations of the Edwin Harness Mound.” Ohio Archzol. and Hist. Quarterly. Vol. 
XVI, Num. 2. 
