Animal Carvings from Mounds of the Mississippi Valley
H >> Henry W. Henshaw >> Animal Carvings from Mounds of the Mississippi ValleySMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION----BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.
ANIMAL CARVINGS
FROM
MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
BY
HENRY W. HENSHAW.
CONTENTS.
Introductory 123
Manatee 125
Toucan 135
Paroquet 139
Knowledge of tropical animals by Mound-Builders 142
Other errors of identification 144
Skill in sculpture of the Mound-Builders 148
Generalization not designed 149
Probable totemic origin 150
Animal mounds 152
The "Elephant" mound 152
The "Alligator" mound 158
Human sculptures 160
Indian and mound-builders' art compared 164
General conclusions 166
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Fig. 4.--Otter from Squier and Davis 128
5.--Otter from Squier and Davis 128
6.--Otter from Rau. Manatee from Stevens 129
7.--Manatee from Stevens 129
8.--Lamantin or Sea-Cow from Squier and Davis 130
9.--Lamantin or Sea-Cow from Squier 130
10.--Manatee (_Manatus Americanus_, Cuv.) 132
11.--Manatee (_Manatus Americanus_, Cuv.) 132
12.--Cincinnati Tablet--back. From Squier and Davis 133
13.--Cincinnati Tablet--back. From Short 134
14.--Toucan from Squier and Davis 135
15.--Toucan from Squier and Davis 135
16.--Toucan from Squier and Davis 136
17.--Toucan as figured by Stevens 137
18.--Keel-billed Toucan of Southern Mexico 139
19.--Paroquet from Squier and Davis 140
20.--Owl from Squier and Davis 144
21.--Grouse from Squier and Davis 144
22.--Turkey-buzzard from Squier and Davis 145
23.--Cherry-bird 145
24.--Woodpecker 146
25.--Eagle from Squier and Davis 146
26.--Rattlesnake from Squier and Davis 147
27.--Big Elephant Mound in Grant County, Wisconsin 153
28.--Elephant Pipe. Iowa 155
29.--Elephant Pipe. Iowa 156
30.--The Alligator Mound near Granville, Ohio 159
31.--Carvings of heads 162
32.--Carvings of heads 162
33.--Carvings of heads 162
34.--Carving of head 163
35.--Carving of head 163
ANIMAL CARVINGS FROM MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
BY H. W. HENSHAW.
INTRODUCTORY.
The considerable degree of decorative and artistic skill attained by the
so-called Mound-Builders, as evidenced by many of the relics that have
been exhumed from the mounds, has not failed to arrest the attention of
archaeologists. Among them, indeed, are found not a few who assert for
the people conveniently designated as above a degree of artistic skill
very far superior to that attained by the present race of Indians as
they have been known to history. In fact, this very skill in artistic
design, asserted for the Mound-Builders, as indicated by the sculptures
they have left, forms an important link in the chain of argument upon
which is based the theory of their difference from and superiority to
the North American Indian.
Eminent as is much of the authority which thus contends for an artistic
ability on the part of the Mound-Builders far in advance of the
attainments of the present Indian in the same line, the question is one
admitting of argument; and if some of the best products of artistic
handicraft of the present Indians be compared with objects of a similar
nature taken from the mounds, it is more than doubtful if the artistic
inferiority of the latter-day Indian can be substantiated. Deferring,
however, for the present, any comparison between the artistic ability of
the Mound-Builder and the modern Indian, attention may be turned to a
class of objects from the mounds, notable, indeed, for the skill with
which they are wrought, but to be considered first in another way and
for another purpose than mere artistic comparison.
As the term Mound-Builders will recur many times throughout this paper,
and as the phrase has been objected to by some archaeologists on account
of its indefiniteness, it may be well to state that it is employed here
with its commonly accepted signification, viz: as applied to the people
who formerly lived throughout the Mississippi Valley and raised the
mounds of that region. It should also be clearly understood that by its
use the writer is not to be considered as committing himself in any way
to the theory that the Mound-Builders were of a different race from the
North American Indian.
