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  SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION----BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.


  ART IN SHELL

  OF THE

  ANCIENT AMERICANS.

  BY

  WILLIAM H. HOLMES.




CONTENTS.


                                                                   Page.
  Introductory                                                       185

  Implements and utensils                                            189
    Unworked shells                                                  189
    Vessels                                                          192
    Spoons                                                           198
    Knives                                                           201
    Celts                                                            203
    Scrapers                                                         205
    Agricultural implements                                          207
    Fishing appliances                                               207
    Weapons                                                          210
    Tweezers                                                         211

  Ornaments                                                          213
    Pins                                                             213
    Beads                                                            219
      Perforated shells                                              219
      Discoidal beads                                                221
      Massive beads                                                  223
      Tubular beads                                                  226
      Runtees                                                        228
      Beads as ornaments                                             230
      Beads as currency                                              234
      Mnemonic use of beads                                          240
    Pendants                                                         255
    Perforated plates                                                264
    Engraved gorgets                                                 267
      The cross                                                      268
      The scalloped disk                                             273
      The bird                                                       280
      The spider                                                     286
      The serpent                                                    289
      The human face                                                 293
      The human figure                                               297




ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                                                   Page.
  PLATE XXI.--Natural shells as vessels                              192
       XXII.--Vessels artificially shaped                            194
      XXIII.--Vessel with engraved surface                           196
       XXIV.--Spoons                                                 200
        XXV.--Celts                                                  204
       XXVI.--Cutting and scraping implements                        206
      XXVII.--Weapons, agricultural implements, etc.                 208
     XXVIII.--Fishing appliances                                     210
       XXIX.--Manufacture of pins and beads                          214
        XXX.--Pins, Atlantic coast forms                             216
       XXXI.--Pins, Pacific coast forms                              218
      XXXII.--Beads, perforated shells                               220
     XXXIII.--Beads, discoidal in form                               222
      XXXIV.--Beads, massive in form                                 224
       XXXV.--Beads, tubular in form                                 226
      XXXVI.--Beads, "Runtees"                                       228
     XXXVII.--The wampum belt in treaties                            240
    XXXVIII.--Wampum belts                                           242
      XXXIX.--Wampum belts                                           244
         XL.--Wampum belt                                            246
        XLI.--Wampum belt                                            248
       XLII.--Wampum belt                                            250
      XLIII.--The Penn belt                                          252
       XLIV.--Strings of wampum                                      254
        XLV.--Ancient pendant ornaments                              256
       XLVI.--Plain pendants, Atlantic coast forms                   258
      XLVII.--Plain pendants, Pacific coast forms                    260
     XLVIII.--Plain pendants, Pacific coast forms                    262
       XLIX.--Plain pendants, Pacific coast forms                    264
          L.--Perforated plates                                      266
         LI.--Engraved gorgets, the cross                            268
        LII.--Engraved gorgets, the cross                            270
       LIII.--Engraved gorgets, the cross                            272
        LIV.--Engraved gorgets, scalloped disks                      274
         LV.--Engraved gorgets, scalloped disks                      276
        LVI.--Engraved gorgets, scalloped disks                      278
       LVII.--Scalloped disks, etc.                                  280
      LVIII.--Engraved gorgets, the bird, etc.                       282
        LIX.--Engraved gorgets, the bird, etc.                       284
         LX.--Engraved gorgets, the bird                             286
        LXI.--Engraved gorgets, the spider                           288
       LXII.--Engraved gorgets, the rattlesnake                      290
      LXIII.--Engraved gorgets, the rattlesnake                      290
       LXIV.--Engraved gorgets, the rattlesnake                      292
        LXV.--Engraved gorgets, the rattlesnake                      292
       LXVI.--The serpent                                            292
      LXVII.--Engraved gorgets, the human face                       294
     LXVIII.--Engraved gorgets, the human face                       294
       LXIX.--Engraved gorgets, the human face                       296
        LXX.--Engraved gorgets, the human face                       296
       LXXI.--Engraved gorgets, the human figure                     298
      LXXII.--Engraved gorgets, the human figure                     298
     LXXIII.--Engraved gorgets, the human figure                     300
      LXXIV.--Engraved gorgets, the human figure                     300
       LXXV.--Engraved gorgets, the human figure                     302
      LXXVI.--The human figure                                       302
     LXXVII.--Sculptured frogs                                       304




ART IN SHELL OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS.

BY WILLIAM H. HOLMES.




INTRODUCTORY.


The student will find scattered throughout a wide range of archaeologic
literature frequent but casual mention of works of art in shell.
Individual uses of shell have been dwelt upon at considerable length by
a few authors, but up to this time no one has undertaken the task of
bringing together in one view the works of primitive man in this
material.

