Aboriginal man used shell and bone for a variety of purposes. He frequently made of these substances the same forms that he did in flint or stone, and if one were classifying under use, one would include, under arrow-points, not only those of flint, but of bone and shell as well. The same is true of the beads and of flat ornaments, which may be of shell, or bone, quite as often as of stone. But since we have begun to classify these objects according to material, it is necessary to place under the above head many artifacts that would naturally fall into another subdivision, were we to ignore materials.

Generally throughout North America shells were made use of for ornamentation. Shell beads are as widely distributed as chipped implements and more generally found throughout the United States than pottery. In fact, in most cemeteries, mounds, and cliff-houses where human burials occur, are strings of beads of various kinds and sizes. I might enumerate all the shells found in both fresh water and salt, and made use of by the natives in America, but this is hardly required. However, were I writing more extendedly upon shell objects, it would be necessary to give all the names. These are purposely omitted.

The classification of shell objects is as follows:—

1.

For domestic service.

2.

For ornamentation.

Under No. 1 there are the following subdivisions:—

a.

Shells used as hoes. (Fig. 520.)

b.

As club-heads. (None shown.)

c.

As cups and bowls. (Fig. 522.)

Under No. 2:

a.

As small beads, round or cylindrical. (Figs. 521, 521 A.)

b.

Ear and nose ornaments, circular or oval. (Fig. 523.)

c.

Hairpins. (Fig. 525.)

d.

Bracelets and finger-rings. (None shown.)

e.

Engraved shell gorgets. (Figs. 530 to 535.)

f.

Pendants and unknown forms. (Figs. 524, 529.)

g.

Effigies. (Fig. 537.)

The larger shells of the Atlantic Coast between the mouth of the Potomac and the Mississippi were employed by the Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana Indians as digging-tools, heads to clubs, etc.

Mr. Clarence B. Moore, during the course of his extensive explorations in Florida and Alabama, found great quantities of large shells which had been used as domestic tools. It is well known that the shell mounds of Florida equal in size many mounds of earth or stone, farther north.

In the North, the fresh-water unio shells were made general use of as hoes, such as is shown in Fig. 520, which was found at Fort Ancient, Ohio, on the village-site along the banks of the Miami River. It was much easier to perforate these shells and use them as hoes than to work out flint or wooden hoes. Persons who explore ancient sites find them in the ash-pits. The edges are always battered, or worn smooth, proving that they were of importance as agricultural implements.

Short, heavy shells were perforated and fastened to clubs for weapons and digging-tools. Moore describes and illustrates many of these.^[19]

Bits of shell may have been set in handles, for use as “swords,” after the manner of South Sea natives.

However, while shells were useful for other purposes, yet it was for ornamentation that most of them were used.

Fig. 521, from the collection of Mr. B. Beasley, Montgomery, Alabama, is an illustration of small disc beads in the centre, larger beads about the margin and the string of rude and irregular shell beads enclosing the rectangular exhibit referred to. This is about one fourth size. Shell beads range in size from minute ones as small as those on the black background in the centre of the picture, to others three inches in diameter. Mr. Clarence B. Moore found shell beads as large as walnuts in his Florida and Alabama explorations.

Fig. 521 A shows a number of various shell beads, together with a few stone beads from mounds and graves at the mouth of Little River, Kentucky.

Large numbers of pearl beads, have been found in the altar mounds of the Scioto Valley, Ohio, and in the South. De Soto’s narrative states that the Indians, in 1540–42, possessed many bushels of these pearls. Some were of beautiful form and high lustre. All of these would have been very valuable, but for the fact that the natives drilled a hole through each one, thus, from our point of view, ruining them.

It has been estimated that the pearl beads found in the altars of the Hopewell Group, when new and undrilled, were worth upwards of a million dollars.

Practically all shell ornaments were made from the larger unio shells and also from the busycon and pyrula shells of Florida and the Carolinas. Fig. 522 presents one of these shells as yet uncut which was found in a mound at the Hopewell Group and another which has been cut down into the form of a large dipper or drinking-vessel.

The ornamentation on large shell gorgets is complicated and characteristic. I am not sufficiently familiar with California shell gorgets to state whether they are ever engraved. Fig. 529, from Professor Barr’s collection, presents as highly developed gorgets as I have seen from the Pacific Coast. It is in the mounds and stone graves of the Cumberland and Tennessee valleys that the art in engraving or decorating gorgets seems to have reached its height. In Figs. 530, 531, 532, 533. 534, and 535 are presented beautiful specimens from the collections of Mr. John T. Reeder, Colonel Young, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Professor William H. Holmes of the Smithsonian Institution has studied shell objects more than any one else in this country. I quote from his description of Fig. 534:^[20]

