USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Madisonville > Indian Village Site and Cemetery Near Madisonville, Ohio > Part 17
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BASKET-MAKER CAVES
strengthen the whole structure. These slab cists seem hardly large enough for living rooms or even for sleeping places. It seems more probable that they were storage cists. We do not hesitate to identify them as Basket-maker, because they are exactly like the Basket-maker structures in Cave 2, Kinboko.
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MATERIAL CULTURE1
FOOD
Vegetal Food. Maize. In 1914 and 1915 we found indications that the Basket-makers cultivated but a single and rather primitive type of corn, while that grown by the Cliff-dwellers seemed to have been more highly developed and more varied in character. Our evidence was not, however, absolutely conclusive, for certain speci- mens of the advanced corn were taken from Basket-maker caves, though from so near the surface that we regarded them as probably intrusive. The expeditions of 1916 and 1917 supply us, fortunately, with enough new finds to settle the question beyond any reasonable doubt. A number of Basket-maker caves were thoroughly investi- gated and many samples of corn were recovered from undisturbed and surely identifiable burials and storage cists; among all this material there is not a single kernel of any of the parti-colored flour or large white flint corns that are so common in the cliff-houses.'
On specimens submitted to him for examination Mr. G. W. Collins of the United States Bureau of Plant Industry has kindly given us the following report:
The collection of maize samples from the Basket-maker caves is of unusual interest.
The specimens all appear to belong to one general type, a type we have called Tropical Flint. This type resembles the New England flint varieties in having a large part of the endosperm hard or corneous. It differs from New England flint in having a larger number of rows and smaller seeds. Tropical flint varieties are common in Central and South America but are rare among the types grown by the Indians of the United States. So far as our collections show the Papago is the only tribe with varieties uniformly of this type.
The cobs of the specimens from the Basket-maker caves are all light brown in color. The pericarp is either red or colorless. The endosperm is either light yellow or white. The aleurone or layer of cells just beneath the pericarp in all the specimens is a yellowish red. This is a color entirely unknown in the aleurone of existing varieties. If this color is not the result of some slow dis- integration, it constitutes the first clearly marked distinction between pre- historic maize and present day varieties.
Most of the specimens are remarkably well-preserved. The embryos have Of course disintegrated but the colors are much brighter than is usual with old specimens.
1 Only objects believed by us to be of Basket-maker origin are included. Specimens re- Covered from the cliff-houses will be treated in a later paper.
? See Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, p. 154.
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The specimens cannot be referred to any existing variety with which I am familiar but with the possible exception of the unusual aleurone color they present no new characters.
Here then is an undifferentiated, and judging from its distribu- tion, a primitive form of corn grown by a people whom the purely stratigraphic evidence shows to have antedated the highly de- veloped agriculturists of the region. This agrees very well with the other manifestations of Basket-maker culture, and particularly with its lack of true pottery, stone architecture, and cotton weav- ing, all of which traits are characteristic of the perfected puebloan civilizations. We have thus good evidence that the Basket-makers were the pioneer corn growers of the district.
To what degree these people depended upon maize is uncertain, but quantities of it were found in the burial cists and cached for future use as food or for seed. There were also recovered agricul- tural implements such as would be needed for its cultivation, and the large number of storage cists in the caves would indicate by their capacity that a considerable harvest was obtained. The sites explored by us were all within easy reach of tillable land and this is also true of the Grand Gulch Basket-maker caves.
Of the actual finds of corn the best example is the skin bag full of shelled kernels from Cist 13, White Dog Cave (plate 15); there are about four quarts, every grain in perfect preservation. This may represent a food offering deposited with the dead, or perhaps it is carefully selected seed cached unknowingly in the same cist with the burials (it was found some 8 inches above the remains shown in plate 10, e). Other interments, however, were accompanied by corn and the remains of rotted hide containers, so that it may indeed be a food offering. A selection of the more perfect ears of Basket- maker corn is shown in plate 15.
Squash. This seems to have been the only other cultivated crop of the Basket-makers.1 We unearthed with the burials varying quantities of squash seed, Cucurbita pepo, and many pieces of rind, as well as the complete vessel made from a squash shell that is shown on plate 31, b.
