USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Madisonville > Indian Village Site and Cemetery Near Madisonville, Ohio > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
The curious object, shown in d, more nearly resembles a minia- ture sandal than anything else, being of the same weave as a cer- tain type of Basket-maker sandal. The strings attached to it are not, however, arranged like sandal tie-strings. There is a dressed skin thong, colored red, woven into one end; this may be an un- finished toe-fringe. The specimen is 4 inches long, and 1} inches wide. The material is fiber string, except the dark line through the center which is of human hair string.
The blade-like object of tough, close-grained wood shown in f, is 124 inches long, 1} inches wide, and i to { of an inch thick.
. Identified by Mr. O. Bangs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University.
PEABODY MUSEUM PAPERS
VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 43
b
C
d
f
h
1
WHITE DOG CAVE ., One of a pair of bone tubes showing compound die cemented to upper end; b-k, Compound dice. (Enlarged 1/5.)
103
OF NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA
Both the pointed and the rounded ends are blackened as a result of shaping or hardening by fire. The edges of the blunt end are rounded for something over a hand's breadth; for the remaining distance to the beginning of the point both edges are sharp. One edge is rather keener than the other and shows a surface smoothed by wear.
The foreshaft and point of a throwing spear c, from the bundle is the largest in our collection, measuring over 7 inches in length. The point of red jasper, 22 inches long, 1 inch wide at base, is set in a notch cut in the end of the shaft and secured by a sinew bind- ing which is still in perfect condition, as is the shaft itself except for traces of decay at the tapering end. This specimen, though our largest, is not as long as the foreshafts in the Lang collection from San Juan County, Utah, now in the Deseret Museum, which, according to the table given by Pepper,1 are 72 inches to 11} inches in length.
The tips of the long feather shown in e, is 7 inches in length; the quill at its upper end for a distance of 2 inches is seized with fine flat sinew as shown in the drawing. Another feather, of which only the quill remains, measured 15} inches in length.
Wrapped about the bundle were the remains of a feather head- dress not unlike the feather crowns used by various California tribes in their ceremonies. The method of tying the feathers is shown in the illustration, a; the same knot is also used by the Wailaki and Shasta Indians, specimens of which are in the Museum collection.
Ceremonial Bone Objects. In plate 41, e, will be seen what ap- pears to be merely a pair of bone tubes, but which is in reality a nearly complete example of a very puzzling type to which belong all the other bone specimens illustrated in the plate. To make clear the relationship of these objects a detailed description is necessary.
The two halves of this contrivance are tied tightly together with a strip of yucca leaf. The right-hand unit of the pair is a hollow bone, 64 inches long, highly polished as if by long use; its upper end is solidly plugged with a dark pitchy substance, the edge of the orifice is cut by six small V-shaped notches; the lower end shows signs of having once been similarly plugged, but is now open; just above the orifice there are two small round holes, drilled directly
1 Pepper, 1905, p. 129.
104
BASKET-MAKER CAVES
opposite each other (only one shows in the drawing). The left- hand unit is made up of two bones of equal length fastened to each other by being pushed together over a round stick which fits very tightly in their hollow interiors; the joint is further secured by a sinew cord laced back and forth through series of little holes drilled close to the edge of each bone (three of these holes may be made out in the drawing, the rest are hidden by the main yucca leaf binding). Just below the upper end of this compound bone are two horizontal lines of small round pits, or incised dots; these only run half way around and do not appear on the back. The end of the lower piece is pierced on one side by a small hole, and just above the orifice there is scratched a single encircling line. Neither end of the left-hand unit gives any indication of having been plugged as were both orifices of the right-hand bone.
The fragments of the specimen shown in d, are assembled in what were doubtless their original positions. They form a pair very similar to the one just described, but both halves are com- pound, each being made up of two pieces once held together by an interior stick or dowel. Parts of a main binding that once fastened the two halves to each other are still preserved. The lower part of the left-hand unit has on one side three deep horizontal notches and a single small round hole; the upper piece has three double lines of incised dots which, as in the preceding specimen, only run half way around. The right-hand unit has two similar double lines of dots, one near the bottom, one just below the top. The upper end of each unit is plugged with pitch, in which are set the curious compound objects shown in the drawing. They are flattened spheres of red stone with small, white, perforated discs glued to their tops. The right-hand sphere has been somewhat warped from its original flat position across the end of the bone.
