The discoverers and early explorers of the New World were filled with
surprise when they beheld their own sacred emblem, the cross, mingling
with the pagan devices of the western barbarian. Writers have speculated
in vain--the mystery yet remains unsolved. Attempts to connect the use
of the cross by prehistoric Americans with its use in the East have
signally failed, and we are compelled to look on its occurrence here as
one of those strange coincidences so often found in the practices of
peoples totally foreign to each other.
If written history does not establish beyond a doubt the fact that the
cross had a place in our aboriginal symbolism, we have but to turn to
the pages of the great archæologic record, where we find that it
occupies a place in ancient American art so intimately interwoven with
conceptions peculiar to the continent that it cannot be separated from
them. It is found associated with other prehistoric remains throughout
nearly the entire length and breadth of America.
I have the pleasure of presenting a few new examples of this emblem,
obtained from the district at one time occupied by the mound-builders.
The examples are carved in shell or engraved upon disks of shell which
have been employed as pendant gorgets. In the study of these particular
relics, one important fact in recent history must be kept constantly in
mind. The first explorers were accompanied by Christian zealots, who
spared no effort to root out the native superstitions and introduce a
foreign religion, of which the cross was the all-important symbol. This
emblem was generally accepted by the savages as the only tangible
feature of a new system of belief that was filled with subtleties too
profound for their comprehension. As a result, the cross was at once
introduced into the regalia of the natives; at first probably in a
European form and material attached to a string of beads in precisely
the manner that they had been accustomed to suspend their own trinkets
and gorgets; but soon, no doubt, delineated or carved by their own hands
upon tablets of stone and copper and shell, in the place of their own
peculiar conceptions. From the time of La Salle down to the extinction
of the savage in the middle Mississippi province, the cross was kept
constantly before him, and its presence may thus be accounted for in
such remains as post-date the advent of the whites. Year after year
articles of European manufacture are being discovered in the most
unexpected places, and we shall find it impossible to assign any single
example of these crosses to a prehistoric period, with the assurance
that our statements will not some day be challenged. It is certainly
unfortunate that the American origin of any work of art resembling
European forms must rest forever under a cloud of suspicion. As long as
a doubt exists in regard to the origin of a relic, it is useless to
employ it in a discussion where important deductions are to be made. At
the same time it should not be forgotten that the cross was undoubtedly
used as a symbol by the prehistoric nations of the South, and
consequently that it was probably also known in the North. A great
majority of the relics associated with it in ancient mounds and burial
places are undoubtedly aboriginal. In the case of the shell gorgets, the
tablets themselves belong to an American type, and are highly
characteristic of the art of the Mississippi Valley. A majority of the
designs engraved upon them are also characteristic of the same district.
We find at rare intervals designs that are characteristically foreign;
these, whether Mexican or European, are objects of special interest and
merit the closest possible examination. That the design under
consideration, as well as every other engraved upon these tablets, is
symbolic or otherwise significant, I do not for a moment doubt; but the
probabilities as to the European or American origin of the symbol of the
cross found in this region are pretty evenly balanced. In its
delineation there is certainly nothing to indicate its origin. By
reference to Plate LIII it will be seen that in all the examples given
it is a simple and symmetrical cross, which might be duplicated a
thousand times in the religious art of any country. A study of the
designs associated with the cross in these gorgets is instructive, but
does not lead to any definite result. In one case the cross is inscribed
upon the back of a great spider; in another it is surrounded by a
rectangular framework of lines, looped at the corners, and guarded by
four mysterious birds, while in others it is without attendant
characters; but the workmanship is purely aboriginal. I have not seen a
single example of engraving upon shell that suggested a foreign hand, or
a design, with the exception of this one, that could claim a European
derivation.
Some very ingenious theories have been elaborated in attempting to
account for the presence of the cross among American symbols. Brinton
believes that the great importance attached to the points of the
compass--the four quarters of the heavens--by savage peoples has given
rise to the sign of the cross. With others the cross is a phallic
symbol, derived, by some obscure process of evolution, from the
veneration accorded to the reciprocal principle in nature. It is also
frequently associated with sun-worship, and is recognized as a symbol of
the sun--the four arms being remaining rays left after a gradual process
of elimination. Whatever is finally determined in reference to the
origin of the cross as a religious symbol in America will probably
result from the exhaustive study of the history, language, and art of
the ancient peoples, combined with a thorough knowledge of the religious
conceptions of modern tribes, and when these sources of information are
all exhausted it is probable that the writer who asserts more than a
probability will overreach his proofs.
Such delineations of the cross as we find embodied in ancient aboriginal
art represent only the final stages of its evolution, and it is not to
be expected that its origin can be traced through them. In one instance,
however, a direct derivation from nature is suggested. The ancient
Mexican pictographic manuscripts abound in representations of trees,
conventionalized in such a manner as to resemble crosses; these
apparently take an important part in the scenes depicted. By a
comparison of these curious trees with the remarkable cross in the
Palenque tablet, I have been led to the belief that they must have a
common significance and origin. The analogies are indeed remarkable. The
tree-cross in the paintings is often the central figure of a group in
which priests offer sacrifice, or engage in some similar religious rite.
The cross holds the same relation in the Palenque group. The branches of
these cross-shaped trees terminate in clusters of symbolic fruit, and
the arms of the cross are loaded down with symbols which, although
highly conventionalized, have not yet entirely lost their vegetable
character. The most remarkable feature, however, is not that the crosses
resemble each other in these respects, but that they perform like
functions in giving support to a symbolic bird which is perched upon the
summit. This bird appears to be the important feature of the group, and
to it, or the deity which it represents, the homage or sacrifice is
offered. These analogies go still farther; the bases of the cross in the
tablet and of the crosses in the paintings are made to rest upon a
highly conventionalized figure of some mythical creature. A
consideration of these facts seems to me to lead to the conclusion that
the myths represented in all of these groups are identical, and that the
cross and cross-like trees have a common origin. Whether that origin is
in the tree on the one hand or in a cross otherwise evolved on the other
I shall not attempt to say.