Seeds. In a number of the burial cists in White Dog Cave, large quantities of coarse grass seed were found. We saw growing in the
1 Though we were constantly on the watch for beans in the Basket-maker sites, none were found. This strengthens our belief that they were not grown by the Basket-makers.
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vicinity, the same variety of grass from which it was obtained. Mr. W. E. Safford of the Bureau of Plant Industry identifies this as follows:
Oryzopsis hymenioides, commonly called Indian Mountain Rice, is used by Several Indian tribes for food; by some only in times of scarcity, by others as a regular food staple. Mr. F. V. Coville states that the squaws of the Panamint Indians of southern California gather it by means of a wicker paddle resem- Ibling a small tennis racket with which they beat the seeds from the standing grass into wicker baskets, after which they are winnowed and sifted, and parched and ground into pinolli. The late Dr. Edward Palmer found this seed in use among the Paiute and Pueblo Indians, who store it for winter use.
Cummings 1 found caches of seed in Sagiotsosi ("coarse bunch grass"), which may be the same. No doubt other seeds were gathered and stored for food, as we found in 1915 several quarts of Coreocarpus seeds in a burial cist in Cave 1. Powell in his ex- plorations of the Colorado found a tribe which subsisted chiefly on wild fruits, nuts and native grains. In our own explorations we came upon an old Navajo squaw in the vicinity of Sagiotsosi who was gathering the small seeds of a low weed. She told us that these were cooked and made into a kind of mush by mixing with goat's milk, also that they were now (1917) being used again for the first time since the "great war" (Navajo war, 1863). These are identified by Mr. Safford as Chinopodium sp., who writes as follows regarding them :
They are perhaps the most interesting of the collection. It has been im- possible to determine their specific identity. They are much larger than the seeds of Chenopodium fremontii, gathered for food by the Klamath Indians, and those of Chenopodium leptophyllum eaten by the Zuni. In shape they bear a close resemblance to the seeds of Chenopodium quenua, the well-known food staple of the Peruvian and Bolivian Plateau, but they are of smaller size and of a much darker color than the latter. These seeds have been carefully compared with those of the species growing commonly in the southwestern United States; they bear a closer resemblance to Chenopodium petiolare than to any other species in the herbarium, but they do not seem to be identical with the seeds of that species. They are evidently rich in starch and would undoubtedly form a nutritious article of food.
Piñon Nuts. These were also an important item of diet and were found with other food offerings in many of the graves.
1 Cummings, 1910, p. 14.
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Unidentified Food. Small quantities of plant stalks, shriveled beyond recognition, accompanied some burials. These are prob- ably from certain edible plants that grow in the region, and which are eaten today by the Navajo.
Animal Food. The bones of mammals and birds, generally so common about the dwelling places of primitive people, were en- . tirely lacking in the group of Basket-maker caves examined. We do not believe that this indicates a preponderatingly vegetarian diet, but rather that it proves the caves to have been used merely as temporary shelters and as burial places for the dead. That these people killed a great deal of large game is evidenced by the abun- dance of articles made from the hides of deer and mountain-sheep; while quantities of the pelts of badgers, rabbits, prairie-dogs, and other small animals were employed for bags, pouches, and in fur- string robes. It is probable that the flesh of all the above was eaten.
As to the birds we have less evidence. Such feathers as were found came principally from hawks and owls, species not com- monly relished as food by any people; or from very small birds of bright plumage such as warblers, bluebirds, and woodpeckers. As we have never come across a single identifiable turkey feather, it is reasonably certain that the turkey was not domesticated, nor indeed does it appear to have been commonly hunted.
Although there is no evidence that the Basket-makers used the dog for food, it may be well to refer here to the finding of two re- markably well-preserved dog mummies in White Dog Cave. They represent different types, formerly of wide distribution in the warmer parts of America (plate 15). Dr. Glover M. Allen of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, who has made an exhaustive study of the native Indian dog, has kindly contributed the follow- ing regarding these specimens:
The larger is a long-haired animal the size of a small collie, with erect ears and long bushy tail. The hair is still in good condition and though now a light golden color, with cloudings of dark brown, it may in life have been darker. It is, apparently, a breed very similar to the long-haired Inca dog found at Ancon, Peru, in a mummified condition and described by Nebring (Sitzb. Ges. Naturf. Freunde, Berlin, 1887, pages 139-141). The latter specimen is also described as yellowish in color, though this may have been in part due to fading. A more detailed comparison of the two specimens is not possible without removing and cleaning the bones and so injuring the present example for exhibition purposes.
