These objects are now in the U. S. National Museum and in my department.
The list is taken from the official catalogue, and they number from 115505
to 115684. I have had the opportunity of comparing the objects with this
description and find their general agreement. Dr. Palmer, the finder, was
an employé of the Bureau of Ethnology, is a man of the highest character,
of great zeal as an archæologist and naturalist, and has been for many
years, and is now, in the employ of the Bureau or Museum, always with
satisfaction and confidence. Mr. Emmert was also an employé of the Bureau
for many years, and equally reliable.
The specimens of shell in this and several other mounds, some of which are
herein figured, were in an advanced stage of decay, pitted, discolored,
and crumbling, requiring to be handled with the utmost care to prevent
disintegration. They were dried by the collector, immersed in a weak
solution of glue, and forwarded immediately (in 1885), with other relics
from the neighborhood, to the Bureau of Ethnology and National Museum at
Washington, where they have remained ever since. There is not the
slightest suspicion concerning the genuineness or antiquity of this
specimen or of those bearing the Swastika as belonging to the
mound-building epoch in the valley of the Tennessee.
[Illustration: Fig. 239. SHELL GORGET. Two fighting figures with
triangular breech-clout, garters and anklets, and dots and circles. Fains
Island, Tennessee. Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 452,
fig. 128. Cat. No. 62930, U. S. N. M.]
Other figures of sufficient similarity to the Swastika have been found
among the aborigines of North America to show that these do not stand
alone; and there are also other human figures which show a style of work
so similar and such resemblance in detail of design as to establish the
practical identity of their art. One of these was a remarkable specimen of
engraved shell found in the same mound, Fains Island, which contained the
first Swastika (fig. 237). It is described in the Second Annual Report of
the Bureau of Ethnology, page 301, under the name of McMahon's mound. It
is a large polished Fulgur shell disk which, when entire, has been nearly
5 inches in diameter (fig. 239). A little more than one-third has crumbled
away, and the remaining portion has been preserved only by careful
handling and immediate immersion in a solution of glue. It had been
engraved on the concave side. The design represents two human figures
plumed and winged, armed with eagles' talons and engaged in mortal
combat. The design apparently covered the entire shell, leaving no space
for encircling lines. The two figures are in profile and face each other
in a fierce onset. Of the right-hand figure, only the body, one arm, and
one leg remain. The left-hand figure is almost complete. The outline of
the face, one arm, and one foot is all that is affected. The right hand is
raised above the head in the act of brandishing a long knife pointed at
both ends. The other combatant, clutching in his right hand a
savage-looking blade with its point curved, seems delivering a blow in the
face of his antagonist. Of the visible portions of the figures, the hands
are vigorously drawn, the thumbs press down upon the outside of the
forefingers in a natural effort to tighten the grasp. The body, arms, and
legs are well defined and in proper proportion, the joints are correctly
placed, the left knee is bent forward, and the foot planted firmly on the
ground, while the right is thrown gracefully back against the rim at the
left, and the legs terminate in well-drawn eagles' feet armed with curved
talons. The head is decorated with a single plume which springs from a
circular ornament placed over the ear; an angular figure extends forward
from the base of this plume, and probably represents what is left of the
headdress proper. In front of this--on the very edge of the crumbling
shell--is one-half of the lozenge-shaped eye, the dot representing the
pupil being almost obliterated. The ankles and legs just below the knee
and the wrists each have three lines representing bracelets or anklets. It
is uncertain whether the leg is covered or naked; but between the
waistband and the leggings, over the abdomen, is represented on both
figures a highly decorated triangular garment, or, possibly coat of mail,
to which particular attention is called.[252] In the center, at the top,
just under the waistband, are four circles with dots in the center
arranged in a square; outside of this, still at the top, are two
triangular pieces, and outside of them are two more circles and dots;
while the lower part of the triangle, with certain decorations of incised
lines, completes the garment. This decoration is the same on both figures,
and corresponds exactly with the Buddha figure. An ornament is suspended
on the breast which shows three more of the circles and dots. The earring
is still another. The right-hand figure, so far as it can be seen, is a
duplicate of the left, and in the drawing it has, where destroyed, been
indicated by dotted lines. It is remarkable that the peculiar clothing or
decoration of these two figures should be almost an exact reproduction of
the Buddha figure (pl. 10). Another interesting feature of the design is
the highly conventionalized wing which fills the space beneath the
uplifted arm. This wing is unlike the usual specimens of aboriginal art
which have been found in such profusion in that neighborhood. But it is
again remarkable that this conventionalized wing and the bracelets,
anklets, and garters should correspond in all their peculiarities of
construction and design with the wings on the copper and shell figures
from the Etowah mound, Georgia (figs. 240, 241, and 242)[253]. Behind the
left-hand figure is an ornament resembling the spreading tail of an eagle
which, with its feather arrangement and the detail of their mechanism,
correspond to a high degree with the eagle effigies in repoussé copper
(fig. 243) from the mound in Union County, Ill., shown in the Fifth
Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (p. 105) and in the Twelfth
Annual Report (p. 309).
