USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Madisonville > Indian Village Site and Cemetery Near Madisonville, Ohio > Part 22
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The second specimen, though a trifle longer, is of the same shape and bears the same polish on the inner edge.
Other Objects of Wood. On plate 41, a, is illustrated a pair of slim worked twigs, 74 inches long and f% of an inch in diameter. The two are held together by a string tied in little grooves that encircle their lower ends; this is evidently a permanent attach- ment but it is loose enough to allow the two sticks to be spread apart. An adjustable tie was evidently used at the upper end, for there only one twig is grooved and the other has a small hole drilled through it. A string is made fast to the grooved stick; its loose end was undoubtedly passed through the hole, pulled tight and made fast when it was desired to close the pair together and hold them in place. A number of similar objects are in the Grand Gulch collection in the American Museum, New York (H-13180 and H-13267); these sticks are also tied permanently together at their lower ends, and have a loose-ended string set in a groove at the upper end of one of them. The other stick, in each of the New York pairs, has a little string loop instead of the drilled eye of the example here illustrated. All these specimens were evidently designed to be clamped over and made fast about objects 6 or 7 inches wide and not over { of an inch thick. As to what such objects might have been we are entirely ignorant. A wooden awl about 6 inches long, made from a peeled greasewood stick, was found; the butt is cut off square and the other end is whittled to a sharp point. For a variety of other specimens made wholly or in .part of wood, see under "Ceremonial Objects."
PEABODY MUSEUM PAPERS
VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 38
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a
e
f
9
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a, b, c, Skin bag and contents; d, e, f, Manos or grinding stones; g, h, i, Wooden scoops. a, b, c, Cave 14; d-i, White Dog Cave. (About }.)
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OBJECTS OF STONE
Manos. These are intimately related to the domestic life of corn-growing Indians, and in a measure furnish an index to their progress as agriculturists. The manos of the more highly de- veloped tribes, such as the Pueblos, show a tendency towards specialized forms; while those used by people of less firmly estab- lished corn-eating habits are as a rule stones of convenient shape with little or no alteration of the original form other than that due to wear. Basket-maker manos belong to the latter class. Three typical examples from White Dog Cave are reproduced in plate 38, d, e, f.
The latter is 5 inches long, 3} inches wide, and 12 inches thick. It is made from a thin slab of indurated sandstone the edges roughly worked down to give the implement an oval shape. Only one surface shows use, this is ground nearly flat. The one figured in d, is 32 inches long, 24 inches wide and 1} inches thick; it is a hard lava-like stone of natural shape. One side is much worn and has a convex surface; a small area of the top also shows signs of use. That shown in e, is slightly larger than the last and of the same material. The form shows slight modification and both sides are about equally worn.
In addition to the above specimens, there is in the collection half a mano of soft sandstone with edges pecked and ground to give it an oval shape. Both sides are much worn; one shows traces of a dark red, the other of a yellow color, presumably evi- dences of secondary use as a paint grinder. Another stone of about the same size but which is probably not a mano, is a rounded river boulder 4} inches long and 2} inches thick. A portion of either side bears a high polish quite different from the rough sur- face produced by grinding on a metate. This polish is obviously the result of long rubbing on a non-abrasive surface; work on hides or use in hulling seeds in a basket may be suggested.
Metate. A single broken specimen was found. Like the manos it is of a crude and unspecialized type, being merely a flat slab un- modified except for a hollow on one side, the width of which is the same as the length of the manos.
Chipped Knife Blades. One of these specimens (plate 35, j) was found at the right hand of mummy 2, Cist 27, White Dog Cave.
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Its length is 6} inches, its greatest width is 2} inches, the average thickness is { of an inch. The material is a mottled yellow flint. The point for 1} inches is a dark red which seems due to staining rather than being the natural color of the stone. It was reduced to an even thinness by the chipping off at regular intervals of long broad flakes, at so obtuse an angle that no central ridge is left, the face of the blade being slightly convex instead of angular. The cutting edge is keen, the result of fine secondary chipping. The stem is tapered to a wedge-shaped base.