PEABODY MUSEUM PAPERS
VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 15
WHITE DOG CAVE Mummies of two varieties of dogs, ears of corn, and skin bag containing shelled corn.
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The other dog is a much smaller, black-and-white individual, about the size of a terrier, with short, but not close, shaggy coat, erect ears, and long full- haired tail. Its muzzle is rather short and stubby in contrast to the fine slender nouszle of other Indian dogs of about the same size. In common with many Skulls of American Indian dogs, the first premolar is lacking in the adult den- tition of the lower jaw. This specimen is of especial interest as establishing beyond doubt the identity of certain dog bones from Ely Cave, Virginia, described as Pachycyon robustus, for they agree perfectly with corresponding Parts of the Arizona dog. An identical breed is represented among the mummi- fied remains of dogs from the necropolis of Ancon, Peru, and has been figured by Nebring as Canis ingae vertagus in the folio report of Reiss and Steubel, Plate 118, figure 1. Evidently it had a wide distribution in our south and Esouthwest, and was known also to the Peruvians. I have called this the short Losed Indian Dog.
These and other dog remains, are true dogs, in no way derived from Coyotes or other native dog-like animals of America. Their forebears probably reached America with their human masters, but their Old World ancestors still remain to be determined.1
DRESS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
Body Clothing. We have few data on this subject; it is probable, indeed, that the Basket-makers wore very little clothing except robes of fur-string or hide," and "gee strings" or cord aprons. It so happens that all the robes found in sufficiently good preservation to permit of measurement had been interred with babies; the largest of these (plate 16, a) is only 25 by 23 inches. About an adult mummy (A-2939) from Cist 22, White Dog Cave, however, there is wrapped what appears to be a very large blanket of fur- string; and we have fragments from deer and mountain-sheep hides which seem to have been originally of ample size for use as mantles by grown people.
Nothing resembling fitted garments of leather or cloth has so far come to light; it is possible, however, that certain woven fabrics, bits of which were recovered from the caves 3 may have been used as ponchos. This guess is based on the resemblance between a zigzag decoration on one of the cloth specimens (plate 26, c) and similar patterns painted on the chests of Basket-maker human pictographs from the Monument country." It must be admitted,
1 For a discussion of the types of prehistoric American dogs, see Allen, 1920.
? For details of the weave of these robes, see p. 65.
" See plate 26, b, c.
Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, figures 100, 101.
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BASKET-MAKER CAVES
however, that the zigzag was a favorite Basket-maker design, and that the marks on the pictographs may perfectly well represent body-painting.
A string apron recovered by the 1915 expedition still remains our best specimen of this type. Although it was illustrated in our former report (plate 66, a), we have since succeeded in unraveling it for a somewhat clearer photograph; this, with a picture of a second example from the general digging in White Dog Cave, are here reproduced (plate 16, c, d). It will be seen that in both cases there is a waist cord to which is attached a fringe of pendent strings. In the 1915 specimen the strings are of apocynum and are looped over the human hair waist cord and gathered in bunches of about three hundred; the fringe is 12 inches long.1 The apron from White Dog Cave (plate 16, c) is more fragmentary; the yucca-fiber waist cord is double; over it are hung yucca strings which are gathered together in pairs and held, close under the waist cord, by a row of twined weaving, one strand yucca, the other human hair. Although somewhat longer than the first apron this garment is much thinner and contains fewer strings.
Plate 16, b, shows part of a similar skirt made of cedar bark. The pendent strands are about 12 inches long and are held to- gether by a twining of twisted cedar-bark string, the prolongations of which once formed the waist cord.
As the term apron implies, the fringes of these articles did not extend all the way around the body, but merely covered the front of the waist; it is probable that they hung loose, for the strings are too short to have been pulled between the legs and fastened over the waist cord behind. They are evidently a woman's garment, as in every case where they were discovered in place on a mummy, the body proved to be that of a female. Though we have never found any covering at the loins of a male, there are in the collection two objects that may well have been the ties of "gee strings." One is a loose twist of thirty animal wool threads (plate 16, f); it is nearly 7 feet long and its ends are tapered as if for knotting. The other is 5 feet 2 inches long and made of fifty to sixty thin strings of human hair; the ends are seized with fiber thread to prevent raveling.
