HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



Two distinct caches of artifacts were found in the Tremper mound : 

 one, the principal depository for the ornaments and implements of 

 the dead, being very extensive and apparently having served along 

 with the great depository for ashes through a considerable period of 

 time, and the other, evidently deposited all at one time during the 

 construction of the mound. The first, or larger, of these caches was 

 situated in the central one of the three large rooms at the eastern 

 end of the structure, and is shown as 5 in figure 2. It occupied a 

 space of about six feet in diameter along the southern side of the 

 unused depository, shown as 6, the objects comprising it being placed 

 in a heap, of which a large stone disc formed the center. All objects 

 in this cache had been intentionally broken, the supposition being 

 that this was done to avert the likelihood of their being stolen from 

 the great open deposit. The cache of artifacts, like the cumulation of 

 ashes in the communal grave, was a product of time, doubtless a 

 number of years elapsing between the time it was begun and the 

 final destruction of the building. Despite the natural respect of 

 primitive man for the property of the dead, the beautiful objects 

 placed in the cache would prove a great temptation to the derelict or 

 to the stranger who might gain access thereto; so that, to render them 

 undesirable, each object was deliberately broken, and the fragments 

 then deposited in the cache. In this respect, as in all others recorded, 

 the Mound City tumulus, Mound No. 8, was similar. 



The second cache of artifacts was found near the center of the 

 mound, two and one-half feet above the floor-line. This secondary 

 cache, so far as known peculiar to the Tremper mound, differed from 

 the large cache in that the objects composing it were unbroken and 

 in perfect condition. This is readily understood, when the position of 

 the cache in the mound is considered. Being within the mound 

 proper, and well above the floor, it clearly had been made after the 

 burning of the structure and during the erection of the mound, the 

 objects being deposited simultaneously and at once covered over, 

 thus averting danger of theft. 



Contents of the Caches. — The feature of the large cache was the 

 tobacco-pipes, one hundred and thirty-six in number. These pipes 

 were of the so-called platform type, a number of them being carved 

 in the effigy of birds and animals, and the remainder plain. Besides 

 the pipes, there were in this cache, among other things, beads, gorgets, 

 and boat-shaped objects of copper; crystals of mica and galenite; 

 ear-ornaments of stone; cones cut from quartz crystals and galena; 

 ornaments made from jaws of animals and of man; flint-cutting 

 implements; mealing stones, woven fabrics; and the large stone disc 



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