Table of Contents

Index

Volume List

Search All Volumes

Home

Page 211

The prehistoric cultures of Oklahoma may be divided into three classes as to time, namely; (1) Ancient, dating back two thousand or more years; (2) Mediaeval, probably dating back from seven to fifteen centuries; and (3)Recent, dating back from the beginning of the historical period to three or four centuries.

As yet, comparatively little has been accomplished in the determination of the scope and extent of the Ancient Period. Traces of very ancient human occupancy and activities have been found in numerous parts of the state, though, as a rule, such discoveries have been so rarely made and so remotely conected, if at all, as to afford small basis of correlation, and it is not possible to draw much if any in the way of definite conclusions as to age or cultural identities. Among the most ancient of these might be mentioned the discovery of certain mortars, or metates, from the lower levels of the extensive gravel pit at Frederick, Tillman County, together with specimens of chipped chert. This gravel pit is pronounced by geologists to be an extinct river bed, which, resisting the process of erosion, now appears in the form of a ridge, and which extends northward from the site of Federick for many miles toward the Wichita range of mountains, which seems to have been partially included within the drainage area of this ancient river. While no skeletal remains have been definitely identified as those of human beings, the presence of the artifacts already mentioned seems to point to the possibility of the presence of man in southwestern Oklahoma, in Pleistocene times.

Numerous other instances of the discovery of artifacts so deeply embedded in the earth as to attest great antiquity, might be cited. A few of these must suffice, however. In the eastern part of Washita County, near the village of Colony, a sand pit was opened on the brow of a prairie hill. From this deposit of sand, several granite mortars, or metates were taken, the granite evidently having been transported at least sixty miles from the nearest spurs

Page 212

of the Wichita Mountains. In Greer County, a metate was excavated from a point five feet beneath the surface of the prairie loam in digging a basement. Near Oklahoma City, a stone arrow point was found beneath five feet of sand which, in turn, was overlaid by three feet of red clay loam. In the northwestern part of Logan County, a very large earthenware jar, or urn, was excavated from beneath several feet of sandy loam soil. This receptacle contained a number of bones, supposedly human. Unfortunately this last find was not called to the attention of any one especially interested in such matters until after all specimens had been lost or carried away.

Of the cultures of the Ancient Period which have been partially differentiated and separated, though not yet fully described, or definitely identified as to classification, there are at least two, namely; (a) a Cave-Dwelling stock of the western portion of the Ozark Uplift which occupied the caves and rock shelters of the Boone chert formation and, (b) the Basket-maker stock whch occupied small caves in the Wingate sandstone, in the canyons of the Cimarron River region, in the western part of Cimarron County. Some work has been done in the first mentioned of these two cultures and the caves and rock shelters of northeastern Oklahoma and of Arkansas and southwestern Missouri. The writer has personally directed some work in Oklahoma and Arkansas. The archaeological material of this culture was secured by excavating the accumulation of ancient kitchen refuse from the floors of the caves. This kitchen refuse, consisting of wood ashes, charcoal, mussel and clam shells and broken bones, was carefully sifted and searched for artifacts and other vestigia. On the first expedition into that field, numerous specimens of bones, teeth and bivalve shells were gathered for examination and identification by competent biologists. These specimens attested the fact that the bill of fare of these ancient Cave people was greatly varied. With twenty species of mammals, including those from the size of a squirrel to those of the bison, or buffalo and the elk, with the bones of several species of game birds and several species of fishes were identified, and, with these, no less than twenty-six species of bivalve mollusks. In addition to these, the pres-

Page 213

ence of stationary mortars, in situ, for the grinding of grain and the finding of charred specimens of maize or Indian corn in the ear, corn cobs, beans, and the seeds of pumpkins, melons, and gourds, gave further evidence of their habits and customs.

The artifacts of this Ozark cave-dwelling stock, included the sherds of well burned pottery (in some instances sufficiently numerous to make possible the restoration of an entire utensil), implements and ornaments of shell, bone and stone. Shells seem to have frequently been used for scrapers. The bone implements included needles, awls, and shuttles. The stone implements included arrow, javelin, and spear points, knife blades, scrapers and ceremonial blades. Pipes, so far as found, were of burned clay though of varying patterns. The most interesting pipe discovered was an almost exact imitation of a modern calabash pipe in size, shape and color. Some of the bone needles were beautifully wrought and highly polished. Many of the flint blades were also beautifully wrought. These included large numbers of bird points (blow-gun points), some of which are very minute, though perfect in outline and finish. Many others are finished with a very accurately flaked saggitate edge on either side.

The work of Mr. Vernon C. Allison, being a determination of the age of a stalagmite which had protruded upward from the floor through the deposit of prehistoric kitchen refuse, in Jacob’s cavern, near Pineville, Missouri, was rather enlightening in this connection, because of the evidence which it seemed to present as to the chronology of such human occupancy in that underground retreat. This stalagmite, which was still in process of formation at the time of its removal, was found in an open-mouthed cave, or rock shelter and, because of the dust accumulation during the windy season, in March and April, it showed a discolored deposit in a series of annual rings, not unlike those of a tree, when a cross section was made. It is hoped that further work may be done in this line, as opportunity is afforded, in the future.

Page 214

Probably the most ancient culture subject to identification in Oklahoma—older than that of the Ozark Cave-Dwellers and more ancient than that of the Cliff-Dwellers of the Southwest—is that of the Basket-Makers, traces of whose occupancy are scattered far and wide over Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. These primitive people were acquainted with the rudiments of the textile arts, as they could weave baskets and spin cordage. They knew nothing of the art of fashioning and burning earthenware pottery. neither did they make or use bows and arrows, nor were they acquainted with the use of polished stone ornaments or implements. They were growing corn and pumpkins and squashes, however. And some of these ears of corn and pumpkin seed and fragments of their baskets and neatly twisted twine are still to be found beneath the deposit of wood ashes and other ancient kitchen refuse on the floors of certain small caves, caverns and rock-shelters in the Wingate sandstone of the upper Cimarron River country, in Cimarron County.

The Mediaeval Period would indicate the eras of the Mound-Builders, proper, and those of other people, or peoples, of equal or similar cultural development. They all tilled the soil, their implements of tillage usually being fashioned of stone, either by flaking, pecking, or grinding by means of abrasive sandstone or by a combination of two of these processes. They were also advanced, at least as far as the beginning of the Bronze Age, since they knew something of the art of working in copper.