Works of ancient peoples in stone, clay, and bronze, in all countries,
have been pretty thoroughly studied, described, and illustrated.

Stone would seem to have the widest range, as it is employed with almost
equal readiness in all the arts.

Clay is widely used and takes a foremost place in works of utility and
taste.

Metals are too intractable to be readily employed by primitive peoples,
and until a high grade of culture is attained are but little used.

Animal substances of compact character, such as bone, horn, ivory, and
shell, are also restricted in their use, and the more destructible
substances, both animal and vegetable, however extensively employed,
have comparatively little archaeologic importance.

All materials, however, are made subservient to man and in one way or
another become the agents of culture; under the magic influence of his
genius they are moulded into new forms which remain after his
disappearance as the only records of his existence.

Each material, in the form of convenient natural objects, is applied to
such uses as it is by nature best fitted, and when artificial
modifications are finally made, they follow the suggestions of nature,
improvements being carried forward in lines harmonious with the
initiatory steps of nature.

Had the materials placed at the disposal of primitive peoples been as
uniform as are their wants and capacities, there would have been but
little variation in the art products of the world; but the utilization
of a particular material in the natural state gives a strong bias to
artificial products, and its forms and functions impress themselves upon
art products in other materials. Thus unusual resources engender unique
arts and unique cultures. Such a result, I apprehend, has in a measure
been achieved in North America.

In a broad region at one time occupied by the mound-building tribes we
observe a peculiar and an original effort--an art distinctive in the
material employed, in the forms developed, and to some extent in the
ideas represented. It is an age of shell, a sort of supplement to the
age of stone.

It is not my intention here to attempt at extended discussion of the
bearings of this art upon the various interesting questions of
anthropologic science, but rather to present certain of its phases in
the concrete, to study the embodiment of the art of the ancient American
in this one material, and to present the results in a tangible manner,
not as a catalogue of objects, but as an elementary part of the whole
body of human art, illustrating a particular phase of the evolution of
culture.

This paper is to be regarded simply as an outline of the subject, to be
followed by a more exhaustive monograph of the art in shell of all the
ancient American peoples.

Art had its beginning when man first gathered clubs from the woods,
stones from the river bed, and shells from the sea-shore for weapons and
utensils. In his hands these simple objects became modified by use into
new forms, or were intentionally altered to increase their convenience.
This was the infancy, the inception of culture--a period from which a
tedious but steady advance has been made until the remarkable
achievements of the present have been reached.

Rude clubs have become weapons of curious construction and machinery of
marvelous complication, and the pebbles and shells are the prototypes of
numerous works in all materials. Rude rafts which served to cross
primeval rivers have become huge ships, and the original house of bark
and leaves is represented by palaces and temples, glittering with light
and glowing with color.

The steps which led up to these results are by no means clear to us;
they have not been built in any one place or by any one people. Nations
have risen and fallen, and have given place to others that in turn have
left a heap of ruins. We find it impossible to trace back through the
historic ages into and beyond the prehistoric shadows, the pathway to
culture followed by any one people. The necessity for groping increases
with every backward step, and we pick up one by one the scattered links
of a chain that has a thousand times been broken. So far our information
is meager and fragmentary, and centuries of research will be required to
round up our knowledge to such a fullness as to enable us to
rehabilitate the ancient races, a result to be reached only by an
exhaustive comparative study of the art products of all peoples and of
all ages.

By collecting the various relics of art in shell I shall be able to add
a fragment to this great work. Destructible in their character these
relics are seldom preserved from remote periods, and it is only by
reason of their inhumation with the dead that they appear among
antiquities at all. A majority of such objects, taken from graves and
tumuli, known to post-date even the advent of the white race in North
America, are so far decayed that unless most carefully handled they
crumble to powder.

It is impossible to demonstrate the great antiquity of any of these
relics. Many of those obtained from the shell heaps of the Atlantic
coast are doubtless very ancient, but we cannot say with certainty that
they antedate the discovery more than a few hundred years.

Specimens obtained from the mounds of the Mississippi Valley have the
appearance of great antiquity, but beyond the internal evidence of the
specimens themselves we have no reliable data upon which to base an
estimate of time. The age of these relics is rendered still less certain
by the presence of intrusive interments, which place side by side works
of very widely separated periods.

The antiquity of the relics themselves is not, however, of first
importance; the art ideas embodied in them have a much deeper interest.
The tablets upon which the designs are engraved may be never so recent,
yet the conceptions themselves have their origin far back in the
forgotten ages. Deified ancestors and mythical creatures that were in
the earlier stages rudely depicted on bark and skins and rocks were,
after a certain mastery over materials had been achieved, engraved on
tablets of flinty shell; and it is probable that in these rare objects
we have, if not a full representation of the art of the ancient peoples,
at least a large number of their most important works, in point of
execution as well as of conception.

