WILLOUGHBY— ART OF EARTHWORK BUILDERS 



discs which are joined by the rivet is made up of two or three plates, 

 the outer of which is of carefully wrought copper, silver, or meteoric 

 iron. Sometimes, to assist in keeping the plates in their proper 

 positions, the space between them is filled with clay {d 4) which 

 upon drying adds much to the firmness of the ornament. Sometimes 

 the rivet is reinforced by hammering a piece of metal around it as 

 illustrated in/ 6, or by the use of an outer band, b, applied as/ 7, or 

 the rivet may be wound with vegetal fiber or cord as in k, d, and c 5. 



OTHER METALS 



The occurrence of meteoric iron in most of the mound groups that 

 have been systematically explored, in the form of nuggets or worked 

 into various objects, shows that its malleability was generally 

 understood by the people of this region. It was worked into head- 

 plates, breast-plates, beads, coverings for ear-plugs, adz-blades, 

 chisels, and drills. Plate iv, e, shows a meteoric iron blade, and 

 several chisels of this metal with portions of antler handles still 

 adhering to two of them are illustrated in /. 



Native silver sometimes occurs in considerable masses in the 

 mounds. There are two nuggets in the Peabody Museum of Harvard 

 University the combined weight of which is thirteen and three- 

 quarters pounds. These were taken from a mound at Grand Rapids, 

 a northern outpost of the Ohio culture group. Silver seems to have 

 been used principally for overlaying copper and wooden objects, 

 such as buttons, ear-plugs, and bracelets. Many beads were also 

 made of silver, some of them being quite massive. 



Gold was very rare indeed in the mounds. There are one or two 

 references by early writers to finding of gold objects, but the only 

 authentic specimens known to the writer are several small sheets 

 hammered from small nuggets, which were taken from an altar of 

 the Turner group and are now in the Peabody Museum at Cam- 

 bridge. 



ENGRAVINGS UPON BONE 



The decorated human femora illustrated in plate vi, a and i, were 

 found with skeletons in the great mound of the Hopewell group, and 

 the designs engraved upon them are shown developed in b and k. 

 The different parts making up the composite human head and its 

 appendages in b, are illustrated somewhat reduced in c-h. In c and d 

 we have human heads wearing head-plates supporting antlers similar 

 to those shown on plate iv, b and c. What appears to be the beak 

 of the spoonbill is represented in h. 



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