The pair of tubes shown in f, were found together in Sunflower Cave and illustrated in our first report (plate 86, f); they are re- produced here because they are surely of the same nature as the White Dog Cave specimens. They fit snugly when laid side by side and show, indeed, signs of rubbing along the points of contact; hence they once were undoubtedly bound together. Near the upper end of each one, and running only half way around,1 is an
1 In our first description we mistakenly stated that the dots encircled the bones (Kidder- Guernsey, 1919, p. 189).
PEABODY MUSEUM PAPERS
VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 44
b
C
f
9
CAVE 6 a-d, Skin pouch and objects found with it in woven bag; e-i, Articles from within pouch. (About 4/5.)
105
OF NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA
incised line and a row of dots. If pitch was ever used to plug up these bones, it has entirely disappeared.
Two other bone objects (g and h) are fragments which obviously formed parts of pairs identical with the above. They are of the same general shape and size, and have similar rows of small dots only partially encircling them. The upper one, g, is the best pre- served of several fragments of a broken specimen; found loose in the same cist with it were four compound " buttons ".very like the ones glued to the ends of the pair shown in d.
To sum up: these objects were pairs of bones tied together at the middle; the component parts of each pair might be a single bone, or might be made of two bones fastened end to end. All are decorated with lines of dots, and many, perhaps all, had at one place or another small drilled holes. Some at least were provided with compound " buttons " glued to their ends. The fact that the incised dots never completely encircle the bones, and that the un- dotted surface of each bone is always the flatter side, seems to indicate that these assemblages were held or worn against some- thing in such a position that one side was not visible. We have only one hint as to a possible use; lying close against the central ligature of the pair figured in d, and apparently engaged by it (the specimen is badly rotted) was a cord hung with nearly a hundred deer-hoofs. The latter may have formed a rattle, and if so, the double bones might perhaps have been some sort of handle for it.
Included here because they were found in the same cists with some of the pairs just described, are two specimens that seem to have served as handles for what we suppose to have been cere- monial wands.1 The first (plate 42, a) came from the same cist that held the broken paired bones above described. It is a hollow bone, 54 inches long, the lower end carefully finished, smoothed, and decorated with eight circular cup-like depressions filled flush with black gum. At the upper end it is perforated by two holes through which runs a narrow thong holding a number of other thongs; the ends of such of the latter as are not broken off are knotted about the remains of the butts of small feathers; the ends of the others are simply knotted. The second specimen, b, from the same cist as e and h, plate 41, is a plain tube with a single hole at one end; its similarity to the above handle is obvious.
1 Compare the bird-headed wooden handle with feathered streamers, plate 30.
106
BASKET-MAKER CAVES
Bone Whistle. The specimen illustrated in plate 42, i, was found with the handle last mentioned, one of the complete pairs of bones, and one fragmentary one. Its length is 4} inches. The lower end is tightly closed with gum, the upper is unsealed. The single rather large opening is partly covered by wrappings of sinew; these seem to have held a bit of reed or other substance, now almost rotted away.
Bone Tubes. The tubes shown in c and d, are both simple lengths of hollow bones with carefully cut ends. They are figured here because we are unable to assign any definite utilitarian func- tion to them.
Compound "Dice." The extremely well-made little objects shown on plate 43, are all from White Dog Cave. Each consists of two parts: a spherical or cylindrical body with rounded bottom and flat top; and a cap, which is a thin disc (often a reused bead with the perforation plugged with pitch) firmly cemented to the flat top of the body. The variety of materials used in their manu- facture will be brought out in the descriptions which follow.
The upper and lower sides of the largest example we have is shown in j, k; it measures { of an inch in diameter. The body, of highly polished lignite, is perforated vertically, but the hole is carefully plugged; about the lower edge there runs a series of little cuts. The cap is a fine grained red slate disc-bead, the perforation filled with pitch. This specimen, the only one in the lot which was found singly, came from Cist 52.