Man in his most primitive condition must have resorted to the sea-shore
for the food which it affords. Weapons or other appliances were not
necessary in the capture of mollusks; a stone to break the shell, or one
of the massive valves of the shells themselves, sufficed for all
purposes.

The shells of mollusks probably came into use as utensils at a very
early date, and mutually with products of the vegetable world afforded
natural vessels for food and water.

For a long period the idea of modifying the form to increase the
convenience may not have been suggested and the natural shells were used
for whatever purpose they were best fitted. In time, however, by
accidental suggestions it would be found that modifications would
enhance their usefulness, and the breaking away of useless parts and the
sharpening of edges and points would be resorted to. Farther on, as it
became necessary to carry them from point to point, changes would be
made for convenience of transportation. Perforations which occur
naturally in some species of shell, would be produced artificially, and
the shells would be strung on vines or cords and suspended about the
neck; in this way, in time, may have originated the custom of wearing
pendants for personal ornament. Following this would be the
transportation of such articles to distant places by wandering tribes,
exchanges would take place with other tribes, and finally a trade would
be developed and a future commerce of nations be inaugurated.

Results similar to the foregoing would spring doubtless from the
employment of substances other than shell, but that material most
closely associated with the acquisition of food would come first
prominently into use.

The farther these useful articles were carried from the source of supply
the greater the value that would attach to them, and far inland the
shell of the sea might easily become an object of unusual consideration.
Having an origin more or less shrouded in mystery, it would in time
become doubly dear to the heart of the superstitious savage, perhaps an
object of actual veneration, or at least one of such high esteem that it
would be treasured by the living and buried with the dead.

The material so plentiful on the sea-shore that it was thought of only
as it proved useful for vessels and implements, became a valued treasure
in the interior; its functions were gradually enlarged and
differentiated; it was worked into varied shapes, such as pendants for
the ears, beads for the neck, pins for the hair, and elaborate gorgets
for the breast; it served its turn as fetich and charm; and was
frequently used in the ceremonial jugglery of the mystic dance.

The slightest modification of these relics by the hand of man attracts
our attention, and from that infant stage of the art until the highest
and most elaborate forms are reached they have the deepest interest to
the student of human progress.




IMPLEMENTS AND UTENSILS.


UNWORKED SHELLS.

Some writers have suggested that the ancient peoples of the interior
districts must have held shells from the sea in especial esteem, not
only on account of their rarity, but also by reason of some sacred
properties that had, from the mystery of their origin, become attached
to them. It would appear, however, that shells were valued chiefly for
their utility and beauty, and that fresh water as well as marine
varieties were constantly employed. In their unworked state, for their
beauty alone, they are treasured by peoples in all grades of culture,
from the savage up through the barbarian stages to the most civilized
state. As they are most conveniently shaped for utensils and implements,
they have been of great service in the arts, and were thus of the
greatest importance to primitive peoples.

It must not be supposed that the natural shells found in graves were
always destined for use in an unworked state, but they should doubtless
in many cases be regarded as highly-valued raw material intended for use
in the manufacture of articles of utility and taste, in the tempering of
potter's clay, or in effecting exchanges with neighboring tribes.

As vessels for food and drink, and as cups for paint, many species are
most conveniently shaped. Good examples may be found in the _Haliotis_,
so plentiful on the Pacific coast, the _Helcioniscus_ of the Pacific
islands, the _Pattelidae_ of Central and South America, or the _Pecten_
of many seas.

In their natural state they have a twofold interest to us--as utensils
they are the forerunners of many more elaborate forms that have been
evolved in more advanced stages of culture, and in their distribution
they give us important insight into the commerce and migrations of their
aboriginal owners.

_Pectens._--The Pectens are very widely distributed, and on account of
their beauty of form and color have been in great favor with all
peoples. They figure in the heraldic devices of the Middle Ages and in
the symbolic paintings of the ancient Mexicans. They have been employed
extensively by the ancient inhabitants of America as ornaments and
rattles, and many examples exhumed from graves, mounds, and refuse heaps
appear to have been used as utensils, cups for paint, and vessels for
food and drink. They are especially plentiful in the cemeteries of the
ancient Californians, from which Schumacher and Bowers have made
excellent collections, and specimens may be found in the great museums
of the country. A very good example of this shell (_Janira dentata_)[1]
is shown in Fig. 3, Plate XXI, which represents a paint cup from Santa
Barbara, Cal. This cup is still partially filled with dark, purplish,
indurated paint. Some were receptacles for asphaltum, while others,
which are quite empty, were employed probably for domestic purposes. The
species chiefly used on the Atlantic coast are the _Pecten irradians_
and _P. concentricus_. On the Pacific coast the _Pecten caurinus