. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. BIUD FIGURE. Fij;-. 151. THIN COl'PER PLATE RE- POUSSK. Mound, Union County, Illinois. Thomas, Twelfth Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethnol., 1890-91, p. .309, fig. 192. Cat. No. 91507, i-j, natural sizi-. a limnan skull with a unique head covering made principally of copper. It consisted of a large sheet 16 or 18 inches long, intended to be bent over the head, from the edges of which, about the center on either side, sprang a pair of imitation
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. BIUD FIGURE. Fij;-. 151. THIN COl'PER PLATE RE- POUSSK. Mound, Union County, Illinois. Thomas, Twelfth Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethnol., 1890-91, p. .309, fig. 192. Cat. No. 91507, i-j, natural sizi-. a limnan skull with a unique head covering made principally of copper. It consisted of a large sheet 16 or 18 inches long, intended to be bent over the head, from the edges of which, about the center on either side, sprang a pair of imitation elk horns, as shown in the plate. They were not real elk horns, but had been carved out of wood to represent elk horns. The wood of the horns was entirely covered with thin sheet copper neatly and artistically placed so as to have tbe appearance of solid copper, and it was not until after a considerable examination that their real character was detected. The antlers were 213 inches high and 19 inches across the upper points. Plate 63 represents another object of a similar tyjie from the same mound; it also is a copper head dress with two short rounded horns springing from the top as shown. They were also covered, but the copper had been broken from the top of the two horns, leaving the naked wood i^rojecting. These latter figures are unique, and their right to a presentation in a pai^er on art lies in the excel- lence of the mechanical execution, and the difficulty of performing it. No one who has insjiected these objects, and who considers all to have been aboriginal savage work, but would admit them to a place in a paper on prehistoric art. Found in the same mound, and associated with the foregoing ob- jects, was a piece of human bone (femur) which bore an engraved design, which is here rejDroduced (fig. 154) from the pamphlet of Prof. F. W. Putnam and Mr. 0. C. "W illoughby.^ On this they based an elaborate system of symbolism, involving an explanation of the "Cinc
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