Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Anthropology/Abstracts from Anthropological Correspondence
abstracts from anthropological correspondence.
Numerous correspondents of the Institution, in writing upon various matters, frequently convey valuable information. It is the design of this chapter to put on record those statements of correspondents respecting archeology that are not sufficiently long to form a separate article.
Barkley, W. F., writes that about 15 miles from Mount Pleasant, Pa., are the remains of a burying ground, in which the dead are interred beneath piles of stone.
Carruthers, Arthur, writes that in the western part of Amherst Township, Lorain County, Ohio, on the farms of Joseph Rice, David Shevarts, and others, are sandstone rocks rising about 1 foot above the ground and from 6 to 50 feet across the top. They belong to the Waverly sandstone. The impressions of Indian moccasins, bears' tracks, turkey tracks, and those of small birds are very plentiful. They do not all run in the same direction, but cross and recross one another.
Coues, Elliott, mentions a cliff-house on Beaver Creek at its junction with the Rio Verde, 40 miles from Fort Whipple, Ariz.
Ferry, C. M., of Oneida, New York, mentions the opening of a trench of buried Indians. Part of the bodies were in wooden coffins, plainly indicating recent burial. Some of the dead had been wrapped in blankets, and a child's moccasin was ornamented with glass beads. Buttons and bricks also add their testimony to the fact that the cemetery is not ancient.
Flint, Earl. Rock inscriptions extend all along the summits of the Cordilleras, from Bolivia to Mexico. They are similar in character. At Telembela, in Ecuador, is a sacrificial stone, similar to that in Mexico. A sculpture of a chief with a scepter in each hand, surmounted by a condor, and standing on the prostrate form of a supplicant, was found in Peru. This resembles very much the figure in the Palenque stone, but it is coarser. At Samiapata, near the top of the declivity, sculptured in relief, is a figure of a tiger. A little higher up is a similar one, more massive, from which a double series of thombs lead from the sculpture to a kind of throne, supported on four feet of a bird of prey, surrounded by a circular line of seats. These all join to form the body of the cross. The top is in shape a species of platform, on which are chiseled hemispheric holes, one yard in diameter, communicating with one another by small canals. Sculptures of this class occur from Bolivia to Columbia. Lower down, at Samiapata, are niches cut in the rock, and buried near them are inscribed stones. Similar ones, and less elevated, where the Cordilleras separate the territory of Chaco from Chiriquanes, occur in a real desert, and being on a declivity, have escaped the alluvial burial of the first. Inscribed on the stones found at Chaco and Samiapata and those of the niches are the same persons, figures and paintings as those on the murals of Palenque.
Graham, N. B., writes that there is a mound four miles south of England's Point post-office, Cherokee County, North Carolina, on the farm of Jesse Raper. It is the only mound within ten miles, is circular in ground plan, 120 feet in base diameter, and 90 feet apex diameter. It is composed of alternate layers of burnt clay, ashes, and soil.
Harlan, Calvin S., describes a cave in a rocky hillside, four miles from Ellora, Baltimore County, Maryland, known as the Old Indian Cave. It extends into the hill about 36 feet. Around the entrance are ashes and charcoal, which are also mingled with the earth about the floor; oyster shells, some of which show the action of fire, occur in the debris. Arrow-heads are also reported to have been found.
About one and a half miles from Sweet Air, in the same county, are the remains of an old Indian trail, leading from the Rocks of Deer Creek, in Harford County, a seat of the Susquehannocks, to a settlement south of Sweet Air post-office, at which spot arrow and spear heads have been found, together with several axes. Other localities in the vicinity of Sweet Air have been mentioned where chipped stone implements occur.
Homsher, G. W., Fairfield, Indiana, writes to the Institution that he is preparing maps and sketches of the mounds, circles, implements, &c., of Franklin County, in that State. Kales, J. W., sends the following report: Along the east shore of Cayuga Lake, New York, occur many relics of aboriginal populations. On the beach are found multitudes of notched sinkers. On the points these relics are most numerous. Several burial places have been discovered; one of them is on a small island opposite the village of Union Springs. The skeletons rest on a substratum of rock, about 2 feet below the surface. A large number of skeletons were unearthed about one mile north of Union Springs and 200 feet from the lake. They were promiscuously buried in a pit under about 2 feet of fine black earth, those of men, women, and children being intermingled. The skeletons of males indicated men of large size and great strength. No relics occurred in the pit.
