USA > Kentucky > The prehistoric men of Kentucky : a history of what is known of their lives and habits, together with a description of their implements and other relics and of the tumuli which have earned for them the designation of Mound builders > Part 11
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AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.
The agricultural implements used by the prehistoric men of Kentucky were less numerous than their weapons of war. They consisted of two sorts of spades and one form of hoe. These implements were almost entirely made of flint. Now and then other stone was used, but very infrequently. Those which we may call elongated spades ran in size from six to eighteen inches, and in width of blade from four to seven inches. The chipped flint ones would have a thickness of about three fourths of an inch. Figures showing these spades will be found on pages 173 and 174. They were mounted in two ways, first with the handle at right angles to the blade and fastened as were the axes, or they were arranged as are spades of the present time, so that the handle extended in a line parallel to the blade. The second form was rounded or oval rather than elongated, and with a cutting edge all around. These spades would usually be six inches by seven, and thinner at any given point than the elongated spades.
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These could be mounted as the larger spades, either with the handle extended from the blade straight out, or placed at right angles to the blade, and fastened with a withe or rawhide. Then, third, a notched hoe. These were prob- ably mounted with the handle at right angles to the blade.
Large numbers of these implements had been worn perfectly smooth at the edge by friction. They would be considered unsatisfactory and cumbersome compared with the modern steel and iron hoes or spades. They were used more to loosen the ground than to dig it. The flint blade would be driven into the ground, and probably turned in part so as to place the earth in such a position as to receive moisture, worked sufficiently to destroy the weeds, and kept loose, that the roots of the vegetables might find ready opportunity to spread out under the surface.
Most of the cultivation done by these people was along the river bottoms, where these three styles of implements would be more efficient than if used on the hillside or in the clay ground. In the loam and sandy soil of the river bottoms they would be quite effective. The crops which they grew would be amenable to the treatment described, and in the kind of soil which they cultivated produce prolific yields. Pumpkins, squashes, corn, beans, sunflowers, melons, potatoes, and tobacco, while not as thoroughly cared for as with our hoes and other steel implements, would by this process find sufficient loosening of the earth, and the soil would be made sufficiently recep- tive to give good growth. The tobacco found in Salts Cave shows that the leaf was large, and the corncobs found in the same place, one of which measures eight and one half inches, show that agriculturally good results
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were obtained from this meager stirring of the ground. Some one might suggest that these corncobs had been carried into the cave at a later date, but they were found around the fires and mingled with the sticks of wood and were partially burned, and about these fires were the gourd plates, cloth, slippers, and other material which had been used by these prehistoric people in the manufacture not only of their clothing but of their implements, and they were mingled in such a way with the daily life of the cave men as to show that these cobs were contemporane- ous with the other articles found.
Another instrument used in agriculture was a short stick fashioned so as to make a hole in the soil, into which plants such as tobacco could be dropped. They were curved at the top, with a point running down about eight or ten inches.
It will thus be seen that the things they used in pro- ducing great crops, of which we have an occasional account, were simple and crude, but judging from results, effective. Squashes were equal in size to many that we grow in the present day. Their gourds were quite as large as those which are grown now, and those used for water jugs were larger than anything of the gourd family that is grown to-day, with the exception of the sugar-trough variety. In the later crops of corn these implements would be pro- ductive of good results. In the early spring, as agricul- turists know, it is more difficult to prepare the soil, which has not been loosened by the spring rains, for the seed planting. But as they had corn covering fully all the seasons which are included in the corn-growing period of the present day, they must have had continuous labor in their crops from April to September.
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
CELTS AND CHISELS OF FLINT.
