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 second and quite common form of copper bead is made of a thin sheet of
metal rolled into the form of a cylinder.
They vary in diameter from one eighth to one quarter of an inch or more,
sometimes exceed two inches in length. They are of quite common
occurrence on the Lake Michigan shore and on some inland village-sites.
From aboriginal village-sites at Two Rivers and on the shores of Green
Bay small cylinders formed by twisting thin sheets of native copper
between the fingers in a spiral shape are found.
_Bangles._ (_See Fig. 569._)
These are also made of thin sheets of native copper. They are of small
size, conical or somewhat conical in shape, and open at both
extremities. It is believed that these served as bangles, probably
taking the place, in the past, of the small metal discs, brass or tin
cones, brass thimbles or bells with which it was the custom, among the
later Indians, to ornament dress fringes or other articles of wearing
apparel. They occur on aboriginal village-sites in the Fox River Valley
and in the Lake Michigan shore region.
_Finger-Rings_
These consist of small, narrow rods or strips of metal bent into the
form of a simple circlet, the ends abutting or nearly meeting.
Occasionally the rods are thickest at the middle and taper to a point at
the extremities. Some may have served equally well as ear-rings.
Specimens are occasionally found in the Lake Michigan shore region, as
well as elsewhere in the state.
[Illustration:
FIG. 620. (S. 1–2.) Copper fish. Hopewell Group. Field Museum
collection, Chicago.
]
_Ear-Rings_
The fondness of the later Indians for such ornaments is well known, and
it is quite probable that they were also in rather general use among the
earlier aborigines.
In the S. D. Mitchell collection is a small crescent-shaped copper
ornament which may have served as an ear-ring or nose-ring, being well
adapted for such use. It measures one and three eighths inches in
extreme width, and was obtained from an Indian village-site in Green
Lake County. Similar specimens are in several other local collections.
The Reverend W. M. Beauchamp states that the earliest metallic ear-rings
in use among New York aborigines were probably those of copper wire
coiled and flattened, and believes it possible that perforated discs and
coins may have served the same purpose in early historic times, but that
they were more likely to have been employed in some other way. Glass and
shell beads, and probably many other things, were so utilized.
[Illustration:
FIG. 621. (S. 1–4.) Copper eagle. Hopewell Group. Field Museum
collection, Chicago.
]
_Ear-Spools or Ear-Plugs._ (_See Fig. 612._)
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