The blade shown in k was found with mummy 3, Cist 22. It had been broken in two pieces before burial; the halves lay at a little distance from each other and one of them was discolored by some agency to which the other was not exposed. This blade measures 6} inches in length, 2} inches in width, and averages slightly under ¿ of an inch in thickness. The material is chalcedony. It differs but little from the first specimen, except that the end is rounded and shows signs of an attempt to grind away a slight protuberance that had resisted the original chipping. On the base of the blade are traces of the gum that once served to cement it to its haft. The latter was also found in the cist; and although it is badly rotted and shrunken, its notch still fits the blade. In shape it is a duplicate of the haft next to be described.
The workmanship of these two knives compares very favorably with that of similar implements from other parts of North America. In shape and general appearance they most closely resemble the large chipped knives of Mexico and Central America.
Hafted Knife. The specimen shown in plate 35, 1, is from Cist 6, White Dog Cave. The blade, part of which is unfortunately miss- ing, was probably once 4} to 5 inches long; it is 2 inches wide at the base and has a thickness of } inch. The material is a close- grained white stone. The chipping of the portion that remains is rather coarse, though the notches and barbs show skillful flaking.
The wooden handle measures 3} inches in length, a fraction over 1 inch in width, and has an average thickness of { of an inch. The lower end thickens considerably to allow for a notch { of an inch deep into which the blade is set and there held in place with cement- like gum reinforced by a small wooden wedge and wrappings of pitch- smeared string. The handle is well-preserved and shows careful finish; it appears to have been made from a section of a small
PEABODY MUSEUM PAPERS
Vor .. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 39
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b
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WHITE DOG CAVE Ceremonial objects: a, Stuffed bird skin; b, Wand; c, Deer tail. (About 3/5.)
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limb worked down to shape by cutting away two surfaces; both the wide sides thus produced are slightly convex, while the edges are nearly flat. At the butt the handle curves and terminates in & neatly finished end, the peculiar form of which is duplicated in two other less well-preserved specimens; one of them is the handle of the large chipped blade, k, previously described. This type of butt may represent an individual whim, or it may perhaps prove to be a characteristic of Basket-maker hafts. There are a number of stone knives with plain handles from this general region in the collections of various museums; some or all of these may be Basket-maker, but unfortunately the data accompanying them leave doubt as to their exact origin. What are, however, surely Cliff-dweller hafts from Aztec, New Mexico, are described and figured by Morris,1 and one from the Mesa Verde is illustrated by Nordenskiold .? Hoffman figures two modern Ute knives with plain handles.3
Pipe Drill. The chipped point shown in plate 35, e, is apparently an old darthead remounted in its present handle. It is of very hard, lustrous flint, 1;, inches long, and ; of an inch in breadth at the base. Both edges are much worn down and beveled by long- continued boring, the plane of the bevels indicating clockwise rota- tion. The handle is a stick 24 inches long, { of an inch thick, having one end rounded, and the other notched to provide a seat for the chipped point, which is held in place by a seizing of fiber string.
The wear on the point indicates clearly that this specimen was used as a drill, and the nature of the haft confirms this. Held in position for boring, the haft is found to be just the right length to bear against the palm of the hand at the base of the index finger; in this position the drill can be easily turned by the index and third fingers and the thumb, while pressure can be applied to the butt by the palm. The chipped point exactly fits the bores of the Basket-maker stub pipes.
No pipes were found in 1916-1917, but type examples are shown in figure 94, a, b, c, of our previous report.
Graver. A tiny stone tool, evidently designed for scratching fine lines on wood or bone, is illustrated in plate 35, g. It is an irregularly shaped jasper flake, less than an inch in diameter, and T's of an inch thick; the top is convex; the lower side is flat at one
1 1919, p. 33 and figures 17, 18. : 1893, p. 97, figure 50. * 1896, figures 52, 58.
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place where a small and very sharp point has been carefully chipped out. Such an implement as this must have been used to incise the clean-cut parallel lines seen on the curved wooden clubs figured on plate 36, f, g.
