Tour the Smithsonian After its First Fifty Years

The National Museum began early to be the depository of collections, now become the largest in the country, of objects illustrating North American archaeology-that is the state of aboriginal culture before it became modified by European influence. These prehistoric relics, derived from mounds and other ancient burial-places, on or below the surface of the ground, in caves, shellheaps, etc., are made of chipped and ground stone, copper, bone, horn, shell, clay, and to a small extent of wood and vegetable fibres. "Similarity of shape afforded the principal guidance in arranging these specimens, many of which leave a wide scope for conjecture as to the uses to which they were applied by the makers."

Three separate series have been laid out for exhibition in the great upper hall of the old Smithsonian building by Dr. Charles Rau, who is curator. First a synoptical collection illustrating European archaeology, by means of typical specimens arranged serially in the circle of table-cases occupying the center of the room; this should be examined first, as it condenses into brief space the whole range of prehistoric workmanship.

The general collection illustrating the archaeology of all North America forms the second, and most important part of the exhibit; the third part being independent special collections relating to limited localities. The general collection occupies the table-cases on the floor and proceeds in classification as the cases are numbered, from 1 upwards; the wall cases being devoted to the special local exhibits.

The arrangement of the general archaeological collection is according to material and shape, which in most cases means identity of function; but thus far it has been thought hazardous to divide prehistoric time into the two ages of development (paleolithic and neolithic) recognized in Europe. The discoveries by Dr. C. C. Abbott of "palaeolothic" implements made in the glacial drift-gravels about Trenton, N. J., may justify such a division hereafter (see Abbott's "Primitive Industry"). The present classification is under the following heads:

1. STONE (A. Flaked and chipped. B. Pecked, ground and polished.)
2. COPPER
3. BONE and HORN
4. SHELL
5. CLAY
6. WOOD and FIBRE
7. METHODS of HAFTING

Let us begin a hurried review with the first class-relics of chipped or flaked stone.

"By far the greater number of specimens . . . are manufactures of stone, being fashioned either by flaking or the more tedious process of chipping, or by pecking, grinding and polishing. The chipped series chiefly comprises arrow and spear-heads, cutting and scraping tools, saws, perforators and digging implements. These articles are usually made of hard, silicious stone of conchoidal fracture, such as hornstone, jasper, chalcedony, ferruginous quartz, and other kindred varieties usually classed together as flint ." . . .

The most abundant relics of the prehistoric natives of the United States are the leaf-shaped, triangular and usually barbed pieces of chipped stone intended as points for arrows , spears and the like.

A very great variety of forms is shown from all parts of the continent, many bearing the marks of damage apparently caused by hitting the object at which they were once sent from a bow or from the hand. "The art of arrow-making survives to the present day among certain Indian tribes inhabiting part of the United States not yet settled by whites, and the National Museum contains a large number of modern stone arrow-heads (partly in shafts) which equal, and even surpass in workmanship, the best specimens picked up in fields or recovered from old Indian burial-places. The modes of their manufacture have been witnessed and described by explorers, and these operations now appear less difficult than they were formerly supposed to be." The thick flakes of obsidian (volcanic glass, of which great masses may be seen in the Mineral department) flint, etc., labeled "scrapers," were used in cleaning hides, smoothing horns, etc. They are succeeded by a series of flakes more or less chipped at the edges and apparently designed as cutting and sawing implements; another series served as perforators.

The large chipped blades of flint, slate, etc., which are classed as hoes and spades, have been particularly described by Dr. Rau in the Sm. Rep't, 1868, and dwelt upon by Jones in his "Antiquities of the Southern Indians" and by Abbott in "Primitive Industry." It will be observed that form and material vary with locality. These implements are not numerous; and it is probable that in the very extensive cultivation of maize which was followed east of the Mississippi, at least (see Julian Carr's writings) "that the hoes made of the shoulder blades of deer and of tortoise shell, mentioned by several early writers, greatly outnumbered those of stone." This brings us to articles of stone made by pecking, grinding or polishing.

The first to be mentioned are the wedges or celts (from Latin crisis, a chisel) which are very plentiful in this country. "They are sometimes rudely pecked or clipped into form, and merely sharpened at the cutting edges; but in general they are entirely ground, and not a few of them exhibit a beautiful polish. Their length varies from an inch and an inch and a half to a foot and more. They consist of different kinds of stone, such as diorite, syenite, hornblende rock, serpentine, etc., and even soft slates have sometimes furnished their material"-RAU. Certain slender forms are termed "chisels," are generally of greenstone, and closely resemble Danish productions of the stone age. Certain gouge-like forms are well adapted to removing charred wood in the hollowing out of canoes; others are adzes.

