Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-05-10
TREASURES OF A MOUND.

The scientists connected with the Burean
of Ethnology, at Washington are delighted
over the following letter from an explorer
in North Carolina, dated April 18th.
"The excavations for the week are rich
in treasure. One mound has been opened
containing fifty-fve Indians, with four or
five sea shells with hierOglyphics, two of
them about five inches in diameter, with
the markings plainly marked; two copper
beads, five inches long and three-quarters
of an inch wide; three pots, in pretty good
condition; three food cups, a saucer made OF
earth, a considerable quantity of beads, one
tomahawk (the first found in all our work. !,
from a peck to half bushel of axes, rub
bing stones, etc., some Of them very small,
one not exceeding one and one-half inches
in length, some in an unfinished condition {;
dozen pipes, one very fine; mica, galena,
etc. In this mound was a rock bed, on
which was 4 bed Of charcoal, and in the
charcoal three skeletons, though the bones
were not cremated."
The latter mention, of course, pointed
conclusively to the fact that the skeletons,
for some reason, had been put in the ashes
after the fire was extinct. This causes spec
ulation as to why they were put there, but
no inference is positively drawn. The find
ing of the tomahawk is, however, cOnsid-
cred very important, as it is the very. first
ever found in any of the mounds anywhere.
The sea shells, inscribed with hieroglyph-
les, are considered very valuable indeed.
They will be forwarded to the National
Museum at Washington, and Mr.. Holmes,
an artist connected with the Bureau of
Ethnology, who gives all his time to the
study of inscriptions and any work of art
found on sea shells, will endeavor to de-
cipher the inscription. 1t is astonishing
how many shells with inscriptions are found
among the Indian mounds or other Indian
remains. Quite enough of these are found
to keep the specialist busy. The photographs
found on barks, rocks, skins, ETC., are given
Colonel Mallery, also of the bureau of
Ethnology, to be studied and classified. In
the forthcoming report of the Bureau a
paper by Mr.. Holmes on the inscriptions
teresting chapters in the volume, say those
of the Bureau who have seen what he has
thus far prepared. A skeleton has been
found in mound opposite st. Lous which
is encrusted from the top of the head to the
middle Of the body with sea shells, none of
them over an inch long.
The scientists-as it is the generally re-
ceived belief that the Indians had no iron
implements until after their association
with the whites-look with wonder upon
the stone pipes found in very old mounds,
which were evidently made before white
people went to the part of the country where
these relics were found. One of these pipes,
now in the National Museum, is made of a
solid piece of a hard green gneiss, or gneis-
sold rock, very highly polished, both stem
and bowl being out of a single piece of stone.
The stem runs through the center of a flat
piece of rock, having wings on each side
and hole at the end of the mouth, clean cut
and only about the size of pea. The bowl,
which is at an oblique angle from the flat
stem, is about three inches long and one in
diameter. The marvel is how the hole
through the stem of the bowl was so evenly
drilled without an iron instrument, and one
of the students of the bureau has suggested
that it was done by sand at end Of bam-
boo stick, which would, however, require a
long period of patient toll to make so long
an aperture through solid and very hard
rock.
In East Tennessee, in mound, a piece OF
bar iron, now in the museum, was found.
1t is about six inches long. 1t was found
beside skeleton.