The gorget presented in Fig. 1, Plate LI, belongs to the collection of
Mr. F. M. Perrine, and was obtained from a mound in Union County, Ill.
It is a little more than three inches in diameter and has been ground
down to a uniform thickness of about one-twelfth of an inch. The
surfaces are smooth and the margin carefully rounded and polished. Near
the upper edge are two perforations for suspension. The cord used passed
between the holes on the concave side, wearing a shallow groove. On the
convex side, or back, the cord marks extend upward and outward,
indicating the usual method of suspension about the neck. The cross
which occupies the center of the concave face of the disk, is quite
simple. It is partially inclosed on one side by a semicircular line, and
at present has no other definition than that given by four triangular
perforations which separate the arms. The face of the cross is
ornamented with six carelessly drawn incised lines, which interlace in
the center, as shown in the cut--three extending along the arm to the
right and three passing down the lower arm to the inclosing line. I have
not been able to learn anything of the character of the interments with
which this specimen was associated.
Fig. 2 of the same plate represents a large shell cross, the encircling
rim of which has been broken away. The perforations are still intact.
The cross is quite plain. This specimen is very much decayed, and came
to the National Museum inside of a skull obtained from a grave at
Charleston, Mo. Beyond this there is no record of the specimen.
[Illustration: PL. LI--SHELL GORGETS--THE CROSS.
1. From a mound, Union County, Ill.
2. From Charleston, Mo.
(1/1)]
In Fig. 1, Plate LII, I present a large fragment of a circular shell
ornament, on the convex surface of which a very curious ornamental
design has been engraved. The design, inclosed by a circle, represents a
cross such as would be formed by two rectangular tablets or slips, slit
longitudinally and interlaced at right angles to each other. Between the
arms of the cross in the spaces inclosed by the circular border line are
four annular nodes, having small conical depressions in the center.
These nodes have been relieved by cutting away portions of the shell
around them. In the center of the cross is another small node or ring
similarly relieved. The lines are neat and deeply incised. The edge of
the shell has been broken away nearly all around. The accompanying cut
represents the ornament natural size--one and a half inches in diameter
and one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness. It was obtained from a mound
on Fain's Island, Tennessee.
The small gorget presented in Fig. 2, Plate LII, is of inferior
workmanship and the lines and dots seem to have a somewhat haphazard
arrangement. The cross, which may or may not be significant, consists of
two shallow irregular grooves which cross each other at right angles
near the center of the disk and terminate near the border. There are
indications of an irregular, somewhat broken, concentric line near the
margin. A number of shallow conical pits have been drilled at rather
irregular intervals over most of the surface. One pair of perforations
seems to have been broken away and others drilled, one of the latter has
also been broken out. A triangular fragment is lost from the lower
margin of the disk. This specimen was obtained from a mound on Lick
Creek, East Tennessee, by Mr. Dunning.
The gorget shown in Fig. 3 contains a typical example of the cross of
the mound-builder. The cut was made from a pencil sketch and is probably
not quite accurate in detail. The border of the disk is plain, with the
exception of the usual perforations at the top. The cross is inclosed in
a carelessly drawn circle, and the spaces between the arms, which in
other crosses are entirely cut out, or are filled with rays or other
figures, are here decorated with a pattern of crossed lines. The lines
which define the arms of the cross intersect in the middle of the disk.
The square figure thus produced in the center contains a device that is
probably significant. A doubly-curved or S-shaped incised line, widened
at the ends, extends obliquely across the square from the right upper to
the left lower corner. This figure appears to be an elementary or
unfinished form of the device found in the center of many of the more
elaborate disks. Intersected by a similar line it would form a cross
like that upon the back of one of the spiders shown in Plate LXI, or
somewhat more evenly curved, it would resemble the involuted figure in
the center of the circular disks given in Plate LIV. This specimen was
obtained from a mound on Lick Creek, Tenn., and is now in the Peabody
Museum.
In Fig. 4 a large copper disk from an Ohio mound is represented. The
specimen is eight inches in diameter, is very thin, and has suffered
greatly from corrosion. A symmetrical cross, the arms of which are five
inches in length, has been cut out of the center. Two concentric lines
have been impressed in the plate, one near the margin and the other
touching the ends of the cross. It is now in the Natural History Museum
at New York.
[Illustration: PL. LII--THE CROSS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.
1. Shell gorget, Fain's Island, Tenn.
2. Shell gorget, Lick Creek, Tenn.
3. Shell gorget, Lick Creek, Tenn.
4. Copper plate, Ohio.]
In Plate LIII I present a large number of crosses, most of which have
been obtained from the mounds, or from ancient graves, within the
district occupied by the mound-builders. Eight are engraved upon shell
gorgets (illustrations of which are given in the accompanying plates),
one is cut in stone, three are painted upon pottery, and four are
executed in copper. With two exceptions they are inclosed in circles,
and are hence symmetrical Greek crosses, the ends being rounded to
conform to the circle; the remaining two (Figs. 14 and 15) represent
forms of the Latin cross, and resemble the crosses attached to the
rosaries of the Catholic priesthood. A silver cross similar to the last
given was obtained from a mound in Ohio.
The plate itself is instructive, and may be presented without further
remark.
[Illustration: PL. LIII--THE CROSS.]