HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



have been found only in a restricted area of our Southern States; 

 two other examples are known. One of these, now in the Museum of 

 the American Indian, New York City, was found by Dr Joseph Jones 



under the skull of a male Indian (probably 

 a chief) in a mound on the eastern bank of 

 Cumberland river, opposite Nashville, Ten- 

 nessee. The other was turned up by a plow 

 near one of the larger mounds at Mound- 

 ville, Alabama, and was secured by Mr 

 Clarence B. Moore 1 for The Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. In all 

 three specimens the grip of the helve or 

 handle is cylindrical and provided with an 

 annular swelling or pommel, beyond which 

 there is a perforated protuberance. In all 

 three the handle suddenly becomes larger 

 and somewhat squarish in section before 

 reaching the level of the hafting; this gives 

 to the back of the handle a fairly well- 

 developed stop or guard, which is more pro- 

 nounced in the Yale specimen than in the 

 other two. Another character in common 

 is the flat poll of the ax. Moreover, the 

 specimens agree notably in respect to size, 

 weight, and the nature of the stone out of 

 which they were carved. It is highly prob- 

 able therefore that the specimen here fig- 

 ured came from a region whose northern 

 and southern limits are roughly indicated 

 by Nashville, Tennessee, and Moundville, 



Fig. i. — Monolithic ax of the 

 type found in Tennessee and 

 Alabama. }/,. (Yale Univer- 

 sity Museum, cat. no. 3701.) 



Alabama. According to C. C. Jones 2 an 

 "implement precisely similar in material and 

 construction" to the one from near Nash- 

 ville was taken from a grave mound in York district, South Carolina. 

 The unique feature of the Yale ax is the well-executed, graceful, 

 highly flexed figure in relief of an Indian, against whose back the 

 haft-end of the handle seems to be thrust. The back of the Indian's 

 head is in contact with the poll of the ax, and the feet extend almost 

 to the level where the cylindrical portion of the handle begins. 



1 Certain Aboriginal Remains of the Black Warrior River, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phiia., 

 xih, 133-135. fig- 6, 1905. 



* Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 281, New York, 1873. 



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