The stone age in North America, vol. 2 of 2Moorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
History
The stone age in North America, vol. 2 of 2
Moorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
Indians of North America -- Antiquities; Stone age -- North America
Few finer problematical forms have been found. There are two grooves
on the face and back of this object. One runs from the top down
about an inch and one half, intersecting the other. In the angles
formed by these two grooves are two perforations extending through
the stone and drilled from each side. At the bottom is an
oval-shaped hole on the face extending through. This latter
perforation does not exhibit an oval shape from the rear, but
presents a round appearance. Around this oval-shaped depression are
fourteen holes, each drilled about one eighth of an inch deep. They
present the form of an arrow-head, or a heart. On the reverse side
are two holes above the oval perforations which are not drilled
through the stone, and which lie just under the horizontal groove.
The remarkable part of this stone is that the symbol, three, occurs
on it in three places—on the face twice and on the reverse once.
]
Quite a number of these whale and other effigies have been found in New
England; but effigy-work in stone, the making of art-forms from life,
was more general in the South and Southwest than in New England, where,
indeed, effigy animals are exceedingly rare.
Fig. 415 illustrates an effigy of a bear. This was found in Salem during
excavations for a cellar and is in the Peabody Museum of that city.
Mr. L. C. Deming, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, owns a peculiar effigy in stone
about six inches in height. Just what it represents I am unable to
state, as the ancient workman’s sculpture is crude.
[Illustration:
FIG. 420. (S. 1–1.) The “Owl Ornament,” rear view.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 421. (S. 1–1.) Salem collection. This shows a grooved bar-like
object at the bottom, and a curious effigy pendant above.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 422. (S. 1–3.) W. E. Bryan’s collection, Elmira, New York.
]
Fig. 416 shows a number of spindle-whorls to which reference has been
made elsewhere. These are made of clay, hard baked. In the lower centre
is a stone idol found in a large ruin at Mesa, Arizona. It is made of
hard redstone. There is a little depression in the top of the head half
an inch in depth. Near the top is a curious animal effigy with eight
legs. This is made of fine-grained lava and has a depression in the
centre about one and one half inches in diameter.
[Illustration:
FIG. 423. (S. 1–1.) From a mound near South Carrollton, Kentucky.
Presented to the Phillips Academy Museum, by F. G. Hilman, New
Bedford, Massachusetts.
]
Fig. 417 illustrates two effigies, full size, of black onyx, each
typifying a bird. These are very finely carved and were found in
southern Arizona in a ruin, by the expedition sent there by Mr. R. S.
Peabody, 1897–98.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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