Celts and chisels of flint are common over the whole State, being more numerous, however, and of larger size, in the southern and western portions. They are made of the same material as the arrow-points and other chipped implements. After being flaked into form, the implement was often ground or polished about the cutting edge, and specimens are not infrequently seen where this grinding process has been applied to the whole implement, and so thoroughly and completely as to remove all traces of the fractures made by the chipping. Implements thus polished are shown on pages 185 and 186. Several of these specimens are also remarkable for the broad, flaring blade. Grindstones with which this work was accomplished are found about every village site. They are generally irregular slabs of sandstone, showing the grooves made by the objects, which were laid upon them and moved back and forth until smoothed. This was necessarily a tedious process, as sandstone, the most available abrasive, cuts flint but slowly. To have polished the finer specimens mentioned above must have required hours and even days, of laborious rubbing. Page 184 illustrates a number of these implements. The upper row are adz-shaped, having a half elliptical cross-section. The longest meas- ured eleven and one half inches. Chisels of somewhat similar shape, but narrower, are frequently found in the southern and western parts of Kentucky. The lower row are of the common celt form. Two of the finest flint celts we have seen are shown on page 187, from the collection of Mr. H. L. Johnson, and were found in Trigg and Liv-
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FLINT IMPLEMENTS From cache of fifty. Caldwell County Largest, 9×42 inches [ 183 ]
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FLINT ADZES AND CELTS, HIGHLY POLISHED Length of longest, eleven inches
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POLISHED FLINT INPLEMENTS Length of longest, eight inches. Johnson Collection
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POLISHED FLINT CELTS Length of longest, seven and five eighths inehes. Johnson and Taylor Collections
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FLINT CHISELS AND CELTS Johnson Collection
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FLINT CELTS, PARTIALLY POLISHED Length of longer, thirteen inches. Johnson Collection
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FLINT IMPLEMENTS-RARE FORMS From Stewart County, Tennessee, and Trigg County, Kentucky
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SCEPTER OR MACE Length, fifteen inches. Edmonson County From collection of General Gates P. Thruston
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9
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12
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BANNER STONES From various counties in Kentucky
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
ingston counties. The longest measures thirteen inches. Trigg County, near the confluence of the Little River with the Cumberland, has been prolific in beautiful little celts and chisels of jasper. Nowhere else in the State have these been found in such large numbers, of such beautiful material, and such complete polish, as in that section.
CEREMONIALS OF FLINT.
The flint objects shown on page 188 are among the most interesting of all chipped implements. It is likely that none of these were designed for a practical use. We think the sickle-shaped, the scepters, and perhaps the other forms, had a ceremonial significance. These are from Trigg County, Kentucky, and Stewart, the adjoining county in Tennessee. General Gates P. Thruston, in his "Antiquities of Tennessee," illustrates and describes many of these problematical objects of flint. The most remark- able is a scepter or mace of flint found in this State, and now in the collection of General Thruston. The illus- tration on page 189 is taken from his "Antiquities of Ten- nessee." This wonderful object is fifteen and one fourth inches long and over five inches wide at the points. It is of dark gray chert. General Thruston writes: “.I do not believe a finer or more elaborately wrought specimen of ancient chipped stone work than this old mace has ever been discovered." Mr. R. B. Evans, of Glasgow, from whom this scepter was obtained by General Thruston, says it was found many years ago near Chameleon Springs, in Edmonson County, by a hunter who observed the end of it projecting from under a ledge of rock. Two smaller
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The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky
scepters or maces are shown on page 188. One is from Stewart County, Tennessee, just across the Kentucky line, and the other from the Rogers farm in Trigg County.
These rare forms in flint seem to be confined princi- pally to the regions along the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and appear to be exclusively the work of the ancient people who lived along these streams and who constructed the stone graves of Southern Kentucky and Middle Tennessee.
CACHE FINDS.
Cache finds of chipped implements have not been numerous in Kentucky.
In Boyd County was found a cache containing one hundred and sixty-five specimens of the leaf-shaped variety, made of gray flint. The size of these are three and three fourths inches by one and five eighths inches by one eighth of an inch in thickness.
In Todd County, three miles east of Trenton, another cache was found. The number of implements taken from it is not known.
In Union County, near Uniontown, was a cache of one hundred and forty hornstone knives. About six miles above Caseyville, in the same county, two caches were disclosed by high water in 1884. They contained respec- tively fifty-six and seventy-five specimens, from six to thirteen inches long.
In Caldwell County, about two miles from Princeton, a cache of leaf-shaped implements was disclosed by the plow, fifty in number, and measuring from seven to nine inches in length. While these implements do not seem
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to be specialized, yet they are nicely finished and exhibit a high degree of skill in chipping. Illustrations of these may be seen on page 183.
In Jefferson County, a short distance from the bank of the Ohio, on the farm formerly owned by the late Thomas L. Barret, President of the Bank of Kentucky, there was plowed up a cache of small oval-shaped implements of gray flint, fifty-seven in number. They are all perfect, and doubtless had been placed in such position by either the manufacturer or some trader, who expected subsequent- ly to dispose of them. Just at the head of the channel opposite Sand Island, in the Ohio River, some twenty-five or thirty feet below the surface, were found a large number of flint arrowheads en cache, and at the mouth of the Portland Canal, opposite Twenty-ninth Street in Louis- ville, a large number of flint, together with bone, imple- ments were found at a depth of thirty feet below the natural surface. In High Avenue, at its intersection with Twenty-sixth Street, in excavating for the purpose of laying water-pipes about eighteen years ago, a large num- ber of prehistoric implements were unearthed, among them being seventeen leaf-shaped knives, several of which are illustrated on page 158. With these were found several slate gorgets, bone awls, and needles.
In Christian County, near Julien, several years ago, was found a large cache of leaf-shaped implements, the size and number of which are not known to the author.
In Trigg County, near Cadiz, Mr. H. L. Johnson secured the contents of a small cache of knives. Among them were the five shown in the upper row on page 159. They are delicately wrought of flint of a bluish cast, and are superior in workmanship to any similar implements the writer has seen.
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CEREMONIALS OF POLISHED STONE.
In the stone graves and mounds and upon the surface of plowed fields about ancient village sites have been found prehistoric artifacts in stone, the use of which is prob- lematical, and which, for want of a better name, anti- quarians have designated "ceremonials." Many of these interesting objects display the highest phase of Stone Age art. The material, form, and fine workmanship of the great majority suggest for them a non-utilitarian function and indicate in their making long and tedious hours of labor by skilled and tireless hands, seeking with infinite patience to produce a form and finish which would satisfy the cravings of the ancient artist and be a tribute worthy of the great personage by whom they should be borne, or the use, ceremonial or religious, to which they might be dedicated.
As belonging to this class we shall describe those forms . popularly known as banner stones, bird stones, boat stones, spuds, crescents, pierced tablets, discoidal stones, and certain other types which seem to have been designed with no utilitarian end in view. It is perhaps true that some of the pierced tablets served a practical purpose; but many were purely ornamental-that is, used for personal adornment rather than as objects of ceremony.
BANNER STONES.
Of ceremonial objects, few are more carefully wrought or fashioned of rarer and more beautiful materials than those designated " banner stones." These have been found all over the State, occurring most frequently in the central
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counties bordering on the Ohio River and along the val- leys of the Cumberland and Tennessee. Their forms vary greatly, though in all specimens there are certain fundamental features which enable us to classify with some degree of certainty the objects belonging to the banner-stone type. Usually the two wings or faces are symmetrical, broad, and comparatively thin, the implement being perforated axially with a carefully drilled hole of uniform diameter. The general form resembles some- what a two-bladed ax; sometimes the blades are narrowed, the implement assuming a pick-like or crescent shape; again the blade, or face, expands into the typical "butterfly stone." The material used in their manufacture also varies, ranging from the homely indurated clay to beautiful quartz, in hardness removed but a few degrees from the diamond. Green banded slate from the glacial drift was most frequently utilized, though the author has specimens of steatite, greenstone, mottled granite, jasper, sandstone, limestone, and quartz.
Many of the perforations in these objects, especially those of the harder stones, show the spiral lines caused by the drill. Several specimens have perforations which are incomplete, each showing a central core ranging from one eighth to one half inch in length, indicating clearly how and by what instrument they were drilled. A hollow cane or cylinder of copper, used with sand or water, would have made a most serviceable instrument in doing this work, and probably was the drill used by the prehistoric man of Kentucky in fashioning these beautiful and curious forms. The aboriginal workman, unlike the modern, fin- ished his implement before adding the perforation. A series of uncompleted specimens in the author's collection
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show that these objects were first battered, pecked, or ground into form, then carefully polished, and lastly drilled.