[Illustration: Fig. 240. COPPER PLATE. Entowah Mound, Georgia. Fifth
Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 42. Cat. No. 91113, U. S.
N. M.]
[Illustration: Fig. 241. COPPER PLATE. Repoussé work. Entowah Mound,
Georgia. Cat. No. 91117, U. S. N. M.]
[Illustration: Fig. 242. ENGRAVED SHELL. Triangular breech-clout with dots
and circles. Entowah Mound, Georgia. Cat. No. 91443, U. S. N. M.]
_Hopewell Mound, Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio._--A later discovery of
the Swastika belonging to the same period and the same general
locality--that is, to the Ohio Valley--was that of Prof. Warren K.
Moorehead, in the fall and winter of 1891-92, in his excavations of the
Hopewell mound, seven miles northwest of Chillicothe, Ross County,
Ohio.[254] The locality of this mound is well shown in Squier and Davis's
work on the "Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" (pl. 10, p. 26), under
the name of "Clark's Works," here reproduced as pl. 11. It is the large
irregular unnumbered triple mound just within the arc of the circle shown
in the center of the plan. The excavation contemplated the destruction of
the mound by cutting it down to the surrounding level and scattering the
earth of which it was made over the surface; and this was done.
Preparatory to this, a survey and ground plan was made (pl. 12). I
assisted at this survey and can vouch for the general correctness. The
mound was surrounded by parallel lines laid out at right angles and marked
by stakes 50 feet apart. The mound was found to be 530 feet long and 250
feet wide. Squier and Davis reported its height at 32 feet, but the
excavation of the trenches required but 18 and 16 feet to the original
surface on which the mound was built. It was too large to be cut down as a
whole, and for convenience it was decided by Mr. Moorehead to cut it down
in trenches, commencing on the northeast. Nothing was found until, in
opening trench 3, about five feet above the base of the mound, they struck
a mass of thin worked copper objects, laid flat one atop the other, in a
rectangular space, say three by four feet square. These objects are unique
in American prehistoric archæology. Some of them bore a resemblance in
form to the scalloped mica pieces found by Squier and Davis, and described
by them in their "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" (p.
240), and also those of the same material found by Professor Putnam in the
Turner group of mounds in the valley of the Little Miami. They had been
apparently laid between two layers of bark, whether for preservation or
mere convenience of deposit, can only be guessed.
[Illustration: PLATE 11. PLAN OF NORTH FORK (HOPEWELL) WORKS. Ross County,
Ohio. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. I, Pl. X.]
[Illustration: PLATE 12. PLAN OF HOPEWELL MOUND, IN WHICH ABORIGINAL
COPPER SWASTIKAS WERE FOUND. Ross County, Ohio. Moorehead, "Primitive Man
in Ohio," Pl. XXXIV.]
[Illustration: Fig. 243. COPPER PLATE SHOWING FIGURE OF EAGLE. Repoussé
work. Union County, Ill. Cat. No. 91507, U. S. N. M.]
[Illustration: Fig. 244. SWASTIKA CROSS OF THIN COPPER. Hopewell Mound,
Ross County, Ohio. 1/4 natural size.]
[Illustration: Fig. 245. FLAT RING OF THIN COPPER. Hopewell Mound, Ross
County, Ohio. 1/5 natural size.]
[Illustration: Fig. 246. STENCIL ORNAMENT OF THIN COPPER. Hopewell Mound,
Ross County, Ohio. 1/8 natural size.]
The following list of objects is given, to the end that the reader may see
what was associated with these newly found copper Swastikas: Five Swastika
crosses (fig. 244); a long mass of copper covered with wood on one side
and with squares and five similar designs traceable on the reverse;
smaller mass of copper; eighteen single copper rings; a number of double
copper rings, one set of three and one set of two; five pan lids or
hat-shaped rings; ten circular disks with holes in center, represented in
fig. 245, originally placed in a pile and now oxidized together; also
large circular, stencil-like ornaments, one (fig. 246) 7-1/2 inches in
diameter; another (fig. 247) somewhat in the shape of a St. Andrew's
cross, the extreme length over the arms being 8-3/4 inches.