Luther, S. N., writes to the Institution with reference to the former use of manganese as a degraissant in the manufacture of Indian pottery, in the vicinity of Nelson Ledges, Portage County, Ohio. These ledges are outcrops of the conglomerate, and their cavities had furnished shelter for the ancient people. In the talus and on the higher level are found areas of dark soil, rich in relics of various kinds, and among these only occur the lumps of manganese. This mineral crops out in places at Bainbridge, twenty miles away, and no nearer. Pottery fragments, showing black spots of the manganese, and lumps having a polished surface, have been picked up. Mr. Luther also speaks of a great mortar which appears to have been used in crushing quartz.
McLean, John J., while transmitting a meteorological report from Sitka Castle, Alaska, notes the "fish-dance," performed in honor of the arrival of the shoals of herring. "The herring are so plentiful that an Indian with his nail-studded thin board could catch a canoe fall in an hour. The Sitka Indians built fires at the mouth of Indian River, and sang and danced their national airs every night for more than a week. I witnessed several of the dances at the arrival of the fish. None but the men participated, the women sitting around the fire and keeping up a shrill monotonous chorus. The dancing movement consisted in a step from one foot to the other and stamping to emphasize the music, the body more or less stooped, and the head jerked from one side to the other in rapid movement. The melodies were extremely simple, containing three or four notes. The time was now slow and stately, like a funeral dirge, again quick and lively. There were numerous pauses, each ushering a slight modification of the melody and time. On the whole the tune was not inharmonious, having a barbaric fitness to the people and the occasion. They seem to have an appreciation of the picturesque, for they had chosen one of the prettiest spots in the whole neighborhood for their festivities. The dark snow-capped mountain for a back-ground and the broad waters of the beautiful bay, lit up by the full moon. The subject of the songs was a description of hunting and fishing. Their costume consisted of blankets with tin tags, sewn on, jingling with each movement of the body, wigs made of oakum and eagles' feathers, and blackened faces striped with vermilion. The sports were kept up each night until a late hour.
MacLean, J. P., describes and figures in his letter of December 10th two circular inclosures in Sycamore Township, Hamilton County, Ohio.
He also found on Blennerhasset Island numerous antiquities, among them a shell heap, 100 feet long. He reports that Dr. G. O. Hildreth, in sinking a cistern a little west of the Graded Way, Marietta, Ohio, came upon a cave containing human and animal bones. The cistern was commenced 15 feet below the plain, on a side hill. Six feet below the surface the diggers came upon a solid mass of concrete, composed chiefly of quartz pebbles. Below this was a cavern one foot in height, on the floor of which were the bones above mentioned. There was no outlet to the cave, and it is to be supposed that by the filling up of the ravine the original opening was closed. In the Marietta Works[1] a line of embankments leads from the mound inclosed by a circle to the square containing 27 acres. Recently, in cutting down a portion of this embankment, near the fence, the workmen came upon a circle composed of sandstone pestles and round balls, arranged radially, the balls alternating with the pestles.
Montforth, Warren. There are located in the vicinity of New Liberty, Owen County, Kentucky, a few mounds. There are a number of mounds in the "bottoms" along the Ohio River, and on the hill-tops not far from the Kentucky River. There are others in secluded spots. One of them, about 50 feet in base diameter, and 15 feet high, is situated at the junction of two small streams, about a mile and a half from the Ohio River, in Gallatin County, surrounded on all sides by high hills. It has been cultivated a number of years and many relics have been found.
Null, James W., sends the following account of mounds, &c., in the neighborhood of Reel-Foot Lake, in Western Tennessee, a body of water 20 miles long and from 2 to 5 miles wide, formed by the sinking of the earth during the earthquakes of 1811 and 1812. Near Thompson's landing is a group of seven mounds within a space of 3 acres, circular in outline, 5 feet high, and 20 or 25 in diameter. Some were bare, others had large trees growing upon them. A large tree uprooted revealed the structure of one to be a layer of soil over a heap of sand. One-fourth of a mile north is a group of eight, very similar to the former in every respect. A few hundred yards further north is a group consisting of a central mound, about 3 feet high, kidney-shaped, 100 feet long, and 40 to 50 feet wide, surrounded by a number of circular mounds 2 to 3 feet high. Several isolated mounds were discovered larger than those in groups. Dyer, Obion, and Lake Counties are all said to be rich in aboriginal remains.
Palmer, Edward, reports mounds and graves at Niles Perry on the Tennessee River, at Chattanooga, and at points near Nashville.