A number of banner stones are illustrated on page 190. The double crescent-shaped figures, I and 3, are rare in Kentucky, but are said to be more common north of the Ohio River. These specimens are made of green banded slate, and were found in Meade County. Figure 5 is a crescent of argillite, beautifully polished, and measures along the outer curve eleven inches, the cross-section being rectangular. It was found in Livingston County, and is considered a unique specimen. Figure 9 is the typical butterfly stone, made of light yellow quartz, containing blood-red veins or discolorations. This stone, with its beautiful colors, attracted primitive man, and it was his favorite material for the manufacture of his finer discoidals and other ceremonial and ornamental objects. This specimen was found about twenty years ago in Han- cock County. Figure II is of the same material, and comes from Oldham County. As the former specimen, it displays a very high degree of manual skill in shaping, polishing, and boring this hard rock. Figure 7 is of green- stone from Franklin County. A more perfectly formed implement is rarely seen. Figures 4 and 6 are of steatite and greenstone, and were found in Madison County. Figure 8 is of jasper, from Livingston County. Figure 13 is of quartz, from Trigg County. Figure 2 is of mottled granite, also from Trigg County. Figures 2, 8, and 13 are from the collection of Mr. Harry L. Johnson.
The purpose for which these implements were made is a puzzle to archeologists. We are informed that none of the historic tribes knew aught of them. Professor
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Warren K. Moorehead cites the fact that more than one hundred and thirty years ago a Delaware Indian gave to an old settler one of these butterfly stones and informed the pioneer that this was carried because he believed that while on his hunting and trading expeditions its pos- session would bring good fortune. While we do not know the significance which attached to these objects nor the manner of their use, yet we may safely say that they were made for a special and definite purpose and that none of them saw rough or mechanical service. Their sym- metrical forms, their rare and beautiful materials, the great skill displayed in their manufacture, the patience and labor necessary to have fashioned them of granite, jasper, and quartz, all indicate that they were held in high esteem by the aborigines, perhaps had a ceremonial or religious significance, or were invested with some super- natural power. From the perforations we may safely as- sume that they were mounted in some manner, perhaps on the stem of a calumet, or more likely on a staff, and when thus mounted were used as ceremonial maces or batons, and as emblems of authority borne by the chief- tains upon occasions of state, by the shamans in their weird ceremonial dances and incantations, or by their generals in battle or war.
BIRD STONES.
Bird stone ceremonials are extremely rare in Ken- tucky. They are found occasionally about old town sites, but never, so far as we have observed, do they occur in connection with burials. In form and finish they hardly equal similar specimens found north of the Ohio
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River and about the Great Lakes. The term " Bird Stone" applies to a class of objects more or less resem- bling a bird in form. From the well-defined and almost realistic bird stone these specimens pass through successive forms, gradually losing more and more of their lifelikeness until the straight bar amulet is reached, an object which, without a series of specimens before him, the antiquarian would hardly classify as a bird stone. These relics are usually made of slate, the green banded variety being the commonest material, though specimens of granite and other hard stone are occasionally seen.
Various functions have been assigned to these puzzling objects. It has been suggested that they were used in playing games; that they were talismans or totems of clans or tribes. Gillman (Smithsonian Reports, 1873, page 371) was informed by an aged Chippewa that "in olden times these ceremonials were worn on the head of Indian women, but only after marriage." Gillman thought these bird stones may have symbolized the brooding bird. Mr. Holmes thinks that they were probably worn by men, rather than by women. Professor Moorehead believes that many of the perforated tablets, especially those of flat form with double perforations, were not suspended as ornaments, but served as bases for holding effigies or ornamental objects, and that many bird stones may have been mounted in this manner. We can offer no sugges- tions as to their use. In none of the specimens from Kentucky do the holes show signs of wear, such as would be caused by friction with a cord, if suspended, or even mounted upon a pierced tablet as a base and attached thereto by a string.