Among the more interesting objects left by the Mound-Builders, pipes
occupy a prominent place. This is partly due to their number, pipes
being among the more common articles unearthed by the labors of
explorers, but more to the fact that in the construction of their pipes
this people exhibited their greatest skill in the way of sculpture. In
the minds of those who hold that the Mound-Builders were the ancestors
of the present Indians, or, at least, that they were not necessarily of
a different race, the superiority of their pipe sculpture over their
other works of art excites no surprise, since, however prominent a place
the pipe may have held in the affections of the Mound-Builders, it is
certain that it has been an object of no less esteem and reverence among
the Indians of history. Certainly no one institution, for so it may be
called, was more firmly fixed by long usage among the North American
Indians, or more characteristic of them, than the pipe, with all its
varied uses and significance.
Perhaps the most characteristic artistic feature displayed in the pipe
sculpture of the Mound-Builders, as has been well pointed out by Wilson,
in his Prehistoric Man, is the tendency exhibited toward the imitation
of natural objects, especially birds and animals, a remark, it may be
said in passing, which applies with almost equal truth to the art
productions generally of the present Indians throughout the length and
breadth of North America. As some of these sculptured animals from the
mounds have excited much interest in the minds of archaeologists, and
have been made the basis of much speculation, their examination and
proper identification becomes a matter of considerable importance. It
will therefore be the main purpose of the present paper to examine
critically the evidence offered in behalf of the identification of the
more important of them. If it shall prove, as is believed to be the
case, that serious mistakes of identification have been made, attention
will be called to these and the manner pointed out in which certain
theories have naturally enough resulted from the premises thus
erroneously established.
It may be premised that the writer undertook the examination of the
carvings with no theories of his own to propose in place of those
hitherto advanced. In fact, their critical examination may almost be
said to have been the result of accident. Having made the birds of the
United States his study for several years, the writer glanced over the
bird carvings in the most cursory manner, being curious to see what
species were represented. The inaccurate identification of some of these
by the authors of "The Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" led
to the examination of the series as a whole, and subsequently to the
discussion they had received at the hands of various authors. The
carvings are, therefore, here considered rather from the stand-point of
the naturalist than the archaeologist. Believing that the question first
in importance concerns their actual resemblances, substantially the same
kind of critical study is applied to them which they would receive were
they from the hands of a modern zoological artist. Such a course has
obvious disadvantages, since it places the work of men who were in, at
best, but a semi-civilized condition on a much higher plane than other
facts would seem to justify. It may be urged, as the writer indeed
believes, that the accuracy sufficient for the specific identification
of these carvings is not to be expected of men in the state of culture
the Mound-Builders are generally supposed to have attained. To which
answer may be made that it is precisely on the supposition that the
carvings were accurate copies from nature that the theories respecting
them have been promulgated by archaeologists. On no other supposition
could such theories have been advanced. So accurate indeed have they
been deemed that they have been directly compared with the work of
modern artists, as will be noticed hereafter. Hence the method here
adopted in their study seems to be not only the best, but the only one
likely to produce definite results.
If it be found that there are good reasons for pronouncing the carvings
not to be accurate copies from nature, and of a lower artistic standard
than has been supposed, it will remain for the archaeologist to determine
how far their unlikeness to the animals they have been supposed to
represent can be attributed to shortcomings naturally pertaining to
barbaric art. If he choose to assume that they were really intended as
imitations, although in many particulars unlike the animals he wishes to
believe them to represent, and that they are as close copies as can be
expected from sculptors not possessed of skill adequate to carry out
their rude conceptions, he will practically have abandoned the position
taken by many prominent archaeologists with respect to the mound
sculptors' skill, and will be forced to accord them a position on the
plane of art not superior to the one occupied by the North American
Indians. If it should prove that but a small minority of the carvings
can be specifically identified, owing to inaccuracies and to their
general resemblance, he may indeed go even further and conclude that
they form a very unsafe basis for deductions that owe their very
existence to assumed accurate imitation.
MANATEE.
In 1848 Squier and Davis published their great work on the Mounds of the
Mississippi Valley. The skill and zeal with which these gentlemen
prosecuted their researches in the field, and the ability and fidelity
which mark the presentation of their results to the public are
sufficiently attested by the fact that this volume has proved alike the
mine from which subsequent writers have drawn their most important
facts, and the chief inspiration for the vast amount of work in the same
direction since undertaken.