One of a set of four from Cist 22, is shown in h. It has a trans- lucent quartz body and a cap of red slate. The other three (not figured) are of lignite; one has an unperforated white bone cap, the caps of the remaining two are missing, but dried cement on the flat tops of the bodies proves that they were once present.
A set of seven was found in a small buckskin pouch in Cist 24. One of these, i, has a dark brown wooden base and a white bone cap; a second, f, has a lignite base with an unusually large white limestone cap; the one shown in g, has a lignite base and a light brown stone cap; b, has a long cylindrical base of lignite and a cap of hard light green stone (not turquoise); the fifth (not figured), a lignite base, and light brown stone cap. The sixth, d, and seventh are of a very peculiar construction which was not suspected until one of them accidentally split in halves. It proved to have been made
107
OF NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA
by rolling up a tiny pellet of gray clay mixed with grains of crushed azurite and malachite. Around this pellet was added a thin layer of the same mixture, then another and another like the coats of an onion, until the requisite size and shape of the base were attained. The whole was then daubed with pure gray clay, so that the blue and green particles, so thickly sown through the whole interior, do not show on the surface. The cap of the one figured is a flat green stone, that of the split specimen is of red slate; both are about the same size.
A second set of seven, also contained in a buckskin bag, was taken from Cist 24. These are not figured. Two are of lignite with unperforated brown stone caps; four are of the peculiar azurite- malachite-clay composition, the caps of two are missing. Of the two in place one is a perforated brown stone disc, the other an un- perforated disc of green stone. The seventh is beautifully shaped from hematite, it lacks the cap, but, as in all such cases, distinct traces of the cement that once held it in place remain.
Two of another set of seven found loose in Cist 27 are also illus- trated in plate 43. The one shown in c, is a hard, light green stone with a cap of white bone; e, is of serpentine and lacks the cap. Of the remaining five, one is sandstone of thin cylindrical form; like e, the cap is missing; the other three have green stone bases with bone, pink stone, and red stone caps respectively.
The purpose of these pretty and beautifully made little things is unknown. Two of them were found glued to the ends of bones (plates 41, d, and 43, a), and the set of four above described came from a disturbed cist (6) which contained fragments of similar paired bones. We at first thought that all such " buttons " were meant for a like use, but on careful examination we could find no trace of pitch or other adhesive matter clinging to any of them; furthermore their bottoms are always excellently finished and show, indeed, more polish than do the sides, whereas objects pri- marily designed to be glued or cemented to other objects, are generally roughened on those parts which were destined to receive the adhesive substance. This, and the fact that we have three separate sets of exactly seven each, has inclined us to believe that they were some form of dice and that their employment as an em- bellishment for the tips of the peculiar paired bones may have been a secondary one.
108
BASKET-MAKER CAVES
MEDICINE POUCHES OF SKIN
Under this heading are included a number of skin bags of various shapes and sizes which were found with burials. They contained assortments of miscellaneous material, much of it of no apparent practical value.1 As to whether or not the identification of these sacks as medicine pouches is correct, the reader may judge for himself.
Bag and Contents. The container figured on plate 38, a, is made from prairie-dog skins with the hair on, cut and fitted to form a triangular sack 11 inches long, 10 inches across the base, and 3} inches across the mouth. The skins are arranged so that the heads
FIGURE 16 Skin bag containing beads and feathers, White Dog Cave. (}.)
form the mouth of the bag. They are sewn together with a running stitch, the seam inside, the hair side out. Within were a cake of paint, b, and a very small skin bag, c, wrapped with string and holding powdered paint of a brilliant green color. The cake was made of the same paint, apparently moistened and molded into its present shape with the fingers.
Bag with Colored Minerals. This is a little skin container in which were found about twenty small unworked fragments of azurite and malachite.
Dice Bags. These were both taken from Cist 24, White Dog Cave. They are little buckskin bags; each contained seven of the peculiar compound " dice " described above.
Sack with Beads and Feathers. This specimen is illustrated in figure 16. It is a bag of what appears to be badger skin with the hair on, which is somewhat rotted and has split down the side. In 1 Similar assortments were found with Sayodneechee burials. Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, p. 30.