More familiar are the grooved axes, or "stone tomahawks", of which a remarkably extensive and varied lot appears. "The groove served for the reception of a withe of proper length, which was bent around the stone head until both ends met, when they were firmly bound together with ligatures of hide or some other material. The withe thus formed a convenient handle. These axes are frequently made of varieties of greenstone, though specimens consisting of syenite, granite, porphyry, sandstone, etc., are not rare; silicious materials, it seems, were not often employed. Now and then a specimen made of red or brown hematite is met. . . . Grooved axes differ much in size, the smallest in the collection (probably toys) measuring little more than two inches in length and weighing from three to four ounces, while the largest object of this class, a specimen from Illinois (loaned), is 13 inches long, 7 1/2 wide, and weighs 2 1/2 pounds." These tools were not used in cutting down trees, but served for deadening them by "girdling." When the trees had become perfectly dry, they were felled by the application of fire, the axes being again resorted to for removing the charred wood. For the same purpose they may have been employed in the manufacture of wooden canoes. Specimens of small or medium size doubtless were used as battle-axes, like the iron tomahawk of modern times.

Another type is called a hammer. One sort was simply a tough pebble or "hard head" grooved to facilitate the attachment of a handle; some are of so great a size that they could have been wielded only by two hands, like mauls. Such are the tools from the prehistoric copper mines of Lake Superior; and such are used now by northern tribes for pounding pemmican, and breaking bones. "Hammer stones" are battened pebbles with pits on each side, giving the thumb and forefinger a firm grasp.

Under the head Drilled Ceremonial Weapons, are placed a large quantity of axe and pickaxe-shaped objects pierced with holes like one of the fine neolithic drilled axes, they are well-polished, small, and tasteful, and among the most interesting groups in the whole room.

Knives, scrapers and spade-like implements appear next upon the list, followed by a great variety of pendants and sinkers of ground stone, grooved or pierced for the attachment of a cord, the majority of which, no doubt, served as sinkers for nets and lines in fishing. Beyond these lie a variety of "discoidal stones," pretty satisfactorily identified with the hurling-stones used in the chung-ke game described by early writers. The discoidal stones of the perforated kind pass over by slow degrees into the ring-form, and various types whose meaning is obscure.

Vessels of stone are especially well represented in the National Museum.

"It appears that vessels consisting of hard kinds of stone occur rarely in that part of the United States which lies east of the Rocky mountains. In the Atlantic and middle states, however, vessels made of the comparatively soft potstone (commonly called soapstone-the lapis ollaris of the ancients) have often been met. They differ, of course, in shape and workmanship, some being rather uncouth specimens of aboriginal art; others, again, are tolerably well formed, and betoken no small degree of perseverance on the part of their makers. By far the best potstone vessels, however, have been found in the Californian districts before mentioned. Among them are nearly globular cooking vessels with rather narrow apertures encircled by raised rims. Some of them measure more than a foot in height and 15 inches in diameter, and their thickness, about five-eighths of an inch at the rim, gradually increases toward the bottom. These utensils are admirable specimens of Indian skill, being almost as regular in outline as though they had been produced with the assistance of the turner's wheel."

In regard to the mortars in which the aborigines crushed their corn, etc., Dr. Rau notes:

"The mortars and mortar-like utensils form a particularly rich and varied series in the National Museum, embracing all forms and sizes, from the diminutive cup-shaped stone with a cavity not large enough to hold a hazelnut, and apparently used for grinding pigments, to the ponderous deeply hollowed vessel designed to withstand the operation of the heavy stone pestle. The cultivation of maize among the aboriginal tribes spread over the eastern area of the present United States necessitated the application of grinding utensils, which are, therefore, not unfrequently found on the sites of their former settlements. They are stone slabs or boulders exhibiting shallow concavities, or real mortars hollowed to a depth sufficient to hold a quantity of the cereal. It is shown, however, by the occurrence of circular cavities in projecting ledges of rocks, or in large immovable boulders, that the aborigines sometimes dispensed with portable mortars. Such stationary contrivances for triturating grain have been noticed in many localities where the Indians formerly dwelt. They used also large wooden mortars hollowed with the assistance of fire. . . . Other utensils of a somewhat kindred character are trough-shaped, and the grinding operation was performed by pressing a stone of suitable form forward and backward in the elongated cavity."

"No class of aboriginal productions of art," remarks the learned Curator, "exhibits a greater diversity of form than the pipes carved from stone or moulded in clay. Indeed, a volume would be required for figuring and describing the various shapes of these utensils, the manufacture of which offered to the aboriginal artist an unlimited scope for displaying his individual skill and ingenuity." Some of the more marked types only can be noticed in this account. Stone was the material chiefly used, though pipes of clay are not uncommon.