On pages 251 and 252 of the above-mentioned work appear figures of an
animal which is there called "Lamantin, Manitus, or Sea Cow,"
concerning which animal it is stated that "seven sculptured
representations have been taken from the mounds." When first discovered,
the authors continue, "it was supposed they were monstrous creations of
fancy; but subsequent investigations and comparison have shown that they
are faithful representations of one of the most singular animal
productions of the world."
These authors appear to have been the first to note the supposed
likeness of certain of the sculptured forms found in the mounds to
animals living in remote regions. That they were not slow to perceive
the ethnological interest and value of the discovery is shown by the
fact that it was immediately adduced by them as affording a clew to the
possible origin of the Mound-Builders. The importance they attached to
the discovery and their interpretation of its significance will be
apparent from the following quotation (p. 242):
Some of these sculptures have a value, so far as ethnological
research is concerned, much higher than they can claim as mere
works of art. This value is derived from the fact that they
faithfully represent animals and birds peculiar to other latitudes,
thus establishing a migration, a very extensive intercommunication
or a contemporaneous existence of the same race over a vast extent
of country.
The idea thus suggested fell on fruitful ground, and each succeeding
writer who has attempted to show that the Mound-Builders were of a race
different from the North American Indian, or had other than an
autochthonous origin, has not failed to lay especial stress upon the
presence in the mounds of sculptures of the manatee, as well as of other
strange beasts and birds, carved evidently by the same hands that
portrayed many of our native fauna.
Except that the theories based upon the sculptures have by recent
writers been annunciated more positively and given a wider range, they
have been left almost precisely as set forth by the authors of the
"Ancient Monuments," while absolutely nothing appears to have been
brought to light since their time in the way of additional sculptured
evidence of the same character. It is indeed a little curious to note
the perfect unanimity with which most writers fall back upon the above
authors as at once the source of the data they adduce in support of the
several theories, and as their final, nay, their only, authority. Now
and then one will be found to dissent from some particular bit of
evidence as announced by Squier and Davis, or to give a somewhat
different turn to the conclusions derivable from the testimony offered
by them. But in the main the theories first announced by the authors of
"Ancient Monuments," as the result of their study of the mound
sculptures, are those that pass current to-day. Particular attention may
be called to the deep and lasting impression made by the statements of
these authors as to the great beauty and high standard of excellence
exhibited by the mound sculptures. Since their time writers appear to be
well satisfied to express their own admiration in the terms made use of
by Squier and Davis. One might, indeed, almost suppose that recent
writers have not dared to trust to the evidence afforded by the original
carvings or their fac-similes, but have preferred to take the word of
the authors of the "Ancient Monuments" for beauties which were perhaps
hidden from their own eyes.
Following the lead of the authors of the "Ancient Monuments," also, with
respect to theories of origin, these carvings of supposed foreign
animals are offered as affording incontestible evidence that the
Mound-Builders must have migrated from or have had intercourse, direct
or indirect, with the regions known to harbor these animals. Were it
not, indeed, for the evident artistic similarity between these carvings
of supposed foreign animals and those of common domestic forms--a
similarity which, as Squier and Davis remark, render them
"indistinguishable, so far as material and workmanship are concerned,
from an entire class of remains found in the mounds"--the presence of
most of them could readily be accounted for through the agency of trade,
the far reaching nature of which, even among the wilder tribes, is well
understood. Trade, for instance, in the case of an animal like the
manatee, found no more than a thousand miles distant from the point
where the sculpture was dug up, would offer a possible if not a probable
solution of the matter. But independently of the fact that the
practically identical character of all the carvings render the theory of
trade quite untenable, the very pertinent question arises, why, if these
supposed manatee pipes were derived by trade from other regions, have
not similar carvings been found in those regions, as, for instance, in
Florida and the Gulf States, a region of which the archaeology is fairly
well known. Primitive man, as is the case with his civilized brother,
trades usually out of his abundance; so that not seven, but many times
seven, manatee pipes should be found at the center of trade. As it is,
the known home of the manatee has furnished no carvings either of the
manatee or of anything suggestive of it.