109
OF NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA
it are about a teacup full of small cylindrical black seed beads; a few discoidal bone beads; and six large flat stone beads, two of which are of alabaster. There are also eleven large hawk feathers and a section 7 inches long broken from the stalk of a plant with a pithy stem.
Pouch and Small Articles. This heterogeneous assemblage (plate 44) was found in the woven bag shown in plate 30, d, taken from Cave 6. Some of the objects were loose in the woven bag, the remainder were contained in the little skin pouch, a, of the former plate. The latter is made from a piece of thin animal hide, soft dressed with the hair on, folded to form a small, narrow sack 5 inches long, and sewn with fiber string. After having been sewn it was turned to bring the seam inside. A buckskin tie-string is attached to the top. Only traces of the fur remain.
The objects found loose in the woven bag are: a fragment of a fossilized mammalian tooth, b; a piece of hard yellow ochre show- ing rubbing facets, and grooves such as might have been made by coloring a cord, and in spots, a curious gloss, c; a small lump of organic substance resembling dried fruit, d; and half of a squash seed, f.
In the little skin pouch were: a part of the horny claw cover of an animal, presumably dog or wolf, i; an oval bone die, g, sim- ilar to those figured in our first report,1 except that both sides are convex, instead of one being convex and one flat; a wooden die of bi-convex shape with one surface coated with pitch as in the 1915 examples just referred to, h. The remaining specimen from the pouch is a section 2} inches long cut from a grease- wood stick, e. The ends are rounded and wrapped with sinew, and a groove runs the whole length of the under side, the entire object having been painted a dull red.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Summary of Material Culture. Of the dwellings of the Basket- makers we know next to nothing. Certain crudely-built stone structures in Goat Cave (plate 2, a, b) may be Basket-maker, but the evidence is not conclusive. In Cave 14 were found cists made of large slabs and closed over with conical wood and adobe roofs;
1 Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, p. 189 and plate 86, g.
ยท
110
BASKET-MAKER CAVES
these were built above ground and against the cliff-wall (plate 9, e, f). There is little doubt in our minds that they are Basket- maker products, and they have a distinctly house-like appearance; but their very small size argues for their use as storage places rather than as domiciles. We believe at present, therefore, that the Basket-makers lived mostly in perishable structures built in the open, and only resorted to the caves for temporary shelter in severe weather.
Although they apparently did not live regularly in the caves, they took full advantage of them for the storage of their crops and for the burial of their dead./ For both purposes they used cists. These occur in several well-defined varieties (see plate 9). Where the cave floor was of solid hard-pan they excavated plain, jar- . shaped cavities in it; some of these have little tunnels or " flues " leading to smaller, shallower holes set about their mouths. When the floor of the cave was of material so loose as to render the above forms unpractical, they scooped out holes, larger or smaller ac- cording to their requirements, and lined them with large, flat, stone slabs to hold back the sand. These are the commonest types, and served, apparently, either for storage or burial. Semi-subterra- nean (Cave 2, 1915), or above-ground cists (Cave 14) with slab foundations and adobe superstructures complete the list; we have so far not found burials in them.
Burial customs were very uniform; the bodies were flexed, wrapped in fur-string blankets and twined-woven bags, and de- posited, with numerous mortuary offerings, in the cists. Inter- ments were almost never single; in most cases two to four indi- viduals were buried together.
The Basket-makers grew corn of a single, apparently primitive, variety; squashes also were raised, but the most careful search has so far failed to reveal any evidence of bean culture. The turkey was probably not domesticated. The people covered them- selves with robes of fur cloth and dressed hides; men wore & breech-cloth and "gee-string"; the women a short string skirt. The usual footgear was the square-toed sandal, a type which differs from all others in the Southwest in shape, in the presence of a toe- fringe, and in the fact that the soles of the better specimens are provided with a looped " pile " reinforcement covering their entire length.
111
OF NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA
Children and the adults of both sexes were well supplied with necklaces of stone and shell beads, as well as with pendants of stone and abalone shell; turquoise, apparently, was unknown. Hair-dressing in the case of males was elaborate. The back hair was gathered into a short chubby knot to which was fastened a thin braided scalp-lock falling from the crown of the head; there was often a wide " part" and a tonsure from which the hair was clipped close. Women seem to have worn the hair short; their heads may have provided the great quantity of human hair that was used for string.