Peet, S. D., announces that he has been prosecuting the survey of the mounds of Wisconsin during the past year at his own expense.
Rice, H. B., announces the discovery in South Florida of crania having a peculiar shape. They are without foreheads or depressions at the root of the nose. A number were buried close together, inverted, and in proximity to normal skulls erect in position, all partly decomposed. The crania do not exhibit evidences of flattening."
Rusby, H. H., describes a cave near Silver City, N. Mex. Stockton, J. B., Toronto, Kans., reports that there are no mounds in that vicinity. A cave near the town is reported to have carvings on the walls.
Tandy, W., of Dallas, Hancock County, Illinois, excavated a mound near that place, which had been the burial place of warriors. All the skeletons were those of adults; ten of the crania and a vertebra having arrow-points sticking in them. There are about thirty mounds in the vicinity of Dallas, of which Mr. Tandy will make a map.
Walker, S. T., writing from Milton, Florida, makes the following mention of antiquities: "I know of quite a large mound containing bones on the Withlecoochee River, seven miles north of Crystal River post-office, from which human bones have been taken; another is situated 28 miles north of Milton, the most wonderful that I have seen. It is one hundred paces in circumference."
He also states: "I have sailed over five hundred miles, and located many mounds, shell heaps, sites of ancient villages, cemeteries, &c. The most important discovery was that of an ancient canal leading from the head of Horseshoe Bayou into the fresh-water lakes of the interior. This canal is about 10 or 12 feet wide, and must have been originally from 6 to 15 feet deep. It is as straight as an arrow, excepting an obtuse angle in one place. Estimated length, one mile. Large pines grow on the embankments and cypresses, 2 feet in diameter, in the bottom of the trench. The lakes, connected by this canal, are about 7 or 8 miles long, and are famous for the immense numbers of fish which they contain. All along Four-Mile Point shell heaps abound, and low mounds, from 1 to 2 feet high, are scattered through the woods for miles. These were undoubtedly built for residence, each being large enough to accommodate a single house, excepting a few which are large enough for half a dozen. East and west of Four-Mile Point the signs of ancient occupation grow gradually less, especially toward the mouth of Choctawhatchie, where a single sand mound exists. West of this, at Indian Bayou, there is a large domiciliary mound and several shell heaps. No more occur until East Pass is reached, where are several small heaps and a cemetery. The burials seem to have been made in separate graves, some being covered with a species of clay or coquina rock. At Camp Walton, or Brook's farm, on the mainland, at the head of the sound, were discovered fifteen large shell heaps and a large domicile mound, 15 feet high, 135 feet wide, and 300 feet long, containing a layer of shells and some human remains, while all through the hammock there are dozens of small circles of earth, &c. At Black Point, at the mouth of Garnier's Bayou, was found a large sand mound, 10 feet high, with a circular base about 200 feet in diameter, and having a sloping roadway to the top.
"Although no oysters now live in Choctawhatchie Bay, they once existed there in vast numbers. The heaps are composed almost entirely of this shell, and they were are as large as they ever grow in this latitude. Scallops also were once numerous, but now are entirely extinct. The cabbage palm and the pelican have also vanished within the memory of old men."
Wiggins, John B., announces the discovery of the mound where the Indians buried their dead after the battle between the Shawnes and the Nanticohes, at Nantieoke, Hanover Township, Luzerne County, Pa.
Williamson, George, calls attention to works near Marksville, La. South of that place is an embankment extending from a bluff on an old channel of the Red or some other river, a distance of a mile or more. The embankment is from 8 to 12 feet high and is flanked on the outside by a wide, deep ditch. In several places appear to have been sally-ports, and large old forest trees are growing on the bank. Inside the work are two large mounds, one of them covering several acres. In this vicinity are a great many mounds, some of them of great size. The remains are on the first high land on the bank of what was once a river channel, communicating with the Atchafalaya.
Wiltheiss, C. J. incloses testimony of A. J. Templeton and Joseph Defrees with reference to finding two tablets in a gravel bank within the corporate limits of Piqua, Ohio, on the land of Wilson Morrow. One of these tablets was 15 feet from the surface, which was covered with 4 feet of loam. On the surface of the object were "characters" and in the center lead inserted. The second was found the next day in the loose gravel which had caved down.
- ↑ "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," by E. G. Squier and E. H. Davis: plate xxvi.—Smithsonian Contributions, vol, i.