Flaking Tool. This implement (figure 15) from plundered Cist 6, White Dog Cave, is included here because of its intimate con- nection with stone chipping. So far as we know it is the only com- plete example of a prehistoric flaker of its type that has yet been found. It consists of an antler or very hard bone point mounted on a wooden shaft in the manner indicated in the drawing, which also shows more clearly than a description the shape of the point itself. The length of the latter is 34 inches, of which f of an inch projects beyond the end of the shaft; the width appears to be uni- formly ¿ of an inch. The projecting portion tapers to } of an inch at the extreme end. The shaft is a piece of an old atlatl spear shaft 35 inches long. The bone point is bound to the smaller end of this by seizings of skin overwrapped with sinew. The larger end is worked to a rounded point, for the purpose, perhaps, of allowing it to be easily thrust into the sand to hold it upright while the workman was using other tools. In the middle are a number of turns of a wide thong of skin wound spirally about the shaft and running towards the working end. These are applied in two layers, one above the other; at the distal end they are held in place by a binding of sinew and there are signs that they once ex- tended farther down the shaft than they do at present. These wrappings were probably cut from hide with the hair on it, al- though the fur has now almost entirely disappeared; their purpose will be discussed later.
There is no doubt that this implement was used as a stone- flaker. Pope figures a Yurok bone pointed arrow-flaker with a shaft 17 4 inches long, which is very similar to this specimen.1 Rau illustrates another from Nevada which he describes as a slender blunt point of horn bound with cotton cord to a wooden handle about the thickness of an arrow shaft. According to the drawing the length of the latter is 294 inches .? Cushing gives a sketch of an arrowmaker using a long-hafted flaker, but provides no infor- mation as to the data on which the drawing is based, though he briefly describes the way the implement is used.3 The following
. 1 .1918, plate 27. $ 1876, p. 96, and figure 340. : 1895, figure 6.
PEABODY MUSEUM PAPERS
VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 40
WHITE DOG CAVE Objects forming bundle from lap of mummy (plate 7, b), Cist 31. (About }.)
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is Schumacher's description of the Klamath method of flaking: " The tool is worked with the right hand, while the lower part of the handle, usually ornamented, is held between the arm and the body so as to guide the instrument with a steady hand." 1 The foregoing makes clear the advantage of the long shaft, but does not point out the fact that the weight of the body can, by means of it, be brought to assist the pressure of the hand.
We can find no reference to padding of that part of the shaft that is held between the arm and body; such was undoubtedly
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FIGURE 15 a, Flaking stone; b, Arrow-flaker of antler in wooden haft, much reduced in size; c, End of arrow-flaker; d, Package of sinew cord. All from White Dog Cave. (About }, with the exception of b.)
the purpose of the central hide wrappings on our specimen. A soft furry padding of this sort must have contributed greatly to the comfort of the user, particularly if his arm and body were not protected by clothing; and it probably helped also to secure a firmer grip than would be offered by the bare shaft.
Flaking Stone. The specimen shown in a, figure 15, is a small flat unworked stone, oval in outline, 34 inches long, 24 inches wide and { inch thick. It is much like certain stones obtained in the Museum's explorations of ancient burial places in Erie County, New York, which were invariably accompanied by bone flaking implements as well as finished and unfinished chipped points and knives. The Museum collection also contains similar stones from Madisonville, Ohio, and eastern Massachusetts. Mr. Willoughby has identified these stones as forming part of the flint worker's equipment. The stones from New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts are marked with scorings which are not present on this specimen;
" Quoted in Holmes, 1919, p. 812. : See Hooton and Willoughby, 1920, plate 6, 1, m.
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our tentative identification of this as a flaking stone is strengthened by the fact that it was found among the partly rifled contents of Cist 6 which also held the hafted flaking tool described above, as well as a small skin bag containing two nearly finished points, a number of flakes of flint and various colored jasper, a combination of objects exactly duplicating those found in the New York graves.
OBJECTS OF CLAY, BONE, ETC.
Pottery. No specimens of true pottery, either vessel or sherd, have yet been found by us under circumstances indicating that it was a Basket-maker product. All but one of the several jars dis- covered came from the surface sand overlying the Basket-maker deposits; they are of common cliff-house ware, and were un- doubtedly cached in the caves at a comparatively late date. The exception is a pot found in Sunflower Cave in 1915, lying below a cliff-house floor. This was figured in our previous report and re- ferred to as possibly of Basket-maker origin.1 It is of plain black ware, uncorrugated; in shape it is almost spherical. No further evidence that the Basket-makers produced vessels of this type has since come to light, and we are inclined to consider it early Puebloan.
