Elephant pipes and inscribed tablets in the Museum of the Academy of natural sciences, Daveport, Iowa / by Charles E. Putnam.

  • Charles Edwin Putnam
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elephant pipes and inscribed tablets in the Museum of the Academy of natural sciences, Daveport, Iowa / by Charles E. Putnam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/100 (page 34)
    “Each of the papers appended to this report has its proper place in the general scheme, the scope of which they, together with the other publications before noted, seem to indicate, and each was prepared with a special purpose.” In the light of this announcement, it will be instructive to carefully read, in connection with the monograph of Mr. Henshaw, that of Mr. Holmes, to which reference has already been made. In describing their respective discoveries, they were compelled to traverse the same ground. The shells under consideration by Mr. Holmes were also relics of the Mound-builders. Among these remarkable relics recov- ered from ancient mounds were engraved gorgets. These shells were ))robably worn about the neck or on the breast. In another depart- ment they were the complements of our “inscribed tablets,” and were discovered in similar tumuli in other parts of the country. On them are represented the cross, birds, spiders, serpents, and the human face and form. By a series of comparisons with Mexican and Peruvian art, Mr. Holmes traces the origin of these interesting relics to the Aztecs of ancient Mexico. The concluding thoughts of Mr. Holmes are as follows: “As an ornament, this Missouri gorget is a member of a great family that is prob- ably northern; but the design engraved upon it affiliates with the art of Mexico^ and so close and striking are the resemblances that accident cannot account for them,’ and we are forced to the conclusion that it must be the offspring of the same beliefs and customs and the same culture as the art of Mexico^ These conclusions of Mr. Holmes appear in singular contrast with the labored effort of Mr. Henshaw to disprove the Mexican origin of the animal carvings found in the mounds; and, with all due deference to Major Powell, the perplexed reader will find it difficult to discover a “proper place” for these two important papers in any “general scheme.” A popular scientific magazine thus refers to these conflicting deduc- tions : t “It seems almost aggravating that in the same volume wherein Mr. Henshaw [denies]f and effectually disproves the Mexican origin of many animal forms in the mound-pipes, new forms should be described, concerning which the author says that they ‘ must be the offspring of the same beliefs and customs and the same culture as the arts of Mexico.’ ” § * Second Annual Report Bureau of Ethnolog-y, 1S80-81, p. 305. jAmerican IVafuralist, September, 18S4. ^ Misprint.* * * § § Major Powell himself was evidently impressed with this remarkable parallel, drawn by Mr. Holmes, between the relics from the mounds and the art of Mexico; and, in presenting this masterly monograjjh to the public, as if feeling the necessity of tempering it to some show of consistency with his own theories, the Director thoughtfully adds the following reservation: