Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Anthropology/Ancient Rock Inscriptions in Johnson County, Arkansas
ANCIENT ROCK INSCRIPTIONS IN JOHNSON COUNTY,
ARKANSAS.
By Edward Green, of Clarksville, Ark.
Five miles north of Clarksville, Johnson County, Arkansas, in section 7, township 10 north, range 23 west, is situated a cavern, or rock house, as it is commonly called, rather remarkable for its shape and the inscriptions on its wails. This cavern is in the southern side of a solid mass of sandstone that crops out on the crest of a hill, which rises some 200 feet above a small stream that flows by its southern base.
The cavern presents the appearance of having been worn out by the action of running water in some remote geological period, and in shape approximates a quarter section of a sphere. It is about 50 feet wide, 25 feet deep, extending into the rock, and about 10 feet high.
A partition, or rather two pillars of rock, descending from the dome or roof to the floor, divides the cavern into two chambers, of which the western, or left-hand one as you enter, is three or four times as large as the other. This partition divides the entrance into two semicircular apertures, which, together with the high, bold, and retreating mass of rock above, give it the appearance of an enormous skull buried to the orbits in the earth. This, together with a peculiar resonance produced whenever the floor is forcibly struck, must have caused this place to be held in reverence and awe by the superstitious aborigines. The cavern is somewhat difficult of access, and could have been easily defended in time of war.
On the walls of the larger chamber curious characters have been cut into the rock to a depth varying from one-fourth to one-half inch, by some blunt instrument in the hands of an unskillful sculptor.
Upon my last visit to this interesting spot, with the assistance of Mr. C. E. Robinson, of Clarksville, Ark., I succeeded in tracing these characters on paper, which I afterward reduced to one-sixth the size of the originals, by means of the camera lucida, thus preserving their true outlines and proportions; a traced copy of which accompanies this article.
Fig. 1 represents hemispherical depressions or holes in the floor of the cavern, near the left entrance and a few inches from the wall. They are arranged in an arc-shaped row, with concave side to the wall. Fig. 2 and the first character in Fig. 3, which occur above Fig. 1, on the wall, are incised circles, each 7 inches in diameter, and have each a single ray pointing downward and to the right. The other character of Fig. 3 consists of two concentric circles, the outer one measuring 5¼ inches in diameter, and the inner one 3 inches.
Figs. 4, 5, and 6 occur to the right and at about the same height as Fig. 3. Fig. 4 measures from top to bottom 11½ inches; Fig. 5, 7 inches, and Fig. 6, 23 inches.
Fig. 7 is a double character. The one on the left may represent the antler of a stag, the other a bow. The whole figure from left to right measures 23½ inches.
Fig. 8 is a rayed character with a circular body chiseled out to the depth of the rays, viz, one-fourth inch. The body of this figure is 4½ inches in diameter, and the length of its rays about 2½ inches. One of the rays connects with a similar but smaller figure.
Fig 9 is also a double figure; the first character is like Fig. 8, but larger and has one ray less. The body of this figure measures 7½ inches
in diameter, and the length of the rays from 2 to 3 inches. The second character represents some reptile, as the tortoise, and measures from head to tip of tail 13 inches. The bodies of these figures, like Fig. 8, are cut to the depth of one-fourth to one-half inch.
Fig. 10 is another double object and might have been intended by the unskillful sculptor to represent a lizard with its prey or young. The smaller figure is reversed. The larger figure, from head to tip of tail, measures 15 inches; the smaller one, 7 inches.
To the right of the characters represented in Fig. 10 are two characters, Figs. 11 and 12, which are somewhat confused, and were difficult to trace, as they are surrounded by a multitude of indistinct lines and cuts. The sculptor had perhaps spoiled his figure and tried to obliterate it.
Fig. 13 are small irregular depressions in the wall of the cavern, to the right of the character represented by Fig. 14.
Fig. 14 is another reptile, with a peculiar swell on the neck and an elongated head. The length of this figure, from head to tip of tail, is 19½ inches. Figs. 15 and 16 occur still further to the right, and appear to be of a more recent period, and cut with a better instrument or by a more skillful sculptor.
In the rock floor of the smaller chamber is a round hole 19 inches in depth and 7½ inches in diameter at the top, and about 4 inches at the bottom; probably used for a mortar by the ancient cave-dwellers.
On the roof or dome there are several figures, as represented by Fig. 17, that have been painted on the surface of the rock and are now faded to a pale gray.
I found no spiral figures of any kind here, which occur so frequently among inscriptions of this character in other localities.
No stone implements of any kind, except a few broken pieces of arrow-heads, have been found in the vicinity of this cavern.
The sculptured characters here described are undoubtedly of ancient origin, and the only ones that have been discovered in Johnson County. However, I have been informed that similar inscriptions occur in Newton and Carroll Counties, of this State.