Cradles were of two types: the rigid, with wooden frame, twig or reed backing, and padded edge; and the flexible, made of grass or cedar bark. Young babies were always provided with stuffed pads, bound to the navel to prevent rupture.
Basketry was very abundant indeed, but was exclusively of the coiled variety, with two-rod-and-bundle foundation, and with wooden sewing splints. The weave is coarse, but even and very firm; decoration is in black or black-and-red; the designs have a sort of family resemblance to those of the modern tribes of central and northern California. The principal forms are trays, bowls and large panniers. No wickerwork, twined or checker-work baskets were found.
Of textile fabrics, these people turned out very limited amounts of apocynum string cloth, plain over-and-under weave. It was undoubtedly woven on some form of loom, but the small size of the individual pieces produced and the crude nature of the selvages give the impression that the art of loom weaving was still in its infancy. This theory is strengthened by the fact that the designs were either painted on the fabric or made by rubbing color onto the wefts as they were being woven, rather than produced, as in more perfected systems, by the use of separate wefts dyed before insertion. The most elaborate textiles are the hand-twined bags, usually made of apocynum string, and decorated by painting or by rubbing color on the wefts in process. The abundance of such bags is very striking. Although an enormous quantity of finely spun string was employed for the textiles and for a variety of other purposes (such as in rabbit-nets, string aprons, fur cloth, etc.), we have never found any trace of the use of a spindle, either plain or whorled. Fur cloth was much used, true feather-cloth never.
112
BASKET-MAKER CAVES
Skin was well dressed and entered into many industries, but most strikingly so in the making of all sorts of small to medium sized bags and pouches, the most characteristic of which are sacks formed of two to seven or eight prairie-dog hides sewed together in such a way that the heads of the animals arranged side by side formed the necks of the bags.
The Basket-makers had few superiors in the careful working of wood; their weapons and implements show as fine shapes and as perfect finish as can be achieved with stone tools. The most typical objects are the atlatl and dart (used, apparently, to the entire exclusion of the bow and arrow); the grooved club; and the crooked shafted, plain-gripped digging stick.
Artifacts of stone are very poorly represented in the collection. There are no specimens of the following types, all common in the cliff-houses and pueblos: axes, both grooved and grooveless, ham- mer stones, polishing stones, " sandal lasts," chipped scrapers, arrowheads, or long drills. As these lacking forms are all strictly utilitarian in function, their absence may be due to our material being almost exclusively from graves and temporary cave-shelters, rather than from long inhabited dwelling places. It would not surprise us, however, to find that the grooved axe was unknown to the Basket-makers, as that implement among the northern Cliff- dwellers is always of a rude, unspecialized type and therefore presumably of late introduction. The grooved axe is, indeed, en- tirely absent from the areas to the west and northwest of the Pueblo district.
Of such stone objects as do occur, the most characteristic are the heavy discoidal and sub-spherical beads, the short squat pipes and the large, triangular, tanged dart-points. The chipping of the latter, and of certain large flint knife-blades, is very skillfully done.
Bone tools, like those of stone, are not common in our collection; there are a few, simple awls, a few beads, some whistles, and some pairs of decorated tubes which we have classed as ceremonial. There are no bone scrapers. The rarity of awls, among the re- mains of a people who produced as much coiled basketry as did the Basket-makers, is very peculiar; it is probably due to the fact that we have not yet succeeded in finding long-occupied dwelling places.
113
OF NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA
While feathers played an unimportant part in the making of robes, having been used only for fringes and ornamental borders, they were much employed in the making of all sorts of ceremonial paraphernalia, as well as for the winging of atlatl darts. Bundles of large feathers, destined probably for the latter purpose, were found in several caves.
True pottery, as far as we know, was not made. The only speci- mens of burned clay that we have are two small pipes found in 1914-1915. In the present report is described a fragment of an unfired dish with basket marked exterior; this may represent a very primitive form of pottery. In which case again we feel the lack of material from village sites, as it is possible that pottery really did exist but that it never, for some reason, found its way into the graves.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.