. Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington . w of confirmation. So far as I am aware, however, no onehas ventured a positive opinion in regard to their significance, butsuch suggestions as have been made incline toward the view indi-cated. I feel the great necessity of caution in such matters, and,while combatting the idea that the designs are ornamental or fanci-ful only, I am far from attributing to them any deeply mysterioussignificance. They may in some way or other indicate political orreligious station, or they may even be cosmogenic, but the proba-bilities are much grea
. Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington . w of confirmation. So far as I am aware, however, no onehas ventured a positive opinion in regard to their significance, butsuch suggestions as have been made incline toward the view indi-cated. I feel the great necessity of caution in such matters, and,while combatting the idea that the designs are ornamental or fanci-ful only, I am far from attributing to them any deeply mysterioussignificance. They may in some way or other indicate political orreligious station, or they may even be cosmogenic, but the proba-bilities are much greater that they are time symbols. Before ventur-ing further, however, it will be well to describe one of these have examined upwards of thirty of these, the majority of which ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 97 are made of shell; a typical example is presented in Fig. i. Thisspecimen was obtained from a mound near Nashville, Tenn., byProf. Powell. It was found near the head of a skeleton, which wasmuch decayed, and had been so disturbed by recent movements of. Fig. I. Shell disk from a mound at Nashville, Tennessee. the soil as to render it difficult to determine its original shell used is apparently a large specimen of the Busy con per-versum, although the lines of growth are not sufficiently well pre-served to make a positive determination of the species. The sub-stance of the shell is well preserved; the surface was once highlypolished, but is now pitted and discolored by age. The design isengraved on the concave surface as usual, and the lines are accu-rately drawn and clearly cut. The various concentric circles aredrawn with almost geometric accuracy around a minute shallow pitas a center. These circles divide the surface into five parts—asmall circle at the center being surrounded by four zones of unequalwidth. The central circle is three-eighths of an inch in diameter,and is surrounded by a zone one-half an inch in width, which con-tains a rosette of three i
Size: 1625px × 1538px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectanthrop, bookyear1882
