HEMATITE OBJECTS
The hematite beds in various portions of the United States furnished the
Indians with paint and with implements. Hematite, like copper, being
different from other materials with which he was familiar appealed to
the aborigine. Its bright red color attracted him, and although he found
most of it very hard, yet he made use of it to a remarkable extent when
one considers how refractory it was for him to work. Hematite is found
on the surface in large quantities in portions of Missouri and Arkansas,
in western Virginia, Ohio, and elsewhere. Most of the hematite seems to
come from Missouri. It was common there, and therefore the native made
of it grooved hematite axes, which he did not do elsewhere in this
country. One supposes that hematite was exchanged and bartered with
remote tribes. Just as in the case of copper, the natives of Louisiana,
Mississippi, Indiana, and Michigan prized their hematite highly and made
of it their most perfect plummet-shaped ornaments, hematite celts, and
such other objects as it was possible for them to manufacture. The
softer kinds of hematite were ground into paint, and there are
frequently found on the village-sites along the Ohio River small blocks
of hematite worn to flat surfaces. There is in the Arkansas region a
very hard blue-red or blue-gray hematite. How the Indians cut this into
symmetrical oval plummets has always been a mystery to me. If the rough
nugget was ground by means of other stones or sand, one is scarcely able
to conceive how the finished article was produced. The process must have
been long and laborious, much more so than the manufacture of an effigy
pipe, or the making of a problematical form.
[Illustration:
FIG. 690. (S. 1–1.) Eight hematite objects from the Andover
collection. In the upper right-hand corner is a hematite pebble,
polished on two of its angles and rough on the other side. This
illustrates how hematite was cut and ground until reduced to the
desired shape. Flint scratchings are still plain on the surface.
Just beneath it is a triangular bit of hematite. This is of soft
hematite. The flat surface may be due to grinding in order to obtain
paint. Beneath are two hematite cones. The four specimens to the
left represent hematite objects in various stages of manufacture.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 691. (S. 1–2.)
These are from the collection of George Y. Hull, St. Joseph, Missouri.
1. Celt from mound, Andrew County, Missouri. Smooth and well made but
not polished.
2. Plumb much pitted by age, surface find, Callaway County, Missouri.
3. A fine truncated cone used as a paint-grinder. Top of cone is worn
and depressed from use. Surface find, Callaway County, Missouri.
4. Finely polished celt, surface find, Doniphan County, Kansas.
5. From an old grave near the village-site at Wathena, Kansas.
6. Axe with flat top and flat side,—a surface find, Callaway County,
Missouri.
7. From an old village-site at King Hill, St. Joseph, Buchanan County,
Missouri.
The difference between the celts is self-evident, numbers 1 and 4
being square, and 5 and 7 oval.
]
The hard gray hematite referred to resists the knife and will wear an
ordinary file in a short time, yet in the altar mounds of the Ohio
Valley, and in the older graves (not graves of the historic period) are
found numbers of these slender hematite plummets (see Fig. 700) worked
from the hardest and most refractory iron ore. It is unfortunate that
the earliest tribes known to the voyagers and explorers in this country
had no hematite objects in use among them. If so, I fail to find
references to such objects. This is unfortunate because hematite
certainly was considered as more than of passing importance. It is quite
likely that because it was so difficult to deduce it to the desired
shape the so-called plummets were made use of, as Dr. Yates suggests, as
stones used in certain ceremonies, or by shamans, or as charm-stones. I
have seen unfinished hematite plummets, but cannot work out a
satisfactory theory as to their manufacture.
[Illustration:
FIG. 692. (S. 1–5.) This figure illustrates three grooved axes in the
lower row; an unfinished hematite implement of unknown purpose and a
hematite nodule above. Hematite axes are frequently found in
Missouri, but seem rare elsewhere in the country. The groove may
entirely encircle them, or be faintly indicated on the back. But
usually they are grooved entirely around. The one in the lower
left-hand corner has a broad, sharp, cutting edge. Naturally,
because of its hardness, hematite made excellent axes. They retained
their edges longer and more nearly approached the modern iron axe
than any other aboriginal tool.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 693. (S. 1–2.) Hematite objects from the collection of Dr. Henry
M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Missouri. Hematite plummet to the left,
grooved axe in the centre, a hematite cone to the right, a celt in
the lower right-hand corner.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 694. (_S. about 1–3._)
_Group of nine grooved hematite axes, from eastern and central
Missouri. Collection of F. P. Graves, Doe Run, Missouri._
]
I have presented a series of figures covering all the known forms of
hematites. No classification was attempted by the Nomenclature
Committee, and the following is of my own make:—
Elongated or oval │ Plummet-shaped. (Fig. 700.)
hematites. │
„ │ Egg-shaped. (Fig. 699.)
