Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-07-09
THE LENAPE STONE.

a Rock Representing . Fight Between
dians.
1.-THE Lenape stone is fat stone
about four inches long and an inch and
half wide, with q rude picture
scratched on the surface representing
Indians fighting hairy mammoth. LIZ
is broken into two parts. and the story
goes that the fragments were found, at
an interval of nine years, by boy
working in a field in Bucks County,
PENNSYLVANIA, four miles and half
east of Doylestown. The piece first
discovered was plowed up; the second
came to light when the same youth
was husking corn in the same field.
The carving is rudely done, and with a
few strokes. In front of the mammoth
as it strides forward are drawn two
fighting Indians with bows and arrows.
Wigwams and pine trees appear in the
distance, while in the sky the sun.
moon, stars, and constellation
are all on duty. One Indian has been
trampled under foot by the monster.
and another, who Is recumbent, seems
not yet to have taken alarm. The
picture could be COPIED in two or three
minutes by rapid pen-strokes. The
stone is slate, and the reverse side con-
tains turtles. hawks, and other objects.
Experts who have examined the
carving pronounce it fraud, but Mr..
Fl. G. Mercer, who knows the finder
and the man who purchased the stone,
thinks otherwise, and has written
book on the subject. The Delaware
tribe lived in that region OF Pennsyl-
vania for centuries, and curious stones
marked by them have been unearthed
in Bucks County.
1.-THE Lenape stone" was submitted
to DR.. D. G. Brinton, the well-known
archaologist and ethnologist of Phila-
delphia. He inspected it carefully, and
says it is modern, basing his opinion on
both its design and execution. The
aborigines of the United States did not
shade or group their pictures. They
did not represent lightning shooting in
various directions from a central point,
nor treat the sun as a face.
The lines on the Lenape stone are
obviously cut with a metal instrument,
making clear missions. deepest in the
center and taperng to po;nts-quite
different from the scratch of a flint
point. Shrewder fabr.cators than the
unknown author of this one make use
of flint points. Some of the western
tablets have been SO inscribed. They.
may thus conceal their tools, but there
are other resources for the arch9olo-
9 SITS. The surface of all stones under
goes a certain chemical change on
exposure to the air, which is
called by the French term pa
tine. In many varieties, as fints,
Jasper, and hard shales, this affords
decisive means of discriminating
modern from an ancient inscription or
arrowhead. 1t requires the use of the
microscope and some practice, but
be detected. This does not exhaust the
tiQuary to circumvent those who would
practice on his love for relics of the
past" Mr.. H. Carvill Lewis, profess
ser of mneralogy, Academy of Natural
Sciences, Philadelphia, says the tablet
is genuine, but the drawing is forged
from the p cture of mammoth on
piece of ivory found in the cave of La
Madeleine, Per CORD. France. DIR. F.
w. Putnam, curator of the Peabody
Museum of Archaeology. Cambridge,
Mass, is somewhat in doubt, but rath-
er suspects the hands of white man
in the drawing. DR.. M. E. Wads-
worth. of Cambridge. Mass. believes
the drawing was made with some steel
tool like dull anvil. Mr.. j. P. Id
dings. of the United States coast sur
vey, notes that the lines of the draw
inp annear To have been ARRANGED with
reference to the feature of the stone.
The author of this book, however. de-
clares his faith in it's genuineness. The
indications are that gorget slate stones
been found on the Hansell farm, but
that this representation of the mann
moth is a forgery.-Cincimnati Com
7nerclal Gazette.