The mounds of the true Mound-Builders occur sparingly along the valleys of the principal rivers of Eastern Oklahoma, including those of the larger tributaries of the Red and Arkansas rivers. Whether each of these monuments to the constructive genius of the inhabitants of Eastern Oklahoma and adjacent portions of neighboring states are

Page 215

all representative of a single culture, has not yet been determined. There is at least a possibility that these mounds may represent two or three distinct cultures. This is a matter that can only be settled by very thorough and extensive investigation and at a considerable outlay of expense and labor.

Mounds of this class and age vary greatly in size, form grouping, etc., as they probably also did in the various purposes for which they were severally designed. Possibly most of them are conical in shape. Others are in the form of pyramids, either square or oblong. In one case, near Muskogee, there is a very fine specimen of a mound in the form of a truncated pyramid, approximately sixty feet square at the base and ten feet high, with the lines following the cardinal points very closely. Others apparently were merely heaped up into an elevation without seeming regard to form.

The largest mound which has been inspected by the writer, in Oklahoma, was of the last mentioned type. It is located out in the valley of the Neosho, or Grand River in the western part of Delaware County. Its extreme height is forty-eight feet and its basic area probably covers a space of more than two acres. Its bulk is composed of material carried from a decomposing bluff of the Boone chert formation situated half a mile from the location of the mound. The mound was completed by covering this material with a foot or more of black river-valley loam soil, which now supports a rather dense growth of forest vegetation. A mound even larger than this is reported to be located near the valley of the Illinois River, in the northern part of Adair County. Of course, large mounds of the true Mound-Builder type are much more numerous in Arkansas than they are in Oklahoma.

The writer has only been privileged to be connected with the dissection of one mound of the true Mound-Builder type. This mound was located at a point where the flood plain of the Elk, or Cowskin River merges with that of the Neosho, or Grand River, on the boundary-line between Ottawa and Delaware counties. It was a small mound of the shapeless pattern just described. Its original altitude was about fourteen feet and its basic diameter was

Page 216

approximately thirty-five feet. A party, operating under the direction tof the writer, dissected only about one-third of the contents of this mound, for the reason that the poachers had broken into it at the instance of a commercial collector, and this had been followed, later, by further work under the supervision of the owner. Consequently, many of the finished implements, ornaments, and utensils were removed several years before the writer undertook to complete the dissection.

The purpose for which this mound had been erected is believed to have been ceremonial, this inference being drawn from the fact that it contained numerous utensils, artifacts, and ornaments which were evidently deposited, during the course of its construction, as votive offerings. What the poachers, already mentioned, secured is not known. The owner secured some very fine specimens of earthenware pottery, including vases, urns, and water bottles, which are now in two of the large eastern museums. The speciments secured by the expedition of the Oklahoma Historical Society in the spring and summer of 1925, included similar ceramic products. Most of the pottery had been broken by the expansion or constriction of roots of the trees growing on the surface of the mound, but all of the fragments were saved and eventually each of these works of art was restored. Other items secured included ornamental sheet copper, partially decomposed beads of shell or pearl, and pulley-shaped, disk ear ornaments, made of polished stone and partially encased in copper. These came in pairs and are similar to the disk-shaped ear ornaments once commonly used in tropical America.

The bulk of this mound was composed of clay with considerable gravel content, evidently excavated near at hand, but it had been finished with a heavy covering of black river-valley loam soil. This clay content was compact and because of its contour, very dry and hard to excavate. But few traces of human remains were found in the body of the mound and these seemed to indicate at least partial incineration. Surface interments were much more numerous, however. These were all of a shallow nature, so that the process of decay had been very nearly complete. From the number of these shallow, surface burials on the part of

Page 217

the mound dissected by the Oklahoma Historical Society’s field party, it was inferred that there had been no less than fifty such interments on the surface of the whole mound, before it was disturbed by the poachers. Such shallow burials indicated the presence and mortuary visits of people of the Southern Division of the Siouan stock, presumably Osage or Quapaw, within the past two or three centuries. That the intrusive burials thus made were of such origin was further evidenced by the finding of stone pipes of the modern Siouan type.

At a point supposed to represent the exact center of the base of the mound, there was found a fragment of a very large clam or mussel shell with concave side uppermost. In the hollow of this shell was found a group of three small stone pipes, one of which was partially decomposed and the other two slightly so, as if it had been deposited with organic matter. These pipes are similar to stone pipes which were found in the valleys of the Ohio and some of its principal tributaries. The writer inclines to the belief that they are of proto-Siouan origin. If this conjecture is warranted, then it means that the people of the whole Siouan stock passed through eastern Oklahoma, before they reached the valleys of the Mississippi and its eastern tributaries; in the course of their migration to the Piedmont Plateau of Virginia and the Carolinas and several centuries before their retrogressive migration to the West. In this connection, it seems an odd coincidence that the Osage or Quapaw people should have found their way back to bury their dead upon the earthen pile that had been built by their own people, if not indeed, by their own direct ancestors.

What the careful dissection of other mounds in eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas may disclose along similar lines, is still a matter for conjecture. If, as has already been intimated, two or three distinct cultures should be found as representative of as many separate Mound-Building stocks, then the separation and identification of each of these stocks would seem to be in order.

One of the most important archaeological fields in the

Page 218

United States, and the most recent of the Mediaeval Period in the lower valleys of the Mississippi and its western tributaries, the Red, Arkansas, and Missouri rivers, is that of the Caddoan peoples, who, while not Mound-Builders themselves, were on a par of culture with the Mound-Building peoples, and who incidentally, but not intentionally, left more mounds to mark the face of the land within limits of their prehistoric habitat, than all the mounds of all of the true Mound-Building peoples combined.

Beginning at a point on the Gulf Coast at the mouth of the Colorado River of Texas, and extending eastwardly along the Coast past Calcasieu Pass, in southwestern Louisiana; thence to a crossing of the Mississippi in the vicinity of Vicksburg; thence extending northward, a few miles east of the course of the Mississippi, to a point approximately opposite the mouth of the Missouri River; thence recrossing the Mississippi, and extending southwestward, past the corner of Kansas, to a point near the mouth of the Cimarron River; thence southward to the mouth of the Washita River; and thence back to the point of beginning, roughly marks the bounds of the prehistoric habitat of the Caddoan peoples. Throughout this region a very frequent, and, in many places, an almost constant landscape feature consists of multitudes of low, circular mounds, about the shape or contour of an ordinary saucer turned upside down. These low, circular, mounds vary in diameter from twenty to as much as one hundred and forty feet in extreme cases, and in central height, from a barely perceptible swell of from four or five inches to as much as five feet, in the case of the larger specimens. Most of them, however, are nearly of the average, or type size, which is from forty to forty-five feet in diameter, and from twenty to twenty-four inches in height at the center.