“Among the many interesting relics obtained from mounds and burial-places in the Mississippi Valley are the engraved shell gorgets, a number of which are now preserved in our museums. The most recent addition to this class of objects was obtained by the National Museum from Mr. C. A. Nelson of Eddyville, Lyon County, Kentucky, and comes from a burial-place encountered in opening a stone-quarry near Eddyville. It is a symmetric saucer-shaped gorget, Fig. 534, five inches in diameter and made apparently from the expanded lip of a conch shell (Busycon perversum). It is unusually well preserved, both faces retaining something of the original high polish of the ornament. Two perforations placed near the margin served as a means of suspension. The back or convex side is quite plain, while the face is occupied by the engraving of a human figure which extends entirely across the disc. It will be seen by reference to the illustration that this figure is practically identical in many respects with others already published.^[21] It is executed in firmly incised lines and is partially inclosed by a border of nine concentric lines. The position of the figure is that of a discus-thrower. The right hand holds a discoidal object, the arm being thrown back as if in the act of casting the disc. The left hand extends outward to the margin of the shell and firmly grasps a wand-like object having plumes attached at the upper end, the lower end being peculiarly marked, and bent inward across the border lines. The face is turned to the left; the right knee is bent and rests on the ground, while the left foot is set forward as it would be in the act of casting the disc. The features are boldly outlined; the eye is diamond-shaped, as is usual in the delineations of this character in the mound region. A crest or crown representing the hair surmounts the head; the lower lobe of the ear contains a disc from which falls a long pendant ornament, and three lines representing paint or tattoo marks extend across the cheek from the ear to the mouth. A bead necklace hangs down over the chest and the legs and arms have encircling ornaments. The lower part of the body is covered with an apron-like garment attached to the waistband, and over this hangs what appears to be a pouch with pendant ornaments. The moccasins are of the usual Indian type and are well delineated. A study of this figure strongly suggests the idea that it must represent a disc-thrower engaged, possibly, in playing the well-known game of chunky.”

Regarding Fig. 535 of Colonel Young’s collection, Professor Holmes writes me, under date of March 28, 1910, as follows:—

“The shell gorget from Lincoln County, Kentucky, is exceptionally large, being six inches in diameter. The design is engraved on the concave surface and represents a double-headed eagle treated in a very conventional manner. The heads are well drawn, but the bodies are simplified so that two legs only with characteristic talons are shown. The tail is single. The work corresponds in style to similar delineations on clay and other materials throughout a large part of the Gulf States, as shown fully in the works of Mr. Clarence B. Moore. It is not possible to say whether or not the duplication of the heads had any significance, or whether it is the result simply of the common practice in primitive art of employing modified natural forms to accommodate the spaces to be embellished. That the eagle, however, had some special significance with the peoples concerned, may be taken for granted.”

Fig. 533 presents six beautiful engraved gorgets from Colonel Young’s collection, who has in his exhibit as many engraved shells as any other collector in this country. For many years he has interested himself in the archæology of Kentucky and has preserved thousands of specimens. No. 3 in this plate is shown in a larger form in Fig. 535. No. 4 is one of the rare gorgets with the design of the cross worked out by cutting entirely through the shell. No. 6 is practically the same as the right-hand specimen in Fig. 530, only that it is worked in higher relief. The exact meaning of these carvings is unknown at the present time.

The natives living in the great pueblos of the Salado Valley, southern Arizona, and in fact throughout that entire region, made use of a great many shells found along the shores of the Gulf of California. Not only did they make ordinary beads, after the manner of the Northern Indians, but they also made finger-rings and bracelets. These have been so frequently illustrated, I have purposely left them out. They worked all manner of effigies out of shell, as is shown in Figs. 536–37, from the collection at Andover. These specimens were obtained by me while exploring in 1897 and 1898 for Mr. R. S. Peabody, founder of the Department at Andover.

There are also shell frogs inlaid with turquoise—real mosaic work. Dr. Fewkes has illustrated some effigies of this nature, in his reports, and Dr. Pepper found numbers of them at the great Chaco Group of ruins, northern New Mexico. When the first shell frogs were discovered by the late Frank Hamilton Cushing, some of the archæologists went so far as to say that Cushing had made these, but now so many of them have been found that Cushing’s original contentions are verified.

It is surprising, the skill of prehistoric man in carving. When Squier and Davis made their exploration of the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, they found many highly carved and ornamented pipes. Years afterwards, observers who were unjustly skeptical endeavored to prove that these were made with rat-tail files or were the work of white traders. Since the time of Squier and Davis, even more remarkable carvings, work in copper, intricate designs on shell, and various tablets have been unearthed, in numbers, and by men against whom no charge could be made.

It will be seen by an inspection of the few shell objects that I have illustrated that, notwithstanding the lack of iron tools, aboriginal man in America was no mean artist.