HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



Two more of these remarkable engravings are illustrated on plate 

 vil. The upper one, a, was taken from an altar of the Turner group 

 in a fragmentary state. The developed design appears in b and c, 

 and the more prominent features composing the design are shown 

 somewhat reduced in d, e, f. The conventionalized head of what 

 may be the bison appears only when the design c is reversed. 



The specimen illustrated in g was found in 1801 in a mound at 

 Cincinnati. The developed design, h and i, are from drawings by 

 Dr G. B. Gordon, and are described by him in volume 11 of the 

 Transactions of the Department of Archaeology of the University of 

 Pennsylvania. It is a highly conventionalized drawing of one of the 

 carnivora. 



The remarkable designs illustrated on plate vm, g and h, are 

 incised upon discs cut from the parietal bones of a human skull. 

 They are from an altar of the Turner group. The designs are alike, 

 excepting that they are reversed. Each consists of three highly 

 conventionalized bird forms joined together. The central bird with 

 ears and with large legs terminating in four claws, probably represents 

 an owl. The other two are less easily identified. 



The spatula-like implement shown in b, made from the rib of a 

 large mammal, is also from the Turner group. The bird incised upon 

 the handle is one of the most artistic Indian drawings thus far known. 

 The lines were originally filled with red pigment. 



Those shown in c, d, e, f, are from the Hopewell group, c is carved 

 upon the thin bone of a large bird and represents the ocelot; the 

 markings upon the body are true to nature and although somewhat 

 conventionalized they occupy their proper position. 



MICA OBJECTS 



Mica was highly valued and was obtained in considerable quan- 

 tities by the earthwork builders, probably from the Appalachian 

 region. The crystals or plates are often of large size, and are fre- 

 quently found with skeletons or as sacrificial deposits in the mounds. 

 The thin sheets into which these plates are easily divided were some- 

 times cut into ornaments or symbolic figures such as are shown on 

 plate ix. These were taken from altars of the Hopewell and Turner 

 groups with many fragments of similar objects cut from this mineral. 

 The edges are as smooth and even as though cut with a sharp steel 

 implement; experiments, however, show that small flaked knives of 

 flint will do the work equally well. The perforated discs, a and c, 

 were cut with some kind of instrument for describing accurate circles. 

 Fragments of large symbolic designs of a nature similar to those cut 



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