1 For a fuller description, see Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, p. 157.
PEABODY MUSEUM PAPERS
VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 16
C
d
b
e
f
Clothing: a, Fur cloth blanket; b, Apron of shredded bark; c, d, Aprons of fiber string; e, f, String belts. All from White Dog Cave except d, f, which are from Kinboko Canyon, Marsh Pass. (About }.)
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Sandals. As most of the specimens recovered by the 1916 and 917 expeditions are very badly rotted and as no new types appear, he reader is referred to the classification and descriptions of the 914, 1915 material given in the previous report.1
Necklaces. These were of two sorts: strings of beads; and twisted kin or fiber cords, to the middle of which were attached a few pend- ints or extra handsome beads. Of the latter class there was re- covered only one fragmentary example (plate 17, b); it bears two rery beautifully polished lignite discs strung on a fiber cord, which s itself attached to a sinew-bound thong; the whole was probably astened to a longer neck cord as was done with a similar specimen ound in 1915.2
The second type is more fully represented, several strings of beads having been taken from the necks of skeletons in White Dog Cave. A selection is given in plate 25, e-h. The most interesting of these is composed of seventy-one thick discoidal black lignite ind white limestone beads strung alternately on a narrow thong. They are graduated in size from a maximum diameter of { of an inch at the center of the string, to { of an inch at the ends. An unusual refinement of technic was practised by cutting several of the beads to a wedge-shape (see figure 10, c, and plate 25, h) and introducing them here and there throughout the set in order that it might hang evenly. Loose behind the neck of the mummy who wore this string were fourteen olivella shells that apparently nad once been fastened together to form a sort of " dangler " at- tached to the tie-strings of the necklace.
Another string (plate 25, f), which was recovered in order, is made of one hundred little saucer-shaped shell beads (figure 10, g); eventy-five thin, roughly discoidal shell beads (figure 10, f); and ighteen olivella shells, one of which bears an incised zigzag decor- tion (figure 10, i). These different kinds of beads were grouped ogether. Plate 25, e, shows a third necklace composed of ninety- ive beads arranged as follows: one of lignite, seven olivella shells, one of seed, one of bone, one of red shale, one of green shale, one of red shale, eighty-one of white limestone. Plain strings of livellas designed to go once or twice around the neck are not incommon.
1 Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, pp. 157-160.
" Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, p. 161 and figure 72, a. A full description of this type of necklace s there given.
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BASKET-MAKER CAVES
Beads. Under this head are considered all the beads found, whether strung into necklaces, discovered loose in the cists, or in- cluded in " medicine outfits." The commonest of all are little cylinders averaging i's of an inch long (figure 10, e, and plate 25, g); some are of albatite, a phase of asphaltic shale, but the great major- ity (hardly distinguishable from the above except under a magni- fying glass) are made from some hard black seed so cut down in manufacture as to be unidentifiable. Other seeds were used un-
a
b
C
d
e
f
g
h
{
FIGURE 10
Beads from White Dog Cave. (Full size.)
worked except for a narrow bore.1 Two varieties of these seed beads are identified by Mr. Safford:
The first is the polished white nutlet of Onosmodium occidentale, a plant of the Borage family, belonging to a genus not far removed from Lithospermum. These beautiful little nutlets may well be called pearl-seeds, since when strung they must bear a close resemblance to small seed-pearls. Accompanying these is a small longitudinally grooved dull brown seed, somewhat resembling the seeds of the bead tree (Melia azederach) in form. The terminal scar is removed by the perforation, and it has been impossible to identify this, or even to de- termine to what botanical family it belongs.
Stone beads are of fine-grained white limestone, lignite, ser- pentine, quartz, hematite and alabaster. Most of them are large, no minute beads, such as those from Aztec ? or the Upper Gila,3 occurring. In shape they run from the flattened spherical type (figure 10, a) ' to the more or less thickened discoidal form (figure 10, c).