Throughout the years since the first exploration and early settlements of the region in question, approximately two centuries ago, there has been much puzzle and speculation as to the origin or contributing cause for the formation of these small circular mounds, or tumuli. The laymen gave it up as an unsolvable problem long ago, but the world of science continued to puzzle over the matter, and not of merely to puzzle over it but to dispute over it as well.

Page 219

The geologists, who profess to be more informed concerning the Earth’s surface and its peculiar formations than the learned men of any other profession, were almost unanimous in scouting every suggestion of human agency, and in agreeing to call these small circular tumuli "natural mounds." Among the theories advanced for the purpose of accounting for such formations by the operation of purely natural causes, were the following; erosion, glaciation, wind action, wave action, spring and gas vents, earthquakes, animal burrows, ant hills and uprooted trees, with a number of others even more fantastic than any of these. The archaeologists, on the other hand, were quite keen to claim these low, circular mounds to be the result of the work of human hands, but most of them were utterly at a loss to offer any sort of a valid explanation to account for such a line of construction. About the best theory advanced by any of the archaeologists was that each of these small mounds was a platform or elevated building site to furnish good drainage for a lodge or hut. To this, the geologists rejoined with the question, "but why so many of them and why were they built on hillsides, where natural drainage was good?"

The writer first became familiar with these small, circular mounds in eastern Oklahoma, in 1889, and his curiosity concerning their origin led him to ask questions of many people, always with negative results, though occasionally someone would answer, "I believe some prehistoric race was responsible for them, but I do not know why they were built." Personally, the writer never formed any theory as to their origin. It was nearly twenty-three years later that, while riding through a section of eastern Oklahoma, where the whole face of the country was dotted and pimpled with these low, circular mounds, at a rate varying from three to five or six per acre, there suddenly dawned upon his imagination the idea that if the Pawnee or Arickara Indians had built their timber-framed, domeshaped, earth-covered huts or lodges, without excavating the interior circle to a depth of fifteen or eighteen inches, as they did, and without building a vestibuled entrance, also sodded over, as they did, the fall of such a structure, due to the decay of its supporting posts and poles, would

Page 220

make just such a pile of earth or low circular mound, when the last of its posts had disappeared. It was not until some days later that the writer met Dr. Charles N. Gould, the well known geologist (now director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey), and discussed the matter with him. His concluding remark at the close of the interview was that the writer had advanced the only human agency theory as to the possible origin of, these mounds that could be regarded as being at all tenable, and that he would like to see a thorough investigation made. Within a year and a half, the writer was privileged to begin such an investigation under the auspices of the University of Oklahoma. In the course of this investigation he carefully dissected not one, but a number of these small, circular mounds. In each instance so undertaken, he found abundant proof of human origin. This investigation was undertaken primarily for the purpose of determining whether or not these tumuli were due to human activities. At the time there was little thought, and less intention, of attempting to determine the identity of the culture of the people who were responsible for the formation of these peculiar landscape features. The work thus begun has been carried on at intervals with some co-operation at the hands of the University of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Historical Society but more largely by reason of the generous co-operation of private individuals, who furnished means to defray the expense of such a line of investigations, which the public institutions were not in a position to do.

In the dissection of one of these earth-lodge mounds, it was found that the structure had been destroyed as the result of an internal fire, there being from two to three and a half inches of wood ashes over the entire floor, as if wood had been piled into the but or lodge and deliberately set afire, either by an enemy or by the owner or his neighbors possibly for the purpose of destroying some contagion or infection. Moreover, excavation beneath the floor of the but revealed the fact that each of the supporting posts had been charred from ten to thirteen inches below the floor level, and that these charred sections were still standing in place. In addition to this, there were found scattered throughout the ashes on the floor, burned brick-hard, frag-

Page 221

ments of the clay plastering of a partitioned wall, with the parallel imprints of the woven cane or wattle lath very perfectly preserved. Another mute evidence of the life of that time, that was very interesting, was found in the form of several of the clay nests of the mud-dauber wasps, also burned brick-hard.

Another of these mounds that was excavated was much larger than the average, being seventy-five feet in diameter and forty-two inches in height in the center. In walking over this mound, from which the timber had been cleared for cultivation only a few years before, the writer was surprised to find chipped chert and potsherds. Remarking upon these to Mr. Leonard M. Logan, a student of the University of Oklahoma, who was with him, the latter replied: "Yes, and see what I have found," and he handed over a fragment of what had once been a pulleyshaped stone disk. Instantly there flashed through the writer’s mind, that here there had been a possible collapse of such a timber-framed, dome-shaped, earth-covered human habitation while it was still occupied, and that this mound should furnish the proof of human origin. Several days later, he slipped back and excavated a small pit at one side of the mound, which resulted in confirming the conjecture this formed. He then hunted up the owner of the property and asked permission to excavate, with the result that he was directed to get off of the place and stay off. Several years of negogtiation followed, and it was not until three years later—in the winter of 1917-18 that he finally secured permission and with the full approbation of the owner, systematically dissected the whole mound, with the exception of a small part which lay across the property line on the land of another owner, who refused to give consent. This mound was found on what is known as the Fort Coffee Bottoms, about eight miles northeast of Spiro, in the northeastern part of Leflore County, and is located on the flood plain of the Arkansas River.

The ground plan of the timber-frame for a Prehistoric Caddoan earth-lodge was practically identical with that of the people of the Pawnee and Arickara tribes, since

Page 222

the beginning of the Historical Period, with the exception that the prehistoric Caddoan lodge contained no vestibule or frame for the same. Four large, forked posts were selected to support the center of the dome-shaped frame. In the case of this lodge, which had collapsed while occupied, the post holes were found to be from fourteen to fifteen inches in diameter. These four posts occupied the four cardinal points. This has been found true in all other lodges excavated or dissected by the writer. At a radius of twenty-two and one-half feet from the center, a circle of smaller forked posts had also been erected. The size of the post holes for this circle of smaller posts was found to be from ten and one-half to eleven inches in diameter.