About five feet below the deposit of sheet copper and 10 or 12 feet to the
west, two skeletons lay together. They were covered with copper plates and
fragments, copper hatchets, and pearl beads, shown in the list below, laid
in rectangular form about seven feet in length and five feet in width, and
so close as to frequently overlap.
[Illustration: Fig. 247. STENCIL ORNAMENT OF THIN COPPER. Hopewell Mound,
Ross County, Ohio. 1/4 natural size.]
[Illustration: Fig. 248. FISH ORNAMENT OF THIN COPPER. Hopewell Mound,
Ross County, Ohio. 1/6 natural size.]
[Illustration: Fig. 249. LOZENGE-SHAPED STENCIL OF THIN COPPER. Hopewell
Mound, Ross County, Ohio. 1/4 natural size.]
There were also found sixty-six copper hatchets, ranging from 1-1/2 to
22-1/2 inches in length; twenty-three copper plates and fragments; one
copper eagle; eleven semicircles, bars, etc.; two spool-shaped objects;
four comb-shaped effigies; one wheel with peculiar circles and bars of
copper; three long plates of copper; pearl and shell beads and teeth; a
lot of extra fine pearls; a lot of wood, beads, and an unknown metal; a
lot of bones; a human jaw, very large; a fragmentary fish resembling a
sucker (fig. 248); one stool of copper with two legs; broken copper
plates; one broken shell; bear and panther tusks; mica plates; forty
fragmentary and entire copper stencils of squares, circles, diamonds,
hearts, etc.; copper objects, saw-shaped; twenty ceremonial objects,
rusted or oxidized copper; two diamond-shaped stencils, copper (fig. 249);
four peculiar spool-shaped copper ornaments, perforated, showing repoussé
work (fig. 250).
I made sketches of two or three of the bone carvings, for the purpose of
showing the art of the people who constructed this monument, so that by
comparison with that of other known peoples some knowledge may be
obtained, or theory advanced, concerning the race or tribe to which they
belonged and the epoch in which they lived. Fig. 251 shows an exquisite
bone carving of a paroquet which belongs much farther south and not found
in that locality in modern times. The design shown in fig. 252 suggests a
Mississippi Kite, but the zoologists of the Museum, while unable to
determine with exactitude its intended representation, chiefly from the
mutilated condition of the fragment, report it more likely to be the
head of the "leather-back" turtle. Fig. 253 probably represents an otter
with a fish in his mouth.
[Illustration: PLATE 13. HUMAN SKULL WITH COPPER-COVERED HORNS. Hopewell
Mound, Ross County, Ohio. Moorehead, "Primitive Man in Ohio,"
frontispiece.]
[Illustration: PLATE 14. PREHISTORIC ALTAR. Hopewell Mound, Ross County,
Ohio. Found near the copper Swastika shown in fig. 244. Moorehead,
"Primitive Man in Ohio," Fig. XXXVII. Cat. No. 148662, U. S. N. M.]
In trench No. 3, 15 skeletons (numbered 264 to 278, inclusive), were found
on the base line, all extended. Objects of coal, bone, shell, or stone,
had been placed with nearly all of them. Nos. 265 and 266 were laid on
blocks of burnt earth 3 inches higher than the base of the mound. One of
the skeletons in this mound (No. 248) is shown in pl. 13. It was a most
remarkable specimen, and forms the frontispiece of Prof. W. K. Moorehead's
volume "Primitive Man in Ohio," where it is described (p. 195) as follows:
At his head were imitation elk horns, neatly made of wood and covered
with sheet copper rolled into cylindrical forms over the prongs. The
antlers were 22 inches high and 19 inches across from prong to prong.
They fitted into a crown of copper bent to fit the head from occipital
to upper jaw. Copper plates were upon the breast and stomach, also on
the back. The copper preserved the bones and a few of the sinews. It
also preserved traces of cloth similar to coffee sacking in texture,
interwoven among the threads of which were 900 beautiful pearl beads,
bear teeth split and cut, and hundreds of other beads, both pearl and
shell. Copper spool-shaped objects and other implements covered the
remains. A pipe of granite and a spearhead of agate were near the
right shoulder. The pipe was of very fine workmanship and highly
polished.