1 See also Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, plate 70, k, a string of acorn cups.
: Morris, 1919, p. 99. ' Hough, 1914, p. 24.
· Wrongly called "hemispherical" in our former report (p. 163).
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Most of the shell beads were made from olivellas simply by cut- Ging off the end of the spire. There are in one of the strings (plate 2 5, f) seventy-five very thin disc-shaped beads, 1% of an inch in di- - meter cut, apparently, from the shell of a fresh-water clam (figure 3 0, f). The same necklace contains one hundred shell beads made From the curving wall of the large olivella (figure 10, g). The aucer-like form of these allows them to fit closely over each other when strung. Enormous quantities of identical beads are in the Museum's collection from the Channel Islands, California. There are a few small bone beads (figure 10, h) apparently made in imi- tation of these.
Pendants. These were less common in the burial cists of White Dog Cave than they were in the mortuary cave of Sayodneechee.1 The single stone specimen (plate 17, h) is of a hard brown stone mottled with brownish green; the surface is highly polished and has a waxy texture.
Four shell pendants were found, all of abalone; three are illus- trated in plate 17, c, d, e; the fourth is attached to a ceremonial object (plate 39, b). The largest (plate 17, c) is round and 2 inches in diameter. It has two perforations in the center from which radiate the four arms of an incised cross figure. Along the edge are two other round holes and three pairs of minute perforations. At the bottom of this disc there is a drilled hole which has been stopped up by inlaying a little piece of abalone shell carefully shaped to fit the aperture. The second abalone pendant (plate 17, d) is the reused half of a disc similar to the above; it fractured, apparently, along an incised median line. Traces of the favorite Basket-maker zigzag may be seen along the upper edge of the old break. The third specimen (plate 17, e) is a bit of the thickened rim of an abalone, the edges ground down and polished.
Feathered Pendant. This object (plate 18, f) is described under the head of personal ornaments although it may have served some other, possibly ceremonial, function. It consists of nine two-ply twists of rawhide thong, seized with sinew to a loop of the same material. Small feathers, whose butts alone remain, were once fastened to the ends of the streamers .?
1 See Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, p. 164.
* Compare Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, figure 77.
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BASKET-MAKER CAVES
Ornament of Mountain-sheep Horn. This object (plate 17, i) is 3 inches long by 2} wide. The convex side shown in the drawing bears, besides two pairs of drilled perforations, a double series of small holes which do not run through. Incised lines drawn be- tween the two series, seem to show a start at a zigzag decoration. The toothed ends of the specimen were produced by sawing broad notches along the upper and lower edges. The bottoms of the notches are well worn and smooth, but whether from general use or from friction of threads (supposing the object to have served as a weaving comb), we do not know.
Deer-hoof Rattles. As in the preceding two cases, the identi- fication of these specimens (plate 17, j, k) as ornaments is open to question; a ceremonial use is quite as likely. One of them consists of the horny outer coverings of two large hoofs, attached to the ends of a buckskin thong.1 The other shown in j is made of much smaller hoofs; these are fastened to the ends of thongs which themselves are looped over a slim pliable twig and held to it by a twining of fine cords. This is an incomplete specimen, as is an- other similar one (not figured, A-2930) which had, in place or de- tached, nearly a hundred hoofs. There is little doubt that the stringing together of these dry resonant hoofs was done to produce a rattling sound, but whether the assemblages were employed as belts, as fringes, or fastened to handles to form true rattles we have no means of telling.
Unfinished Ornament. This object (plate 35, h, i), found in the general digging in White Dog Cave, is a neat example of two proc- esses in working stone: flaking and grinding. The specimen is a disc of grey flint, convex on both sides. It was first chipped roughly to its present form, then ground to efface the chipped surface. The grinding process was, however, not completed and there remain on either side marks of chipping, as well as numerous grinding facets.
Tablet. Plate 17, a, shows, partly restored, a tablet-like object of compact white limestone found in Cist 6, White Dog Cave. The pieces fitted together have a length of 7 inches, but a number of fragments that could not be joined show that the original length was considerably more; the greatest width is 3 inches, the thickness
1 Modern Hopi hoof rattles are figured by Hough (1919, plate 22).
PEABODY MUSEUM PAPERS
VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 17
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