Heavy timbers were laid from fork to fork, on the four sides of the square formed by the large poles surrounding the center. Heavy poles or small headlogs were then laid from fork to fork, around the circle of smaller posts. Heavy posts or slabs were then laid at an angle of forty-five degrees or less, the tops resting on the head-logs, of the outer circle, the lower ends probably being embeaded in the ground so that they would not slip or slide inward. Heavy poles or light logs, were then laid from the interior square to the head-logs of the outer circle, to serve as rafters. Short length poles, the size of a man’s arm were then laid transversely from rafter to rafter, being tied securely in place with willows or withes. The whole top thus completed was woven full of brush and this was covered with a layer of sedge or coarse grass. The rafters did not quite join at the center of the dome, a small aperture being left to admit of light, ventilation, and the escape of smoke, the domestic fire being built immediately under the same. Sod, or turf was cut where there was a natural growth of grass, with an abundance of fibrous roots and these were carried to the frame of the new structure where they were used in building a wall that leaned against the posts or slabs, slanting outwardly from the head-logs of the post circle. This wall was carried up over the head-walls and the frame work for the roof, and was built sufficiently thick to afford good surface drainage, regardless of the sagging of any rafter or rafters which might not have been straight. The only openings to this

Page 223

structure were the aperture at the center of the dome and the door, which was located on the east side. The wall was possibly doubled and made very heavy, as the roof was also.

A structure thus erected was comparatively warm in winter and relatively cool in summer. It was secure against all but the most violent storms, and it afforded fair opportunity for defense, in case of attack. Platforms, which could be used for seats by day and as beds by night, could be constructed of sticks and poles, around the outer wall beneath the sloping slabs, posts, or poles which supported the same. The width of this portion outside of the post circle was proportioned to the size of the building, as was the height of the structure also. The location of these seats and beds, covered with mats, robes, etc., is surmised from the fact that the Pawnee and Arickara peoples who did not excavate their floors between the post circle, and the foot of the wall, used that space for seats in day-time and as beds at night. Moreover, the modern Wichita and Caddo Indians who dwelt in timber-framed, dome-shaped, grass-thatched huts, or lodges, used such beds and seats made of stakes and poles and covered with robes, skins and mats.

Beneath the floor of the structure, its occupants were wont to dig caches, or storage pits, into which they might place much of their property, temporarily. Later, these pits were emptied of their contents and refilled with a mixture of surface earth, sub-soil, wood ashes and debris from all parts of the camp. Incidentally, it is notable that all the rubbish in the camp was collected—all its loose bones, clam-shells, flaked and broken chert, postherds, and other waste material—and thrown in the bottom of such storage pits before refilling. This fact doubtless accounts for the utter absence of any sort of broken utensils or artifacts in the village site of any average prehistoric Caddoan settlement. That the head men of the village knew how to "police" camp as well as a modern military commander, is quite evident.

The careful dissection of this mound required several weeks of labor, even with an adequate force of assistants. During the course of this work, it was discovered that, sub-

Page 224

sequent to the collapse of the earth-covered lodge, from the decay and disappearance of its supporting posts, people of another stock had dwelt for a time in the vicinity and that they had used this mound-like lodge ruin as a place of burial for their dead. These burials had been so shallow as to be just below the plow-level. As a result, the process of decay of the skeletal remains had been so complete that but little was left except the enamel of the teeth, with occasional traces of chalky white material that was evidently formed by the decomposition of bone. There had been twenty-two of these intrusive interments on the surface of this mound. Because of the shallowness of these burials it was surmised that the same had been made by people of one of the tribes of the Southern Division of Siouan stock. This conjecture was subsequently verified by the finding of several ceremonial pipes of the modern Siouan type, which had been carved from a stone of a grayish-white color. One of these, eighteen inches long, with a large bowl of perfectly cylindrical bore, is the largest Siouan ceremonial pipe which the writer has ever seen. The only other artifacts found which were certainly identified with this Southern Siouan culture, were a number of exquisitely flaked blades of chert or flint. Four of these, averaging about five inches in length, were found just as they had been placed at the time of interment, lying with overlapping edges, like shingles on a roof. The presence of such vestigia, so uniformly near the surface and so evidently Siouan of origin, was taken to be a certain indication of the intrusive mortuary activities of more recent occupants of the region immediately surrounding the site and, in point of time, probably not more than half as old as the mound itself.

No other traces of human remains were found until that part of the mound just inside the foot of the wall around the southwestern segment of the interior circle was reached. Here, there were found the badly decomposed skeletons of six people who had perished when the wall collapsed. Indeed, four of the six had their skulls crushed by the falling of the earth-covered timbers. The bones of these skeletons were in such palpable condition that none of them could be removed without falling into fragments.

Page 225

Inasmuch as the inside diameter of this earth-lodge must have been not less than fifty-five or sixty feet, it is assumed that there might have been several times as many people within the lodge at the time of its partial collapse but, since no traces were found of the remains of any others, it seems not unlikely that the rest had succeeded in making an escape. If so, however, their superstitious beliefs were probably such that they did not feel called upon to extricate the bodies of their deceased friends or relatives, in order to accord to them the customary funeral rites.

The collection of artifacts, utensils, tools, implements, and ornaments which were secured in the dissection of this mound was quite extensive and, from a scientific viewpoint, a very valuable one. Only one unbroken piece of ceramic ware was secured—a beautifully decorated shallow bowl of about three-quarts capacity. Much broken earthenware pottery was found, however, and the sherds were preserved for ultimate restoration, if possible. More than thirty-five of the pulley-shaped stone disk ear ornaments were found, many of them with the larger, or outer flange encased in a thin sheet of copper. The diameter of these ear ornaments varied from one and three-fourths to nearly two and one-half inches, the outer flange sometimes having a considerably larger diameter than the inner flange. These occurred commonly in pairs, the two individual specimens being practically identical in pattern, size and decoration. All of these were perforated in the center, the perforation being in the form of a smooth cylindrical bore. With these there were also found and secured, three larger ornaments of the same sort, neither of which was perforated, nor was there a duplicate to either, so it would seem not unlikely that these had been used as labrets rather than ear ornaments.

Beads of several different kinds were found, the larger beads being made of the black Webber Falls argillite, running from three-eighths to five-eighths of an inch in diameter and very highly polished. Several pearl beads were found in a very palpable condition, as were also several unusually large shell beads. In some places, veins or layers of very small shell beads, about the size of the modern glass bead used in beading buckskin, were found.

Page 226

From the fact that these were thus found in veins or layers, it was inferred that they had been used for the purpose of beading belts, pipe pouches, quivers, etc. These beads are so small that they might well have furnished the model for the modern glass beads used in beading buckskin.

A great deal of copper was found. Most of this was in thin plates and evidently had been used in the decoration of wearing apparel, head dresses or shields. Some of this copper was beautifully corrugated, with evenly-sized small ridges and channels. Evidence is not lacking that these people had the ability to either weld copper or, at least, to solder or braze it. One of the most interesting finds made was that of a copper blow-pipe which had been made by hammering the native copper into a thin sheet and then rolling it into a tube which, when completed, was not as large as an ordinary lead pencil. Another very interesting specimen was a solid copper spindle, twelve inches long, tapering to almost a needle point at either end. There were also found the ores and salts of lead, zinc, and iron. The finding of a few small particles of red lead indicated the possession of some knowledge of chemistry. Red and yellow ochre were also found.

