WILLOUGHBY— ART OF EARTHWORK BUILDERS 



earthworks of Ohio had become proficient in working native copper. 

 This metal seems to have been highly prized in this region and was 

 made into a great variety of ornamental or symbolic forms. Its 

 practical use seems to have been limited principally to ax and adz- 

 blades, which occur in considerable numbers with burials or as parts 

 of sacrificial deposits. Indeed, it is not improbable that these copper 

 blades were esteemed as much for their intrinsic worth as for their 

 efficiency as tools. A large number of copper blades were found near 

 two skeletons in the great mound of the Hopewell group, the largest 

 of which weighed thirty-eight pounds. 



The greater number of the artifacts of copper that have been 

 recovered are of an ornamental or symbolic character. Most of the 

 copper from which they were made undoubtedly came from the 

 Lake Superior region, although some may have been obtained from 

 erratic masses carried southward by the ice sheets in glacial times. 

 The purest and most ductile pieces were used in the formation of 

 thin sheets for covering various ornaments, or for cutting into symbolic 

 forms; and the less malleable masses were worked into objects which 

 did not require as much hammering. Some of the nuggets taken 

 from the altars in an unworked or slightly worked state contained 

 impurities which rendered their further working impossible or un- 

 profitable. Experiments conducted by the present writer 1 show that 

 alternate hammering and annealing are essential to the successful 

 working of native copper into thin sheets, and it is probable that the 

 aid of fire was sought by most Indians in working this metal into any 

 form that required much hammering. 



The specimens shown on plates il-v were taken from burial 

 deposits and altars in the great mound of the Hopewell group (Clark's 

 Works), Ross county; from the mounds of the Turner group, Little 

 Miami valley; and from the Liberty group of Ross county, most of 

 them coming from the first locality. Figures i and / represent the 

 straight-armed swastika. As will be seen by turning to /, plate x, it is 

 not improbable that these objects were worn at the back of the head. 



The design shown in k is undoubtedly a cosmic symbol, and the 

 analogy of its more prominent features to those of the serpent head, 

 plate I, k, seems apparent. The designs d, g, and h, are undoubtedly 

 derived from the human face, and they show a marked sense of 

 humor on the part of the artisan who made them. On plate ill, a 

 and c, are represented two gorget-like plates such as are usually 

 found with skeletons. One of these shows the remains of a piece of 

 twined woven textile which had been preserved by contact with the 



1 American Anthropologist, N. s., vol 5, p. 55. 

 [473] 