Numerous stone pipes of a peculiar type were obtained, many years ago, by Messrs. Squier and Davis during their survey of the ancient earthworks in Ohio, and have been minutely described in the Sm. Contr. to Knowl., vol.1. The originals are now in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury, England; but the National Museum possesses casts of them. Because of the extraordinary hardness of the material and their artistic excellence, Dr. Rau considers them "the most remarkable class of aboriginal products of art thus far discovered." In the more elaborate specimens from "Mound City" the bowl is formed in a few instances in imitation of the human head, but generally of the body of some animal, the peculiarities of the species portrayed being expressed with surprising fidelity. There are many small pipes which, though they were smoked with stems, are not provided with projections or necks for their insertion, the holes designed to hold them being drilled into the body of the bowl. Pipes of this description assume innumerable forms; some were very simple, others elaborately carved, birds standing as the most frequent models. Passing over to the pipes provided with necks, a typical class deserves mention, in which the almost cylindrical very high bowl stands upon a flat perforated base prolonged beyond the bowl, to form a sort of handle. In some the perforation of the neck is very narrow, and these were probably smoked without stems; but the variations are too many to be enumerated throughout. Certain carved stone pipes of immense size, are supposed to have been tribal property and kept, like the historic "calumet," for ceremonial smokings.

Aboriginal stone work ends with objects used as ornaments, the forms and artistic values of which show great unlikeness; and by a large quantity of sculptured images, the best from Mexico.

The copper objects in the Museum embrace weapons and ornaments, and will be found displayed by themselves. There are copper celts, arrow and spear points, crescent-shaped knives, awls and fishing implements. The ornaments consist of armlets and bracelets of thick wire; beads sometimes so long as to deserve the name of tubes; and spool-shaped ear-pendants. The resemblance of many of these articles to the European copper relics will be noted.

The copper for these articles was chiefly obtained from Lake Superior, where the present mines are operated in a region full of traces of prehistoric workings (see WHITTLESEY, Sm. Contr. to Knowl., vol. 7.) The copper was never smelted or soldered, but only hammered into the required shape. This was a matter of great labor, and developed considerable skill.

Although, generally speaking, implements of bone and horn of early date are not very abundant in North American collections, they are represented by many characteristic specimens in the National Museum. The teeth and claws of wild animals, it will be seen, were chiefly made into ornaments testifying the valor of their wearers. Piercers obtained from mounds, shellheaps, etc., form the most numerous class of bone tools, and resemble (as do the harpoon-heads) those found in southern Europe. Harpoonheads and hooks , the latter barbed on the outside and secured to the line by asphaltum, come from the Pacific coast; which, further, has furnished whistles and fifes made of bird-bones, and curious cups hollowed out of the vertebrae of cetaceans, with a great many objects made of horn. Horns, however, seem to have been utilized chiefly by the aborigines as handles for scrapers, knives and other of the lesser implements. Teeth and certain bones were much used as ornaments, amulets and the like; and formed a part of the outfit of the medicine men of prehistoric, as they do of more recent times. (See FISHERIES and COSTUMES.)

The primitive savages of this continent utilized shells, both of the seacoast and of the rivers, to a great extent, a practice still in existence. The cases of the National Museum, therefore, contain a large number of shell-objects; and lately these have been made the subject of an extensive illustrated history (HOLMES, Rep't Bur. of Ethn., ii). They served, whole, or reshaped, as household vessels, lamps, drinking cups, spoons and other utensils. Celts or adzes, identical in shape with those made of stone are found in the south; and in Florida, where a suitable stone for the purpose is wanting, heavy conch shells were affixed to a handle, sharpened, and became war-clubs. As digging tools shells had a wide usage. In California fish-hooks of shell occur in graves; and the dish-shaped abalone was put to a variety of services. It was as ornaments, however, that shells were most extensively utilized, and the visitor will be astonished at the amount, variety and decoration of these ornaments, which are arranged to be hung as necklaces around the throat, or attached to head-dresses, hair or clothing, or suspended by cords in some manner about the person. In some instances the shells were used whole, or broken just enough to be strung, but generally it was only some bright and shining part (now, alas! corroded and dull) which was incised cameo-wise into some pretty design and given a pleasing outline. Among the most numerous objects of shell were beads the interest of which is enhanced for us under the name of wampum, or "shell-money," which, when sewn upon belts in certain patterns, played an important part in the political economy of the red men as a form of record, a method of writing messages and an accessory in sacred or legal ceremonials.

Clay enters as a material into aboriginal art and facture almost wholly in the composition of pottery, in the making of which some of the native races, particularly those from the Rio Grande southward, had attained a high degree of advancement. (See CERAMICS )

Wood, though adopted as the material of a thousand useful articles in savage as well as civilized life, is so perishable that little remains representing the old days. A few dishes, toy canoes and weapons have been recovered from graves in the arid southwest; and some fragments of matting from certain dry caves, and from an excavation in the salt mines on Petit Anse island, Louisiana.

In the wall-cases special collections, in which all the objects from a single locality are grouped together, invite study. These represent not only various districts of the United States, but the arctic regions, southern Mexico, the Antilles, Central and South America.

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