Several polished celts were found. These had been made of the black Webbers Falls argillite, which takes on a beautiful polish. Two of the most interesting items in this class were celts which had been fashioned from a finely carved calcareous sandstone almost suitable for use in sharpening steel tools. This rock, which occurs locally in thin veins or strata, has lines of cleavage at right angles to the planes of stratification. One of these, twenty-two inches long, had been merely sharpened by grinding one end into a chisel-like celt edge. It was about two inches wide by three-fourths of an inch thick. It is supposed to have been used in excavating post holes for the erection of the timber frame-work of the earth-covered lodge and caches, or storage pits under the floor of the same. Another one of the same material, thirteen inches long, did not have the lines of cleavage exactly parallel, being wider at

Page 227

the cutting end than at the top. Other celts, presumably intended for use as hatchets or tomahawks, were found. No perfect specimen of the grooved axe was found, though there was one fragmentary specimen of such an implement.

Very few arrow points were found. These were of both the hunting-point and the war-point types, the latter having a receding base with no barbs. Of bird-points (blow-gun points), nearly two hundred were secured. Most of these averaged about one-half inch in length, though some were even smaller. The material from which these miniature points had been flaked, included not only chert and flint, but also jasper, quartz, chalcedony and some materials that approached the agate, or carnelian in consistency and composition.

The people of the prehistoric Caddoan race were largely given to agriculture, as their descendants remain down to the present time. Their implements of tillage are to be found scattered over many fields that were supposed to be still in the virgin sod, when the white man first came, but which had really been broken up and reduced to cultivation some hundred years earlier, by the people of this stock. Their implements of tillage consisted chiefly of spades and hoes made of stone. Throughout the greater part of eastern Oklahoma, such implements were made of the black argillite, mostly secured from the ledge which causes the riffle or rapid in the channel of the Arkansas River, in Muskogee County, that has long been known as Webbers Falls. This material is as black as coal. In composition it is a combination of lime, clay, and silica. It flakes somewhat like chert or flint, only much more coarsely. While it is quite hard, it is not nearly so hard as chert or flint, and it was, therefore, worked also by pecking with a hammerstone and by grinding or polishing with an abrasive sandstone. Implements made of this material are better adapted to tilling soil than those made of chert, for the reason that it is tougher and not so brittle. Most Caddoan spades were oblong or almost rectangular blades, from two and one-half to four inches wide and from seven to twelve inches long, and from one-half to three-fourths of an inch thick, thinner at the edges and sharpened at each end. Whether these were mounted on handle or haft and, if so,

Page 228

how, is not known. Some of the spades were much narrower and thicker than those just described. These are believed to have been used also in excavating post holes for building purposes and in digging caches, or storage pits, beneath the floors of the lodges.

The Caddoan stone hoe was double bitted and, in that region, almost uniformly made of black argillite. It is quite thin on the cutting edges but averages about an inch thick in the narrow center, between the broader blades. Locally, these hoes are commonly called "battle axes," for which purpose they would doubtless have served effectively. These people also used a very large and somewhat heavy turf cutter, approximately five by twelve inches in size and nearly, if not quite, one inch thick, with carefully ground cutting edges at each end. These were doubtless used in cutting out turf for the covering of earth lodges, as well as for breaking up ground for cultivation.

It is believed that the Caddoan people must have cleared up extensive areas of fertile land on river and creek flood plains, removing all timber, brush, and canebrake growths therefrom; such lands, however, being selected with a view to the fact that they were seldom or never, subject to overflow. They also reduced to cultivation certain areas on the upland prairie, where the surface was sufficiently level to resist erosion, or soil washing. It is comparatively easy to recognize some of these ancient cornfield sites to this day, for the reason that, later when the village site encroached upon the cornfield, there was not to be found, near at hand, any grassy turf, bound together with fibrous roots, which was not only suitable but necessary for the covering of the earth lodges. Consequently, the builders either had to go on higher ground, or along the edges of brakes and ravines, or even to the lowland swales where the soil was of a tough gumbo consistency, in order to find such needed turf for roofing purposes. Therefore, when mounds of light colored clay, or heavy, black gumbo are found superimposed on a field having a black or dark brown surface loam, it seems reasonable to conclude that it had been under cultivation before these sods or turfs containing a different soil, had been transported thither, for building purposes.

Page 229

The early Caddoan people buried practically all of their dead in the sandy sub-soil of some of their valley land cornfields, usually from three and one-half to four and one-half feet below the surface. An average of one piece of burned earthenware pottery was buried with each interment. From the fact that bones of game animals and birds have been found in some of the pottery vessels thus buried with the dead, it may be inferred that some of these, at least, contained food and drink to sustain the departed on the journey to the spirit realm. Occasionally a skeleton may be found with no pottery-near; on the other hand, instances have been noted wherein interments have been found in which two or more specimens of pottery have been buried, supposedly that of some member of the community of more than ordinary prominence. In rare instances as many as eight or ten specimens of ceramic ware may be found with such burials. The surplus pieces of pottery accompanying such burials are almost always not only better burned, but also artistic in design or decoration, or both. It is believed that burial in the valley lands, where a sandy sub-soil could be readily found beneath a cultivated surface, was generally resorted to for the reason that such an operation could be much more expeditiously carried out than if attempts were made to excavate graves in the heavy clay sub-soil of the uplands, with their crude stone excavating tools. The presence of large clam or mussel shells in some graves leads to the inference that most of these valley-land graves were excavated in a mere fraction of the time that would have been required to excavate a grave of like size and depth in the heavy clay sub-soil of the uplands, by the use of such crude stone tools.

There has been much excavation in these ancient burial grounds of the Caddoan Province, especially in the states of Arkansas and Missouri, for the purpose of securing the pottery. As a result, many hundreds of specimens of Caddoan ceramic ware are to be found in the more important anthropological museums of the country, much if not most of it credited to the "Mound-Builders" (with-

Page 230

out distinction as to which Mound-Builder culture, as if there were but one), with no mention of Caddoan fabrication or origin. Mr. Clarence B. Moore, of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, made especially fine collections of this ware in the valleys of the Arkansas, Ouachita and Red rivers. The results of his investigations and excavations were presented in considerable detail in three of his volumes, namely: "Certain Mounds of Arkansas and of Mississippi," 1908; "Antiquities of the Ouachita Valley," 1909, and "Some Aboriginal Sites on Red River," 1912. While he was very careful in his working operations and accurate in his descriptions, it is evident that he did not do much in the way of differentiation as to origin or distinction between Caddoan and pre-Caddoan, or Mound-Builder cultures.