Page 1997illustrates several specimens from this State
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BIRD STONES Kentucky and Indiana From collections of H. L. Johnson and of Author
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1 . Green Stone
SPUDS
2 Cannel Coal
SLATE IMPLEMENTS Lengths, twelve and fifteen and one half inehes
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SPUDS Length of longest specimen, seventeen and one half inches; shortest, three and one eighth inches From counties on Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers [ 201 ]
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PIERCED TABLETS Slate and Steatite. Largely from Jefferson and Meade Counties, Kentucky
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and Indiana. Mr. Charles Patz, of Jeffersonville, Indiana, has a beautiful one of mottled granite, the head resembling that of a bird, the eyes being represented by protruding knobs, the body being of a turtle-like form. It was found on the banks of the Ohio River, in Jefferson County.
SPUDS.
Another class of objects, the use or function of which is enigmatical, comprises certain spade-like implements known as spuds, made usually of some soft material, as argillite. None of these observed by the author show any signs of having served a practical end in the arts and industries of the primitive Kentuckian. While slate is the prevailing material used in their manufacture, harder stones were occasionally employed. These implements are usually highly polished and display a correctness of detail and symmetry of form which places them among the more artistic productions of aboriginal art.
Early writers suggest that these spuds were agricul- tural implements. Others think them bark peelers, and still others hold that they were used in dressing hides. But if designed for any of these purposes, some of the im- plements would certainly have about their edges that smoothness and polish which comes from friction in use, a feature which is lacking in every specimen we have seen; and, moreover, the majority of these objects are too delicate and fragile, and the material of many of them too soft, for any of the suggested uses. We think they were not de- signed for any utilitarian function, but that they are properly classed as ceremonials; that they were maces or
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emblems of authority, perhaps related in symbolism to the banner stone.
There are two classes of implements designated spuds; first, those with blades circular in outline, sharp or round shoulders, and flat, short stem, always pierced. Second, those with the stem or handle rounded, long, and tapering, the stem being very much longer than the blade, which is semi-circular or semi-elliptical. Page 200, Figure I, shows one of these implements of the first class. It is made of greenstone, and has a neatly drilled hole through the stem. Below this hole and extending around the stem are marks, or discolorations, clearly indicating that the implement, at one time, had been hafted to some sort of handle. It was found in Tennessee, near the Kentucky line. Another of cannel coal from the eastern part of the State has a dull, rounded blade and pierced stem. This implement could not have served any practical purpose, but was probably ornamental or cere- monial. (Figure 2, page 200.)
Spuds of the second class are among the most symmet- rical of the works of the red man. They are beautifully finished and made of a variety of materials; usually of slate, more rarely of greenstone. They vary in length from three and one half to seventeen inches. The blades are semi-circular or semi-elliptical, usually with squared shoulders, but in some specimens the shoulders are slightly barbed. A striking feature of many of these is that the blades are notched, an equal number of notches being on either side, ranging usually from one to seven. In the author's collection are two specimens seventeen inches long, which are the longest known, and one three and one eighth inches, which is the smallest. Cumberland County
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has been more prolific in these implements than any other. In the author's collection are three from this county. All that have been found in Kentucky come from along the Cumberland River or the territory adjacent thereto. Page 201 shows a number of specimens. The small, delicate implement with the large indentations upon either side of the blade was kindly loaned the author by Mr. Harry L. Johnson. The others belong to the author's cabinet.
PIERCED TABLETS.
These objects, made chiefly of green banded slate, pierced with tapering holes, have been found in all parts of Kentucky, but in largest numbers in the tier of coun- ties bordering the Ohio River in the north-central portion of the State. While generally made of green striped slate from the region of the Great Lakes or from the glacial drift, yet specimens of granite, shale, cannel coal, jasper, limestone, steatite, and other materials are seen. The more common forms are thin oblong tablets, pierced with two tapering holes near the center in the line of the longer axis. These are generally termed gorgets, while those with a single hole near the end for suspension are called pendants. The distinction seems to be merely arbitrary, determined by the number and position of the holes. It has been suggested that many of those of gorget form were used in sizing cords of rawhide or sinew in the manufacture of bow-strings. Tablets thus pierced might be used successfully in giving a uniform thickness to these cords, but the material and excellent finish of the objects, together with the position of the holes and the fact that
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