The considerable degree of decorative and artistic skill attained by the
so-called Mound-Builders, as evidenced by many of the relics that have
been exhumed from the mounds, has not failed to arrest the attention of
archæologists. Among them, indeed, are found not a few who assert for
the people conveniently designated as above a degree of artistic skill
very far superior to that attained by the present race of Indians as
they have been known to history. In fact, this very skill in artistic
design, asserted for the Mound-Builders, as indicated by the sculptures
they have left, forms an important link in the chain of argument upon
which is based the theory of their difference from and superiority to
the North American Indian.
Eminent as is much of the authority which thus contends for an artistic
ability on the part of the Mound-Builders far in advance of the
attainments of the present Indian in the same line, the question is one
admitting of argument; and if some of the best products of artistic
handicraft of the present Indians be compared with objects of a similar
nature taken from the mounds, it is more than doubtful if the artistic
inferiority of the latter-day Indian can be substantiated. Deferring,
however, for the present, any comparison between the artistic ability of
the Mound-Builder and the modern Indian, attention may be turned to a
class of objects from the mounds, notable, indeed, for the skill with
which they are wrought, but to be considered first in another way and
for another purpose than mere artistic comparison.
As the term Mound-Builders will recur many times throughout this paper,
and as the phrase has been objected to by some archæologists on account
of its indefiniteness, it may be well to state that it is employed here
with its commonly accepted signification, viz: as applied to the people
who formerly lived throughout the Mississippi Valley and raised the
mounds of that region. It should also be clearly understood that by its
use the writer is not to be considered as committing himself in any way
to the theory that the Mound-Builders were of a different race from the
North American Indian.
Among the more interesting objects left by the Mound-Builders, pipes
occupy a prominent place. This is partly due to their number, pipes
being among the more common articles unearthed by the labors of
explorers, but more to the fact that in the construction of their pipes
this people exhibited their greatest skill in the way of sculpture. In
the minds of those who hold that the Mound-Builders were the ancestors
of the present Indians, or, at least, that they were not necessarily of
a different race, the superiority of their pipe sculpture over their
other works of art excites no surprise, since, however prominent a place
the pipe may have held in the affections of the Mound-Builders, it is
certain that it has been an object of no less esteem and reverence among
the Indians of history. Certainly no one institution, for so it may be
called, was more firmly fixed by long usage among the North American
Indians, or more characteristic of them, than the pipe, with all its
varied uses and significance.
Perhaps the most characteristic artistic feature displayed in the pipe
sculpture of the Mound-Builders, as has been well pointed out by Wilson,
in his Prehistoric Man, is the tendency exhibited toward the imitation
of natural objects, especially birds and animals, a remark, it may be
said in passing, which applies with almost equal truth to the art
productions generally of the present Indians throughout the length and
breadth of North America. As some of these sculptured animals from the
mounds have excited much interest in the minds of archæologists, and
have been made the basis of much speculation, their examination and
proper identification becomes a matter of considerable importance. It
will therefore be the main purpose of the present paper to examine
critically the evidence offered in behalf of the identification of the
more important of them. If it shall prove, as is believed to be the
case, that serious mistakes of identification have been made, attention
will be called to these and the manner pointed out in which certain
theories have naturally enough resulted from the premises thus
erroneously established.
It may be premised that the writer undertook the examination of the
carvings with no theories of his own to propose in place of those
hitherto advanced. In fact, their critical examination may almost be
said to have been the result of accident. Having made the birds of the
United States his study for several years, the writer glanced over the
bird carvings in the most cursory manner, being curious to see what
species were represented. The inaccurate identification of some of these
by the authors of "The Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" led
to the examination of the series as a whole, and subsequently to the
discussion they had received at the hands of various authors. The
carvings are, therefore, here considered rather from the stand-point of
the naturalist than the archæologist. Believing that the question first
in importance concerns their actual resemblances, substantially the same
kind of critical study is applied to them which they would receive were
they from the hands of a modern zoological artist. Such a course has
obvious disadvantages, since it places the work of men who were in, at
best, but a semi-civilized condition on a much higher plane than other
facts would seem to justify. It may be urged, as the writer indeed
believes, that the accuracy sufficient for the specific identification
of these carvings is not to be expected of men in the state of culture
the Mound-Builders are generally supposed to have attained. To which
answer may be made that it is precisely on the supposition that the
carvings were accurate copies from nature that the theories respecting
them have been promulgated by archæologists. On no other supposition
could such theories have been advanced. So accurate indeed have they
been deemed that they have been directly compared with the work of
modern artists, as will be noticed hereafter. Hence the method here
adopted in their study seems to be not only the best, but the only one
likely to produce definite results.
If it be found that there are good reasons for pronouncing the carvings
not to be accurate copies from nature, and of a lower artistic standard
than has been supposed, it will remain for the archæologist to determine
how far their unlikeness to the animals they have been supposed to
represent can be attributed to shortcomings naturally pertaining to
barbaric art. If he choose to assume that they were really intended as
imitations, although in many particulars unlike the animals he wishes to
believe them to represent, and that they are as close copies as can be
expected from sculptors not possessed of skill adequate to carry out
their rude conceptions, he will practically have abandoned the position
taken by many prominent archæologists with respect to the mound
sculptors' skill, and will be forced to accord them a position on the
plane of art not superior to the one occupied by the North American
Indians. If it should prove that but a small minority of the carvings
can be specifically identified, owing to inaccuracies and to their
general resemblance, he may indeed go even further and conclude that
they form a very unsafe basis for deductions that owe their very
existence to assumed accurate imitation.