In 1916-7, Mr. M. R. Harrington, of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, spent twenty months at work in the archaeological fields of the valleys of the Red and Ouachita rivers, in Arkansas. The results of his explorations and investigations were published in a volume entitled "Certain Caddo Sites in Arkansas," by the Museum, in 1920. This report presents in more or less detail, accurate descriptions of the work done and of the discoveries made; it is copiously illustrated. In the Red River Valley, the work done was in fields located in Hempstead and Howard counties, in the southwestern part of the state, while, in the valley of the Ouachita, the fields worked were located in the vicinity of Hot Springs, in the central part of the state.

In the foreword, by the director of the Museum, and in the introductory chapter, by the author, statements are made to the effect that the expedition was originally organized to work in that quarter, because of the representations and recommendations of Mr. Clarence B. Moore, of Philadelphia, whose own explorations in neighboring areas have already been mentioned. From Director Heye’s statement, it does not appear that the expedition had been organized for the investigation or study of any particular prehistoric stock or its culture but, rather, that it was undertaken, primarily, because of the known abundance of prehistoric remains in that region. As Mr. Moore had not

Page 231

been greatly interested in cultural differentiation and identifications and as Director Heye did mention the Caddoan culture, it is to be inferred that the attempt to identify most if not all of the implements, tools, weapons, ornaments, utensils and other artifacts discovered as being of Caddoan origin must have been a matter of subsequent determination.

Like his predecessor, Mr. Moore, it appears that Mr. Harrington worked indiscriminately in whatsoever ruins that might appear to be most convenient or promising. That a large proportion of these—possibly a majority of them—were of Caddoan origin, is not improbable. That many of the mounds were not Caddoan, is evident from his own descriptions. That many of the burials which he described were not Caddoan, is likewise evident. Much of the pottery which is illustrated in the book, and especially that which is depicted on plates XLVII, LV, LVI, LX, LXI and LXII, could be more readily identified with that of one of the eastern Mound-Builder cultures than with the ceramic art of the Caddoan culture. Some of the clay pipes which he discovered and depicted, notably those illustrated on plates CI and CII, were not Caddoan pipes and the disk ear ornaments of copper-encased stone, illustrated on plates CXXVIII and CXXIX, are not of the Caddoan type. While he describes the domiciliary mounds as of Caddoan origin, it does not appear that he thoroughly explored the subsoil beneath the floor for traces of all of the supporting posts, neither do his descriptions include the details of subterranean caches, or storage pits. That he worked extensively and, so far as the securing of representative collections of vestigia of at least one of the two important cultures is concerned, successfully, is evident, but that these should have been differentiated, distinguished and identified, is very plain. That he may have worked into one or two equally distinct cultures of less abundant occurrence, is neither impossible or improbable.

While Mr. Harrington is generally recognized as one of the ablest and most accomplished field archaeologists in America, he could have made a much better showing in a field which is remarkable for its mixture or intermingling of cultures, some of which are much more ancient then others,

Page 232

if there could have been a careful preliminary study of type artifacts of each of the several cultures represented therein.

The pottery of the Caddoan peoples is distinguished for its great range in material design, finish and decoration. A museum collection of this ware, to be thoroughly representative, should contain many hundreds of specimens. Practically all of that which was designed for domestic purposes was shell-tempered (i. e., the clay, from which the utensils were made, having been mixed with pulverized clam, or mussel shells, to give it a proper consistency.) It is noticeable that, where burials were numerous, much pottery is found to have been tempered with pulverized vegetable matter, as if formed by grinding or macerating decayed wood. In the burning processes, this pulverized tempering material was merely charred. Such pottery is never found except with the burials and it is believed that it was made especially for such a ceremonial purpose. Indeed, the writer found traces of a pit in which the ancient potter had plied his craft adjoining a Caddoan burial ground (several miles north of Spiro, in LeFlore County), much as a modern marble cutter, monument dealer or florist erects his place of business adjacent to the entrance of a modern cemetery. In the range of artistic skill and varied forms of design and decoration, the ceramic products of the ancient Caddoan peoples were unsurpassed, if indeed, they could be equaled by the ceramic art of any other prehistoric people in the United States.

In form, the Caddoan pottery presents a great variety, including vases, urns, bowls, cups, water bottles and jars of many shapes, in addition to which there are numerous effigies of animals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and even of human beings. Decorations include incised lines, (made before burning), relief designs and superimposed figures, such as that of an animal or bird attached to the top of the handle of a bowl. Farther east, in Arkansas, the decorations include designs in color, as reported by Mr. Moore, but these are not in evidence as far west as Okla-

Page 233

homa. The incised folds with etched filigree fillings, are so common as to be typical.

As before stated, the culture of the early Caddoan peoples was nearly, if not actually on a plane of equality with that of the Mound-Builders, proper. Like the Mound-Builders, their culture was subject to great deterioration after their once dense population became scattered. As already intimated, it has been the privilege of the writer to have directed considerable work in a Caddoan village site which existed at the beginning of the historical period, where the evidence of a primary contact with European culture was plain. That great changes had taken place in the course of three or four centuries, was evident. The pottery had lost much of its ancient refinement in design, finish and artistic decoration. The people were using the "turtle back," or "snub-nose" skin-dressing pick, with which their ancestors of a few centuries earlier had not been familiar. While they still used the double-bitted stone hoe, they were using more hoes, which had been finished by grinding to a sharp edge the shoulder-blades of the buffalo and elk. They still used the "double-cone" clay pipe, and the broadly elliptical shallow corn mortar, or metate, but it was evident that their hands had lost much of the cunning that had been possessed by those of their ancestors.

The Caddoan people must have been a very numerous race at the time of their first settlement in the United States, to have covered such a wide area and to have left so many definite memorials and monuments of their presence, occupancy, and activities. Whether the decrease in population was due to losses sustained as the result of wars with tribes of neighboring stocks or, whether a large part of them were swept away by some epidemic disease may never be known. They were still a numerous people when the first white man came, though they were even then but a mere fraction of what their ancestral stock had been, three or four centuries earlier. As a race, they have quite generally been peaceably disposed toward the white people but, even so, they disappeared much more rapidly than the peoples of some of the other stocks with whom the white people were more or less frequently engaged in bitter warfare. Seemingly, they could not resist that white man’s

Page 234

vices or the white man’s diseases, with the result that the surviving Caddoan peoples of to-day are but a mere handful as compared with their numbers, even as late as two centuries ago.