[Illustration: Fig. 250. SPOOL-SHAPED OBJECT OF COPPER. Repoussé and
intaglio decoration. Hopewell Mound, Ross County, Ohio. Natural size.]
While digging out skeletons 280 to 284, Professor Moorehead says they
touched the edge of an altar (pl. 14). It was on the base line and 15 feet
north of the copper find before described. On the 5th of January, 1892,
the altar was uncovered, and the earth, charcoal, and objects within it
put into five soap boxes and transported to headquarters, where the
material was assorted in my presence and with my aid. The mass on the
altar had been charred throughout. It contained, in part, mica ornaments,
beads, spool-shaped objects, whale, bear, and panther teeth, flint knives,
carved effigies of bone and stone, some of which were broken, while others
were whole. There were stone tablets, slate ornaments, copper balls,
fragments of cloth, rings of chlorite, quartz crystals perforated and
grooved, and a few pieces of flint and obsidian, with several thousand
pearls drilled for suspension. These objects were heaped in the cavity of
the altar without any regularity. All were affected by heat, the copper
being fused in many cases. The teeth and tusks were charred, split, and
calcined. There were no ashes. All the fuel was charcoal, and from the
appearance of the débris, especially the wood, earth, and bone, one might
suppose that after the fire had started it had not been allowed to burn to
ashes as if in the open air, but had been covered with earth, and so had
smoldered out as in a charcoal pit.
[Illustration: Fig. 251. FRAGMENT OF ENGRAVED BONE REPRESENTING A
PAROQUET. Hopewell Mound, Ross County, Ohio. Natural size.]
[Illustration: Fig. 252. FRAGMENT OF ENGRAVED BONE PROBABLY REPRESENTING A
MISSISSIPPI KITE OR LEATHER-BACK TURTLE. Hopewell Mound, Ross County,
Ohio. Natural size.]
Evidence was found of an extended commerce with distant localities, so
that if the Swastika existed in America it might be expected here. The
principal objects were as follows: A number of large seashells (_Fulgur_)
native to the southern Atlantic Coast 600 miles distant, many of them
carved; several thousand pieces of mica from the mountains of Virginia or
North Carolina, 200 or more miles distant; a thousand large blades of
beautifully chipped objects in obsidian, which could not have been found
nearer than the Rocky Mountains, 1,000 or 1,200 miles distant; four
hundred pieces of wrought copper, believed to be from the Lake Superior
region, 150 miles distant; fifty-three skeletons, the copper headdress
(pl. 13) made in semblance of elk horns, 16 inches high, and other
wonderful things. Those not described have no relation to the Swastika.
[Illustration: Fig. 253. FRAGMENT OF ENGRAVED BONE PROBABLY REPRESENTING
AN OTTER WITH A FISH IN ITS MOUTH. Natural size.]
These objects were all prehistoric. None of them bore the slightest
evidence of contact with white civilization. The commoner objects would
compare favorably with those found in other mounds by the same and other
investigators. Much of it may be undetermined. It is strange to find so
many objects brought such long distances, and we may not be able to
explain the problem presented; but there is no authority for injecting any
modern or European influence into it. By what people were these made? In
what epoch? For what purpose? What did they represent? How did this
ancient, curious, and widespread sign, a recognized symbol of religion of
the Orient, find its way to the bottom of one of the mounds of antiquity
in the Scioto Valley? These are questions easy to ask but difficult to
answer. They form some of the riddles of the science of prehistoric
anthropology.
[Illustration: Fig. 254. WATER JUG WITH FIGURE OF SWASTIKA. Decoration,
red on yellow ground. Poinsett County, Ark. Cat. No. 91230, U. S. N. M.]
_Mounds in Arkansas._--A water jug in the collection of the U. S. National
Museum (fig. 254) was obtained in 1883 by P. W. Norris, of the Bureau of
Ethnology, from a mound in Poinsett County, Ark. It is of yellow ground,
natural color of clay, and decorated with light red paint. The paint is
represented in the cut by the darkened surfaces. The four quarters of the
jug are decorated alike, one side of which is shown in the cut. The center
of the design is the Swastika with the arm crossing at right angles, the
ends turned to the right, the effect being produced by an enlargement on
the right side of each arm until they all join the circle. A similar water
jug with a Swastika mark of the same type as the foregoing decorates Major
Powell's desk in the Bureau of Ethnology.
Marquis Nadaillac[255] describes and figures a grooved ax from Pemberton,
N. J., on which some persons have recognized a Swastika, but which the
Marquis doubts, while Dr. Abbott[256] denounces the inscription as a
fraud.