The only specimen that even remotely resembles pottery was found in Cave 6. It is a fragment from the rim of a shallow dish- like receptacle nearly } inch thick, made of unburned clay heavily tempered with shreds of cedar bark. It was molded in a shallow basket, the print of which is plainly visible in the outer surface of the sherd (plate 25, a). The inner side is smoothed off, but has an irregular, wavy surface as if it had been done by the fingers. We do not know whether this specimen is merely a fragment of a clay lining put in a basket to render it watertight or fireproof,? or whether it really represents an early attempt at pottery making.
Bone Objects. Objects of this material described under other heads are: beads, flaker, decorated tubes, rattle handles, plain tubes, and whistles. This practically completes the list of speci- mens made of bone, the only others being a few awls (plate 42, e-h), and a pair of unworked cannon bones of the deer, found
1 Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, plate 59, a, and p. 144.
" Cushing (1886, p. 484) describes a Havasupai roasting basket lined with clay. The present object may have been made for a like purpose, but it was certainly never so used, as bits of the cedar-bark tempering which protrude from the inner surface are not even scorched.
PEABODY MUSEUM PAPERS
VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 41
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a, b, c, Objects made from short sections of sticks; d, e, f, Paired bone tubes; g, h, Bone tubes. All from White Dog Cave except f, which is from Sunflower Cave. (About }.)
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carefully wrapped up in a bunch of shredded cedar bark at the feet of mummy 1, Cist 24, White Dog Cave. These were probably selected and laid aside to be fashioned later into awls. No bone scrapers occur.
Dressed Skin. The skins of animals were much used: some as rawhide, some dried, and others dressed with or without the hair. Specimens of the latter were very finely dressed, being as soft and pliable as the best buckskin prepared by modern Indians. Deer and mountain-sheep skin robes have already been mentioned. The pelts of these animals were also extensively employed for minor purposes, as in cradle edge-bindings and back-lashings, in fur-string, and for all kinds of strong thongs. The skins of prairie- dogs, being light and soft-furred were always used as covers for infants' umbilical pads.
Bags of all sorts were made of dressed skin, from tiny pouches to hold a few little trinkets, up to large sacks for the storage of corn. Some have the hair on, others do not; but all are very care- fully made, the seams neatly stitched with sinew or fine cord and turned inside. The most characteristic bags were produced by sewing together the trimmed skins of two or more prairie-dogs in such a way that the neck of the sack was formed by the heads of the animals, its mouth by their mouths.1 In some cases as many as seven or eight hides were used.
Sinew. The many references in this report to the use of sinew bindings and seizings give sufficient evidence of its value to the Basket-makers. It was employed whenever a firm flat ligature was desired, as well as for thread in cases requiring extra fine and strong sewing. The kinds of sinew are, of course, not identifiable, but the bunch of it in its raw state shown in figure 15, d, appears to have been taken from some large animal.
Feathers. Feathers were used for the following purposes: in hair ornaments; in pendants; as edgings in fur cloth; for the winging of atlatl darts; and in the make up of a variety of objects of unknown use which we have classed together as probably cere- monial.
1 Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, figure 86.
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CEREMONIAL OBJECTS
In this section we have grouped all specimens to which we can- not assign a definite utilitarian purpose. The nature of many of them leaves little doubt as to their ceremonial or fetishistic use; as to others the case is less clear.
Ceremonial Whip. To one end of a thin, peeled greasewood stick about 20 inches in length there is bound a flat, three strand braid of shredded yucca leaves, 8 inches long; to the end of this is tied a small bunch of the twigs of the plant called "Brigham tea" ; the twigs are 10 inches long, so that the total length of the speci- men is a little over a yard. It has the look of a scourge or whip, but its real use is, of course, unknown.
Problematical Objects. In Cist 27, White Dog Cave, were found a number of broken sticks tied together with string. On undoing the bundle it was found that the sticks were fragments of two singular contrivances, the use of which we cannot even guess (plate 36, d, e). One is complete, the upper part of the second is missing. They are slim cottonwood sticks about 7 feet long, their lower ends pointed, and the first foot or so of their shafts soiled and scarred as if they had been repeatedly thrust into gravelly earth. The arrangement of strings at the upper end of the com- plete specimen is better explained by the drawing than by descrip- tion. It will be seen that there are two cords running downward from the tip. These are so arranged as to form two adjustable loops along the shaft, the knotted ends of the strings serving to keep these loops from being pulled out by whatever object they were designed to hold.