When the writer first dug a small pit near the edge of the large Caddoan domiciliary mound in the northern part of LeFlore County, in January, 1914, and found pulley-shaped disk ear-ornaments, he immediately recognized in them an indication of a possible kinship with the cultures of the tropical end of the continent. However, since one such instance could not prove a theory any more than "one swallow makes a summer," discretion suggested that he remain silent on the subject. This he did for eleven and one-half years, until in the summer of 1925, when he, was privileged to superintend the dissection of what was left of a mound of the true Mound-Builder type, near the Delaware-Ottawa county boundary line, as previously described. There, with the finding of similar pulley-shaped disk ear-ornaments, though differing somewhat in details of construction, he realized that, at last, he might announce an hypothesis concerning the possibility that the eastern half of the United States and Eastern Canada had been largely peopled as a result of a series of successive waves of mass-movement migration from racial swarming-grounds in the southern part of the North American Continent. That such an hypothesis would have to assume that the Mound-Builder cultures, and that of the Caddoan people as well, were of exotic origin, instead of local development, was equally plain. Down to that time, so far as the writer was aware, American archaeology had not given much attention to the element of racial swarming-grounds, in population and cultural development, though the native American race was as surely as much entitled to have this element considered in the problem of development as are any of the races of Europe or Asia. Plainly, the natural conditions of Northwestern America did not make for racial swarming-grounds. On the other hand, there were areas in Yucatan, Southern Mexico, and Central America which, though of limited extent were pos-

Page 235

sessed of happy combinations of fertile soil and humid climate, thus offering opportunities for the production of such vast quantities of human food, by agricultural means, and at such low economic cost, as to lead first, to the development of a dense population and that, in turn, to that of a high degree of culture in the arts and crafts. Then, when the capacity or saturation point was reached in population, either a real or prospective shortage of food, imperial colonization, or political discontent, might have led to the removal of considerable elements of such overcrowded population. When such culture was brought into the midst of a new and sparsely settled region which was teeming with game and fish, and where the climate made possible an introduction of the cultivation of maize, pumpkins, squashes, melons and gourds, it would have been but natural that there should be a scattering of such an immigrant population and, with that dispersion, an almost certain and comparatively early deterioration in culture.*

That the Caddoan stock was subdivided into well defined tribe groups in prehistoric times, as it was during the early Historical Period, seems altogether probable. One of these, divided into a number of tribes, occupied the Valley of the Arkansas, from the mouth of the Cimarron to point below the Arkansas boundary. For some reason or reasons not known, those below the mouths of the Neosho, or Grand, and the Verdigris, migrated northward, nearly, if not quite, five hundred years ago, possibly settling along what is now known as the Osage River, in western Missouri and eastern Kansas. Then came the westward advance of the Southern Siouan Osage-Kaw-Omaha peoples, which forced these recently immigrant Caddoan tribes over into the Upper Kansas, or Kaw, and Lower Smoky Hill valleys. Thus they came into contact and trading relations with one of the Algonquian tribes, presumably the Ojibwa, before the westward advance of the main body of the Northern

Page 236

Sioux forced the latter farther northward. From these Algonquian people, these Northern Caddoan peoples of the Upper Kaw and Lower Smoky Hill valleys learned to use the small stone pipe and discontinued the use of the clay pipes of their ancestors.

The Caddoan people of these two conected valleys in the North, subdivided into two closely allied groups or confederacies—the Harahay, who occupied the valley of the Kansas or Kaw, above Topeka, and the Quivira, who ranged the valley of the Smoky Hill to a point out on the edge of the High Plains and thence southward toward the great bend of the Arkansas. The hostile pressure of the Osage-Kaw people finally forced the Harahay to move up the valleys of the Blue and Republican rivers, whence, finally, most of them moved over to the valley of the Platte. Thence, one tribe—the Arickara—drifted on northward to the valley of the Missouri River, in Dakota, where their descendants live to this day, while the remaining tribes became known as the Pawnee Confederacy. Within a century after the visit of the Coronado expedition, the Shoshonean Comanche ceased to fish for salmon and to hunt for grizzly bear and Rocky Mountain sheep and, drifting out upon the Great Plains, they began to range behind the buffalo herds instead. Before their southward advance, the Caddoan Quivira retired, first across the Arkansas, then across the Cimarron and on southward to and beyond the valleys of the two Canadians and the Washita, to that of Red River, where they settled in new villages and opened up new fields to be planted with maize, and where they become known to the Spanish-American people as the Taovayas and to the early French explorers and traders as the Towiache, or Pani Pique, i e., "Tattooed Pawnee"). Ever since the English-speaking Americans began to come westward across the Mississippi and learned the story of Coronado and his expedition, out across the Great Plains, to Quivira, they have been puzzled as to what had become of the Quiviran people. Only recently, an investigation by the writer revealed the fact, that the little stone pipes of the Northern Algonquin type had been in common use by the Taovayas or Pani Pique—Red Rive Pawnee—just as it had been in the village of the Quivira,

Page 237

so the little stone pipe, of the type that had been borrowed from the Ojibwa, by the Northern Caddoan peoples, more than four hundred years ago, helped to verify the identification of the Quiviran people with the Taovayas or Red River Pawnees.

Meanwhile the Caddoan tribes of the Arkansas River region in northeastern Oklahoma were still there when the first French explorers and traders came among them, two centuries ago, and called them the Panioussa (i. e., "Lower" or "Southern Pawnee"), and they still smoked the "double-cone" clay pipes of their ancestors. But the rum and the smallpox and other vices and diseases which came in with the French traders, decimated the numbers of the Paniouassa, on the Arkansas, and those of their kinsmen, the Towiache or Pani Pique, on Red River. So, sometime during the latter part of the 18th century, the remnants of these two peoples merged and their descendants are now known as the Wichita.