„ │Egg-shaped, flattened. (Fig. 697, lower row.)
„ │ Cone-shaped. (Fig. 697, upper part.)
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────
Edged hematites. │ Celt form, oval. (Fig. 691, specimens 5 and
│ 7.)
„ │ Celt form, beveled edge. (Fig. 693, lower
│ right.)
„ │ Axe form. (Figs. 694, 695.)
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────
│ Irregular forms. (Fig. 701.)
│ Paint-stone hematite. (Fig. 690, second from
│ the top.)
Hematite being valuable, may have served several purposes and doubtless
did. The small celts might have been set in the heads of war-clubs and
securely gummed in place. I have no particular evidence as to this, but
have always believed that some of them were so used. Occasionally, one
finds hematite ornaments and hematite bicaves. The information one is
able to impart with reference to hematite implements and their use is an
illustration of the disadvantages under which we labor in dealing with
some of our archæological problems. There are certain phases of
prehistoric life with
[Illustration:
FIG. 695. (S. 1–2.) Two of the best grooved axes I have ever seen are
shown in this figure, from the collection of Mr. Braun, East St.
Louis, Illinois. There is one in the National Museum, and one in the
New York Museum, each of which weighs over ten pounds, and they are
nearly as symmetrical as Mr. Braun’s largest axe.
]
which we are familiar. Others we know nothing of save as we learn by
continuous study, by gleaning a fact here and there from the specimens
themselves, and from exploration.
[Illustration:
FIG. 696. (S. 1–1.) A beautiful hematite axe from the collection of
Henry M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Missouri. This was found in central
Missouri.
]
In the collection at Andover there are about four hundred hematite
objects. The collections in the Smithsonian and American Museum of
Natural History are much larger. Doubtless we should be quite surprised
if we were able to reconstruct the past and see to what use these
strange iron ore specimens were put by the natives who worked so long
and laboriously to bring them into a state of perfection.
Mr. C. E. Brown, reporting on the hematites of his region, states:
[Illustration:
FIG. 697. (S. 1–2.) Hematite cones. Collection of H. M. Whelpley, St.
Louis, Missouri. Localities: Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas.
]
“A small number of implements made of this material have been obtained
in Wisconsin. These include a grooved axe, a number of celts, several
cones and plummets, a gorget, and a pipe. The total number of specimens
of all classes at present known to exist in local collections does not
exceed thirty specimens. Nearly all come from southern Wisconsin
counties. Several specimens have been obtained as far north in the state
as Winnebago County. It is likely that some of these hematite implements
were introduced into the state through early trades with middle
Mississippi Valley tribes.”
[Illustration:
FIG. 698. (S. 1–2.) Hematite cones. Collection of Henry M. Whelpley,
St. Louis, Missouri. From Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas.
]
Hematite objects do not seem to have served as tools—save perhaps as
celts and axes—but on the contrary they are of the problematical class.
The bright color of the stone and its peculiar properties doubtless
appealed to stone-age man. The fact that hematite celts are found in
graves and mounds and also hematite plummets, whereas ordinary stone
axes are seldom, if ever, found in mounds or graves, would strengthen
the hypothesis that objects made of this peculiar stone were considered
apart from the ordinary run of artifacts.
[Illustration:
FIG. 699. (S. 1–2.) Hematite plummets, grooved in the centre.
Collection of Henry M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Missouri.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 700. (S. 1–2.) These objects are also from the Andover collection
and show the various types of plummets. In the centre is a fine
plummet of steel gray hematite, very hard. Beneath it, a hematite a
trifle softer in which there are some flaws. At the top, an
unfinished hematite pecked and ground into shape, but not polished
or grooved. On either side of the centre, ruder hematite plummets,
and at the top, to the left, a grooved hematite object, the groove
extending around the longest periphery of the object. To the right
is a small plummet, grooved in the centre.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 701. (S. 1–1.) This ornament is made of hematite. It is
remarkable in that both ends are decorated by notches. On the upper
end there are eleven notches or incised lines; on the lower or broad
end there are fourteen lines. This specimen is not a type but an
anomaly. It is of heavy, pure hematite and not of stone discolored
by iron oxide as are many of the ornaments. It was extremely
difficult to work because of the density and hardness of the
material. Aside from these facts this form is peculiar. The edges
are slightly beveled. The specimen shows unmistakable evidence of
antiquity because of the patina, and the cuttings (striæ) are
irregular and have been made with flint and not with steel. Ross
County, Ohio. Andover collection.
]
The reduction of the harder hematites to symmetrical plummets and cones
must have been a severe task for workmen possessed of no metallic tools.
Truly the ancient artisan who had the patience to cut and grind gray
hematite (the hardest of all) “worked at his task with a resolute will.”
It must be remembered that there are not a few but hundreds of these
hematite problematical forms worked from most refractory iron ore.