The object shown in c, is a hardwood branch 272 inches long. The bark has been carefully peeled and the butt end smoothed by rubbing. For a distance of about 4 inches from the butt the twigs have been cut off close to the main stem; thence to the tip they are also cut off, but their bases have been left long enough to give the object a knobby appearance. The ends of a majority of these protruding twig-stubs are merely ground down to a flat surface; but three, two of which show in the drawing, have neat, shallow, cup-shaped depressions worked in them. The lower four inches of the stick, from which, it will be remembered, the projecting twig- stubs were removed, is discolored and stained as if by having been
PEABODY MUSEUM PAPERS
VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 42
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WHITE DOG CAVE ., Handle for deer-hoof rattle; b, c, d, Bone tubes; e-h, Bone awls; i, Bone whistle. (+.)
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thrust into damp earth or clay. A little above the middle are two sets of sinew bindings; under the upper one of these are remains of the quills of many small feathers arranged in two groups, one on either side of the shaft. We can offer no suggestion as to the use of this specimen.
Ceremonial Wand. The unique ceremonial object shown in plate 39, b, was found with mummy 2, Cist 24, White Dog Cave; it was wrapped in a bag made of prairie-dog skins, and lay between the right arm and side of the mummy under the fur-string robe which enveloped the body. Details that are not obvious in the drawing are as follows: the handle of wood has a length of 5} inches; the upper end is carved to represent the head of a bird; the eyes are formed by two small disk beads of shell stuck on with pitch. Adhering to the head about the eyes are tufts of the fine reddish hair of some animal. At the crown of the head there is a slight depression filled with hard gum or pitch in which are a few hairs like those at the side of the head. These may be the remains of a crest, or the result of accident. The appearance of the spot gives the impression that some object about the size of the disk beads which form the eyes, had at one time been fastened here. At the lower end of the handle its under side is embellished for a space of slightly over 1} inches with cross hatching of fine incised lines. All parts of the handle are nicely finished, and show, par- ticularly at the lower end, a polish due to use. Attached to it by a thong loop are five pendent strings or streamers of thick soft- dressed skin; part of one of these is broken off, the remaining four are each 10 inches in length. These streamers are gathered to- gether at the upper end and secured to the loop by wrappings of sinew. Bound to the upper end of each streamer by sinew seizings are tails of small birds and animals, and feathers. One streamer has five blue feathers, five small brown feathers, and one white and brown feather; the next, one long downy feather, one large dark-colored feather trimmed off at the end and several small brown feathers. The third has the quill ends of two large dark- colored feathers; these are cut down to a length of 3 inches, and placed parallel to each other with the lower ends fastened to- gether by several tight turns of fine sinew; over these are laid a number of small bright yellow feathers; a strand of human hair 3 inches long completes the group. The fourth streamer has
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fastened to it six feathers from the tail of some small woodpecker, and two prairie-dog tails. The fifth bears several blue feathers, one trimmed black-and-white feather, the tail of a small animal, the fur of which is about the color of mink, and a very pretty little abalone shell pendant.
The specimen just described, like a number of objects recovered from Cist 24, is in a nearly perfect state of preservation. Wrapped up with it was the small deer tail shown in c, the head of a sap- sucker (Splegrapicus varius muchalis)1 a, and what appears to be the end of a bag made of badger skin dressed with the hair on. The bird head is stuffed with fiber or grass, and the tail feathers of the bird, tied together in a bundle, are thrust into the skin of the neck. A Pomo doctor's outfit in the Museum collection contains a number of bird heads stuffed with grass which remind one at once of this specimen.
Ceremonial Bundle. In plate 7, b, can be seen what is doubtless a ceremonial bundle, one end resting in the lap of the mummy, the other projecting above the left knee, this being the position in which it was found.
In the center of the bundle lay a wand-like stick, 14} inches long, which is shown in b, plate 40. One end has a blunt point, is slightly polished for an inch or more, and is stained a dark red color; the opposite end is rounded and shows traces of fire. To one side of the blunt end and projecting beyond is tied a brush- like arrangement of coarse fiber also stained dark red. The same string which binds the fiber to the stick secures to it a long feather of which there remains very little but the shaft. Other articles tied about the stick and figured in the plate, are as follows:
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