The possibility of the manatee having in past times possessed a wider
range than at present seems to have been overlooked. But as a matter of
fact the probability that the manatee ever ranged, in comparatively
modern times at least, as far north as Ohio without leaving other traces
of its presence than a few sculptured representations at the hands of an
ancient people is too small to be entertained.
Nor is the supposition that the Mound-Builders held contemporaneous
possession of the country embraced in the range of the animals whose
effigies are supposed to have been exhumed from their graves worthy of
serious discussion. If true, it would involve the contemporaneous
occupancy by the Mound-Builders, not only of the Southern United States
but of the region stretching into Southern Mexico, and even, according
to the ideas of some authors, into Central and South America, an area
which, it is needless to say, no known facts will for a moment justify
us in supposing a people of one blood to have occupied
contemporaneously.
Assuming, therefore, that the sculptures in question are the work of
the Mound-Builders and are not derived from distant parts through the
agency of trade, of which there would appear to be little doubt, and,
assuming that the sculptures represent the animals they have been
supposed to represent--of which something remains to be said--the theory
that the acquaintance of the Mound-Builders with these animals was made
in a region far distant from the one to which they subsequently migrated
would seem to be not unworthy of attention. It is necessary, however,
before advancing theories to account for facts to first consider the
facts themselves, and in this case to seek an answer to the question how
far the identification of these carvings of supposed foreign animals is
to be trusted. Before noticing in detail the carvings supposed by Squier
and Davis to represent the manatee, it will be well to glance at the
carvings of another animal figured by the same authors which, it is
believed, has a close connection with them.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Otter. From Ancient Monuments.]
Figure 4 is identified by the authors of the "Ancient Monuments" (Fig.
156) as an otter, and few naturalists will hesitate in pronouncing it to
be a very good likeness of that animal; the short broad ears, broad head
and expanded snout, with the short, strong legs, would seem to belong
unmistakably to the otter. Added to all these is the indication of its
fish-catching habits. Having thus correctly identified this animal, and
with it before them, it certainly reflects little credit upon the
zoological knowledge of the authors and their powers of discrimination
to refer the next figure (Ancient Monuments, Fig. 157) to the same
animal.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Otter of Squier and Davis.]
Of a totally different shape and physiognomy, if intended as an otter it
certainly implies an amazing want of skill in its author. However it is
assuredly not an otter, but is doubtless an unfinished or rudely
executed ground squirrel, of which animal it conveys in a general way a
good idea, the characteristic attitude of this little rodent, sitting
up with paws extended in front, being well displayed. Carvings of small
rodents in similar attitudes are exhibited in Stevens's "Flint Chips,"
p. 428, Figs. 61 and 62. Stevens's Fig. 61 evidently represents the same
animal as Fig. 157 of Squier and Davis, but is a better executed
carving.
In illustration of the somewhat vague idea entertained by archaeologists
as to what the manatee is like, it is of interest to note that the
carving of a second otter with a fish in its mouth has been made to do
duty as a manatee, although the latter animal is well known never to eat
fish, but, on the contrary, to be strictly herbivorous. Thus Stevens
gives figures of two carvings in his "Flint Chips," p. 429, Figs. 65 and
66, calling them manatees, and says: "In one particular, however, the
sculptors of the mound-period committed an error. Although the lamantin
is strictly herbivorous, feeding chiefly upon subaqueous plants and
littoral herbs, yet upon one of the stone smoking-pipes, Fig. 66, this
animal is represented with a fish in its mouth." Mr. Stevens apparently
preferred to credit the mound sculptor with gross ignorance of the
habits of the manatee, rather than to abate one jot or tittle of the
claim possessed by the carving to be considered a representation of that
animal. Stevens's fish-catching manatee is the same carving given by Dr.
Rau, in the Archaeological Collection of the United States National
Museum, p. 47, Fig. 180, where it is correctly stated to be an otter.
This cut, which can scarcely be distinguished from one given by Stevens
(Fig. 66), is here reproduced (Fig. 6), together with the second
supposed manatee of the latter writer (Fig. 7).
