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
A description of the Wisconsin districts from which the greatest number
of such artifacts have been recovered up to the present time may be
given as extending from about the middle of Milwaukee County, northward
along the west shore of Lake Michigan to Door County, thence westward to
the Wisconsin River or slightly beyond, thence southward along this
stream to Dane County and eastward to Milwaukee County, the
starting-point. Embraced within this territory are the extensive lake
shore village-sites, from which thousands of articles have already been
recovered, and certain well-known sites in Green Lake and adjoining
counties, the Rush Lake, Lake Chetek, and similarly productive regions.
The amount of copper implements obtained from the mounds and graves of
Wisconsin is very small when compared with the quantity obtained from
the village-sites and fields.
_Classes and Functions_
The native copper artifacts of Wisconsin admit of separation into two
principal classes, designated as implements and ornaments. Of these the
former class is by far the more numerous. Mr. Henry P. Hamilton
estimates that articles of utility constitute fully 95 per cent of the
copper artifacts found in Wisconsin.
It is but natural that on account of its proximity to the source of
supply we should find in our own state not only a more bountiful supply
of implements, but a greater range of classes, types, and varieties as
well. The correctness of this conclusion is proven beyond doubt. In the
matter of the number and artistic excellence of its copper ornaments and
objects of a ceremonial nature, Wisconsin, while possessing some types
apparently peculiar to itself, cannot properly be said to lead. The
artistically cut or embossed sheet-copper discs, gorgets, and plates,
the spool-shaped objects and copper-sheathed stone and wooden ornaments
of Ohio, Illinois, and the South, are here conspicuous by their almost
total absence.
[Illustration:
FIG. 585. (S. 1–1.) Copper spud with incised zigzag decoration. Fond
du Lac, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Public Museum collection.
]
No one Wisconsin collection contains all of the classes and types of the
implements described in this bulletin. An examination of almost any
local copper cabinet, however small, is almost certain to reveal the
presence of some object that is original or peculiar; or some variation
of a well-known type not elsewhere to be seen. The difficulties
attending the making of a proper classification are therefore apparent.
Especially among the objects classed as arrow- and spear-points the
number of well-established types, of varieties and infrequent forms, is
particularly numerous. In a somewhat lesser degree this is also true of
other classes of implements.
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