As previously stated, traces of the Siouan culture are to be found in numerous places in the northeastern part of Oklahoma, some of them coming down to the beginning of Historic Period. The oldest of these are believed to have been made by the present Osage and Quapaw people. They are easily distinguished from the cultural remains from other stocks by such type artifacts as the tobacco pipe, the stone hoe and the mortar, or metate, with which they ground grain. Their occupancy of Oklahoma probably was but temporary from time to time, during the Prehistoric Period. They were among the first tribes to come under French influence in the Mississippi Valley, two centuries ago. Their cultural remains are interesting for comparative reasons. If, as the writer has suggested, the Siouan peoples were in the procession of great migrations from the far South, that movement must have taken place at least a thousand years ago, as they are known to have lived in the region east of the Alleghenies and south of the Potomac for several centuries before their retrogressive migration to the West. If such be the case, the highly developed culture which was abundantly and well exemplified

Page 238

in the contents of the mound in northwestern Oklahoma has had a long time in which to deteriorate, and this deterioration is very manifest in the crude pottery and rather coarse work in their other arts, as found existing in the village sites and burials of the Siouan (Osage-Quapaw), which date from just before the beginning of the Historical Period.

Scattered over western Oklahoma and adjacent portions of the Texas Panhandle, western Kansas, and southeastern Colorado, are to be found traces of the culture of a, people whose occupancy antedated the later arrival of the Comanche, the Kiowa, the Cheyenne and the Arapahoe. From the early Spanish archives of New Mexico, it is evident that the region of the Great Plains, extending southward from the valley of the Republican River to that of Red River, was included within the range of that great branch of the Athapascan stock, which is known collectively as the Apache people, and which includes quite a number of tribes. Hitherto, these have always been regarded, as have their distant kinsmen of the Navajo tribe also, as having migrated from the far Northwest, and as being a proof of the theory that all of the Indian Tribes of the Eastern United States, had migrated from the same region. As yet, comparatively little has been done in the way of identifying the remains of any prehistoric culture of the region in question as belonging to the Athapascan-Apache people.

In the summer of 1920, the writer spent several weeks with Dr. Warren K. Moorehead, who was then engaged on an archaeological survey of the drainage area of the Arkansas River, accompanied by a small field party, along the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle. Incidentally, in company with Doctor Moorehead, the writer visited on ancient irrigation canal in Meade and Clark counties, in southwestern Kansas. The writer has since revisited that section several times and has made considerable further investigation of these remarkable traces of an ancient culture. He has also located traces of similar irrigation works in Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, and several mounds, besides one mound group, all of which are be-

Page 239

lieved to be the ruins of pueblo-like structures with earthen walls and earth-covered roofs. That these people grew corn has been definitely determined; that they still continue to make and use pottery is likewise proven; that they might have learned the art of growing corn or that of making pottery in the far Northwest, or at any point between the far Northwest and the Great Plains south of the Republican River, is highly improbable; that they had once lived much farther east, where they had grown corn under naturally humid conditions, is not unlikely; that they had been driven out upon the High Plains where they still sought to practice agriculture, but where their crops were blasted by the hot winds and destroyed by the big buffalo herds, seems altogether likely; that some of their hunters may have made their way to the Pueblo settlements on the Mora, the Upper Pecos and the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, where they found corn and other field crops being grown by irrigation, is wholly within the bounds of possibility; that they attempted to avail themselves of Pueblo irrigation engineering talent, and that they attempted to adopt and to adapt to their purpose the irrigation husbandry and the architecture of the Pueblo peoples, seems evident.

The writer believes that by means of type artifacts, it may be possible to trace the Athapascan occupancy much farther east than it was at the time of the first exploration and settlements in New Mexico. He is planning to do some systematic work in this very interesting field which, down to this time has been almost a sealed book.

Scattered over various portions of Oklahoma are to be found numerous ancient village sites and shop sites which, while plainly distinguished, are as yet unidentified. This is especially true of the central part of the state, where the remains of most of the identified cultures are scarce or lacking altogther. Such vestigia include implements and projectile points of chert and flint, potsherds, mortars, mullers, hoes, spades, hatchets, cells and occasionally, even grooved axes. Careful study will probably be necessary to identify these and find the type artifacts of the same. This is not of more importance locally than it will be in its

Page 240

relationships in the final study of prehistoric migrations and movements.

Ancient quarries, from which the Stone Age man secured chert, flint and other siliceous materials for the chipping or flaking of projectile points, knives, scrapers, skin-dressing picks and other implements, tools and weapons fabricated in like manner, are to be found in several portions of Oklahoma. One of the most interesting of these is the group adjoining the site of the village of Peoria, in Ottawa County. Many acres are covered with the debris which was thrown out from shallow, circular pits. Many reject and unfinished stock blades are to be found. The material is a light grayish-white with occasional shades of blue and light pink. It was suitable for the flaking of blades of every type, from small arrow-points to axes, spades and hoes. Careful investigation will doubtless reveal the fact it was the resort of a number of successive stocks of people, from that of the Cave Dwelling people, down to the most recent (Siouan-Osage) prehistoric era.

Another interesting group of quarries line the escarpments of certain "flint hills" in the northeastern part of Kay County, near the village of Hardy. The chert secured from the quarries (others of which may be found across the state boundary line in southern Kansas) occurs in the form of nodules embedded in a lower stratum of limestone, thus necessitating considerable digging. As elsewhere stated, Otto Spring found that these quarries had been worked as late as the beginning of the Historical Period. The material from these quarries is greatly varied in color, some of it being beautifully banded, or striped.

In the extreme northwestern part of Oklahoma, in Cimarron County, there are several quarries. One of these, which the writer visited and inspected in 1913, is in the form of a ledge of flint nearly as white as porcelain. From it, during ages past, there had evidently been hundreds of tons of material removed. Other quarries in the same vicinity, show varied colors, with iron stains and many specimens approaching the quality and composition of agate. In the same region, considerable quartzite was se-

Page 241

cured in the form of nodules found in ledges of metamorphosed Dakota sandstone, which had weathered away, leaving the quartzite nodules exposed and easily detachable.

In addition to workable material from regular quarries such as those just enumerated, it is believed that pebbles, nodules and other forms of suitable siliceous rocks, were utilized wherever found-in stream beds, eroded from hillsides, in sand and gravel pits, etc.

In concluding this paper the writer wishes to acknowledge his obligation to Doctor Moorehead for the kind privilege of contributing to its contents. His friendship, advice and counsel, throughout the years has been of real inspiration to one who has had to pioneer the investigation of the archaeological fields of Oklahoma, with meager preparation and a minimum of support and cooperation. No one realizes better than he, the incompleteness and possible crudities of his own work. The helpful encouragement and ready collaboration of Doctor Moorehead has naturally meant much, under the circumstances. Under no conditions would the writer unduly magnify the importance of the work which he is trying to do. No one can realize better than he, that the fields which he has discussed in the foregoing paper should be worked out thoroughly, not under the auspices of but a single institution but rather under those of several—not by one man but by many.

—Joseph B. Thoburn.

Return to top

Electronic Publishing Center | OSU Home | Search this Site