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Otter of Rau; Manatee of Stevens.]
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Manatee of Stevens.]
To afford a means of comparison, Fig. 154, from the "Ancient Monuments"
of Squier and Davis, is introduced (Fig. 8). The same figure is also to
be found in Wilson's Prehistoric Man, vol. i, p. 476, Fig. 22. Another
of the supposed lamantins, Fig. 9, is taken from Squier's article in the
Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. ii, p. 188. A
bad print of the same wood-cut appears as Fig. 153, p. 251, of the
"Ancient Monuments."
It should be noted that the physiognomy of Fig. 6, above given, although
unquestionably of an otter, agrees more closely with the several
so-called manatees, which are represented without fishes, than with the
fish-bearing otter, first mentioned, Fig. 4.
Fig. 6 thus serves as a connecting link in the series, uniting the
unmistakable otter, with the fish in its mouth, to the more clumsily
executed and less readily recognized carvings of the same animal.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Lamantin or sea-cow of Squier and Davis.]
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Lamantin or sea-cow of Squier.]
It was doubtless the general resemblance which the several specimens of
the otters and the so-called manatees bear to each other that led
Stevens astray. They are by no means facsimiles one of the other. On the
contrary, while no two are just alike, the differences are perhaps not
greater than is to be expected when it is considered that they doubtless
embody the conceptions of different artists, whose knowledge of the
animal, as well as whose skill in carving, would naturally differ
widely. Recognizing the general likeness, Stevens perhaps felt that what
one was all were. In this, at least, he is probably correct, and the
following reasons are deemed sufficient to show that, whether the
several sculptures figured by one and another author are otters or not,
as here maintained, they most assuredly are not manatees. The most
important character possessed by the sculptures, which is not found in
the manatee, is an external ear. In this particular they all agree. Now,
the manatee has not the slightest trace of a pinna or external ear, a
small orifice, like a slit, representing that organ. To quote the
precise language of Murie in the Proceedings of the London Zoological
Society, vol. 8, p. 188: "In the absence of pinna, a small orifice, a
line in diameter, into which a probe could be passed, alone represents
the external meatus." In the dried museum specimen this slit is wholly
invisible, and even in the live or freshly killed animal it is by no
means readily apparent. Keen observer of natural objects, as savage and
barbaric man certainly is, it is going too far to suppose him capable of
representing an earless animal--earless at least so far as the purposes
of sculpture are concerned--with prominent ears. If, then, it can be
assumed that these sculptures are to be relied upon as in the slightest
degree imitative, it must be admitted that the presence of ears would
alone suffice to show that they cannot have been intended to represent
the manatee. But the feet shown in each and all of them present equally
unquestionable evidence of their dissimilarity from the manatee. This
animal has instead of a short, stout fore leg, terminating in flexible
fingers or paws, as indicated in the several sculptures, a shapeless
paddle-like flipper. The nails with which the flipper terminates are
very small, and if shown at all in carving, which is wholly unlikely, as
being too insignificant, they would be barely indicated and would
present a very different appearance from the distinctly marked digits
common to the several sculptures.
Noticing that one of the carvings has a differently shaped tail from the
others, the authors of the "Ancient Monuments" attempt to reconcile the
discrepancy as follows: "Only one of the sculptures exhibits a flat
truncated tail; the others are round. There is however a variety of the
lamantin (_Manitus Senigalensis_, Desm.) which has a round tail, and is
distinguished as the "round-tailed manitus." (Ancient Monuments, p.
252.) The suggestion thus thrown out means, if it means anything, that
the sculpture exhibiting a flat tail is the only one referable to the
manatee of Florida and southward, the _M. Americanus_, while those with
round tails are to be identified with the so-called "Round-tailed
Lamantin," the _M. Senegalensis_, which lives in the rivers of
Senegambia and along the coast of Western Africa. It is to be regretted
that the above authors did not go further and explain the manner in
which they suppose the Mound-Builders became acquainted with an animal
inhabiting the West African coast. Elastic as has proved to be the
thread upon which hangs the migration theory, it would seem to be hardly
capable of bearing the strain required for it to reach from the
Mississippi Valley to Africa.