Antiquities of the southern Indians, particularly of the Georgia tribes

Preface

Although the title intimates that our investigations have been directed principally to an examination of the antiquities of a single State, the present work will be found to embrace within its scope a much more extended field of observation. In prosecuting the proposed inquiries, it appeared both unnecessary and improper narrowly to observe the boundary-lines which separate modern States. It will be remembered, moreover, that the original grant from the British crown conveyed to the Trustees of the Colony of Georgia a territory greater by far than that now embraced within the geographical limits accorded to her as a State. A striking similarity exists among the customs, utensils, implements, and ornaments of all the Southern Indians : consequently, in elucidating the archaeology of a region often occupied in turn by various tribes, it seemed appropriate to mention and contrast the vi

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antiquities of Virginia, the Carol mas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

Our object has "been, from the earliest and most authentic sources of information at command, to convey a correct impression of the location, characteristics, form of government, social relations, manufactures, domestic economy, diversions, and customs of the Southern Indians, at the time of primal contact between them and the . Europeans. • This introductory part of the work is followed by an examination of tumuli, earthworks, and various relics obtained from burial-mounds, gathered amid refuse-piles, found in ancient graves, and picked up in cultivated fields and on the sites of old villages and fishing-resorts. Whenever these could be interpreted in the light of early recorded observations, or were capable of explanation by customs not obsolete at the dawn of the historic period, the authorities relied upon have been carefully noted.

The accompanying plans of mounds were prepared from personal surveys, and nearly every typical object used in illustration may be seen in the author's collection. Most of these relics were obtained by me in situ. They are now figured for the first time.

To the friends who have kindly aided me in gathering together a cabinet which so fully and beautifully represents the arts and the manufactures of these

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Vll primitive peoples, I here renew my cordial and grateful acknowledgments.

Prepared at irregular intervals and in odd moments as they conlcl be borrowed from the exacting and ever-recurring engagements of an active professional life, these pages, with their manifest shortcomings, are offered in the hope that they will, at least in some degree, minister to the information and pleasure of those who are not incurious with regard to the subject of American archaeology.

Charles C. Joxes, Jr.

New Yoek, April 10, 1878.

Chapter I

Location of Tribes. — Physical Characteristics of the Southern Indians. — System of Government. — The Mico. — The Eead War-Chief. — Public Buildings in a Creek Village. — Mode of Warfare. — Office of High-Priest. — Sun- Worship. — Offering of the Stag. — Idol-Worship. — Eeligious Ideas. — The Sun among the Natchez.— The Cacica of Cutifachiqui. — Mausoleum of Talomeco. — Tombs of the Virginia Kings, . . . . . . Page 1

Chapter II

Office of the Conjurer or Medicine-man. — Treatment of the Sick. — Medicinal Plants. — Towns and Private Houses. — Tenure of Property. — Agricultural Pursuits. — Town Plantations and Private Gardens. — Public Granaries. — Animal and Vegetable Food. — Mechanical Labors. — Early Mining in Duke's-Creek Valley. — Manufacture of Canoes, Pottery, Copper Implements, Gold, Silver, Shell, and Stone Ornaments. — Various Implements and Articles of Stone, Bone, and Wood. — Trade Relations, ..... £8

Chapter III

Marriage and Divorce. — Punishment of Adultery. — Costume and Ornaments. — Skin-painting and Tattooing. — Manufacture of Carpets, Feather-shawls, and Moccasins. — Weaving, . . . . . . .65

Chapter IV

Music and Musical Instruments. — Dancing.— Games. — Gambling. — Festivals. — Divisions of the Year.— Counting. — Funeral Customs, . . .90

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CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE V.

General Observations on Mound-Building. — Bartraui's Account of the Georgia Tumuli. — Absence of Megalithic Monuments and Animal-shaped Mounds. — Distribution of the Ancient Population. — Few Sepulchral Mounds erected since the Advent of Europeans. — Antiquity of the Tumuli, . Page 118

Chapter VI

Mounds on the Etowah River. — Temple for Sun-worship. — Stone Images. — Fish- Preserves. — Tumuli in the Valley of Little Shoulder-bone Creek. — Circular Earthwork on the Head-waters of the Ogeechee. — Stone Tumulus nearSparta # —Mounds on the Savannah River. — Meeting between the Cacica of the Savannah and De Soto, . . . . . . 136

Chapter VII

Tumuli on the Ocmulgee River, opposite Macon. — Brown's Mount. — Mound on Messier's Plantation, in Early County, . . . . .158

Chapter VIII

Chunky- Yards. — Elevated Spaces. — Mounds of Observation and Retreat. — Tumuli on Woolfolk's Plantation. — Sepulchral Tumuli. — Chieftain-Mounds. — Custom of burying Personal Property with the Dead. — Savannah owes a Monument to Tomo-chi-chi. — Family or Tribal Mounds. — Cremation, . .178

Chapter IX

Shell-Mounds. — Tumulus on Stalling's Island. — Shell-Heaps and their Contents. — Rock-Piles. — Indian Affection for the Graves of their Departed. — Ancient Burial-Ground on the Coast. — Rock-Walls, Embankments, and Defensive Enclosures. — Stone Mountain. — Fortified Towns of the Southern Indians, 195

Chapter X

Stone Graves in Nacoochee Yalley and elsewhere. — Copper Implements and the Use of that Metal among the Southern Indians. — Cane-Matting. — Shell Drinking-Cups. — Shell Pins. — Age of Stone Graves. — Evidence of Commerce among the Aborigines, . . . . . . .213

CHAPTER XL

Arrow and Spear Heads. — Use of the Bow. — Skill in Archery. — Manufacture and General Distribution of Arrow and Spear Points. — Various Forms of these Implements. — Stone Dagger. — Flint Sword, .... 240

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Chapter XII

Grooved Axes. — Hand and Wedge-shaped Axes or Celts. — Perforated and Ornamental or Ceremonial Axes. — Chisels. — Gouges. — Scrapers. — Flint Knives. — Awls, or Borers. — Leaf-shaped Implements. — Smoothing-Stones. — Drift-Implements, . . . . . Page 269

The Use of Pearls as Ornaments among the Southern Indians, . . 467