Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans: Second annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-81, pages 179-306Holmes, William Henry
History
Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans: Second annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-81, pages 179-306
Holmes, William Henry
Indian art; Indians -- Antiquities
Prof. C. C. Jones describes[55] a number of shell pins without
mentioning localities, stating, however, that such pins have been
obtained from a mound on the Chattahoochie River, below Columbus, Ga. He
publishes illustrations of two varieties. One, of the ordinary type, is
five and a half inches in length, one inch of that distance being
occupied by the head, which is an inch and a quarter in diameter. The
shank is an inch and a half in circumference, and, while tapering
somewhat, is quite blunt at the point. The other is of somewhat rare
occurrence, being pointed at both ends. An example of this variety is
given in Fig. 4, Plate XXX. They are usually small and short, seldom
exceeding three inches in length.
In the national collection there are ten fine pins, obtained by C. L.
Stratton from a mound on the French Broad River, fifteen miles above
Knoxville, Tenn. Four only are made from the _Busycon perversum_. The
largest specimen has a very large, cylindrical head, with an extremely
deep groove. The shaft has been at least five inches long, and is nearly
one-half an inch in diameter. Another fine specimen is five inches long,
very slender, and nearly symmetrical. A small, almost headless pin, not
quite one and a half inches in length, is peculiar in having a
longitudinal perforation. It has probably been strung as a bead. A
fourth specimen is five and three-quarters inches in length. The head is
well rounded above, and the shaft tapers gradually to a slender
symmetrical point. The other specimens from the same locality are in an
advanced stage of decay, the points being entirely destroyed.
The Peabody Museum contains a large number of very fine specimens of
this class. The most important of these were obtained from the
Brakebill, Lick Creek, and Turner mounds of Tennessee, by the Rev. E. O.
Dunning. The largest of these is upward of six inches in length. An
unusually symmetrical and well-preserved specimen from the Lick Creek
mound is nearly seven inches in length. One specimen only in this
collection differs from the type already described; this has been made
from a dextral-whorled shell; the head is somewhat spherical, but is
unusual in having an umbonate projection at the top. It is illustrated
in Fig. 6, Plate XXX.
Another small pin, which is about one and one-half inches in length, has
a poorly defined head, and would seem useless for the purposes
ordinarily suggested for the larger specimens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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