Spool-shaped ear-ornaments of copper are common in the Ohio mounds, and I have estimated that there must have been originally four thousand of these objects deposited in the Hopewell group. The greater number of these were of the simple type shown in Plate LVI, Nos. 7-10. Squier and Davis do not report the position of the copper spools found by them in relation to skeletons. Putnam was the first to identify them as ear-ornaments, as he found many of them in pairs, one on either side of the skull. They have also been found upon the hands or wrists. The diameter of these ornaments varies from about 3 to 6 cm with 4 cm as an average. A few specimens were covered with silver or meteoric iron, but these were quite rare. One or two of this sort were reported by Putnam from the Turner group. (Editor's Note: Also see the Edwin Harness Mound article.)

    Meteoric iron was found by Putnam in the mounds of the Turner and Liberty groups, and a few specimens have also been discovered by Mills, I found a small ear-ornament of this material in the Porter Mound in Frankfort, Ohio, and it is probable that the oxidized iron objects mentioned by early writers upon Ohio archaeology were of meteoric iron. All this would indicate that there was some considerable supply of this metal. Inquiry seems to indicate that few fragments of meteoric iron were discovered in southern Ohio in recent years. Indeed, one might venture the assertion that there was more meteoric iron in the Hopewell group alone than in all these recent finds. This seems to be more or less significant. Either the fall of meteorites was more frequent, or the Hopewell people had access to some good-sized meteoric iron deposit the location of which is at present unknown. Meteoric iron is malleable, but not so easily worked as copper. The natives must have reduced it to the desired form by hammering and grinding. There are in the Hopewell collection thirty or forty fragments of meteors and iron artifacts. These include fragments of plates, hatchets, cones, beads, and small chisel-like objects about 10 cm in length. While searching the  ashes and debris from Altar 1, Willoughby found a shell bead in the perforation of which was a slender meteoric iron drill, broken, but identifiable. Nearly a hundred iron beads were found in the two altars, but most of them were damaged, and it was impossible to count accurately.

Fig. 23. Meteoric Iron Adze Blades in Antler Handles from Altar 1.

     Fig. 23 shows Willoughby's drawings of four of the meteoric iron objects. Three of these are evidently cutting tools inserted in stag-horn handles; a indicates that the chisel-like blade was curved, but it is badly corroded. In b the handle is better preserved, the inner end of the shank being rounded. The back is nearly flat. In c the iron blade is well preserved, and the edge is still sharp enough to cut soft wood. The upper part of the handle has been almost entirely burned away.

Plate LXXVII, 1-4, STONE RINGS FROM ALTAR 1; 5, OUTLINES OF RINGS

     Plate LXXVII, No. 5, as described by Willoughby, shows "outlines of four rings, exhibiting symmetry of form. Some rings are not pierced; some are pierced with four, and others with eight holes, always in pairs placed opposite each other. The rings vary in size, the largest being 6 cm in diameter. In several specimens, the drilling seems to have been done from both sides with the holes meeting in the centre. Usually the inner hole is at only a slight angle, which shows that the drill must have been small, probably made of meteoric iron.

 

      Objects of Shell.—The usual cups or vessels cut from buscyon and pyrula shells were found at Hopewell. They are of common forms, varying in length from 15 to 28 cm. Quantities of beads were found in the altars and with burials. Those of shell do not differ from the shell beads commonly found in the mounds of the Ohio Valley, so that a detailed description is not necessary. Shell gorgets and shell ornaments were placed in the altars, but were almost completely destroyed by fire. A few fragments were found, but the painstaking attempts at restoration have failed. There are fragments of elaborate relief carvings of birds, animals, and other objects, and of gorgets bearing geometrical or highly conventionalized designs carved with consummate skill. The shell pendant shown in Fig. 43 was found in Altar 2. It is about 4 cm long, and is made from the thick part of a large shell. It would be interesting to know the exact number of pearls recovered from the Hopewell mounds. They have never been counted, but I estimate the number at over a hundred thousand. They range in size from minute examples 1 mm in diameter to some nearly 15 mm in diameter. Many are perfect, but others are of the inferior grades known as slugs or hinge pearls. G. F. Kunz once informed me that the Hopewell pearls in their original condition, before they were buried, were worth at least one million dollars. Some of the pearls are shown in Plate LXXX. Many of the specimens were drilled very carefully. There is no evidence that they were perforated by means of a strip of heated copper wire, as has been suggested. A portion of a small drill of meteoric iron was found in one specimen. The drilling of these thousands of beads was certainly a long and laborious process. Willoughby's study of how pearls were drilled is presented in Fig. 44. He makes the following comments:— "The diagramatic drawings shown in Fig. 44 illustrate the various ways in which the pearls were perforated: a, b, c, and d have single perforations. In a, the hole is low upon the side, and the pearl was probably sewn to some object, not strung as a bead. E and f have a single perforation made by two holes drilled at angles, meeting in the interior of the pearl; g has two oblique perforations; h has a lateral perforation, and meeting it at right angles is another hole drilled from the bottom of the specimen; i, j, and k have two perforations intersecting almost at right angles. The pearls represented in l, m, n, o, and p, have cut surfaces which are indicated by dotted lines. In n and p the bottom is flat, and the edges carefully beveled as though for insertion into a corresponding cavity in some object. Pearls inlaid in bear's teeth occasionally have the lower side cut to fit the cavity in the tooth. Many of the pearls are perforated by drilling from opposite sides, as indicated by the countersunk holes which usually meet near the centre of the bead. It is evident that a large number of the small and medium-sized beads were penetrated from one side only by a slender drill of copper or meteoric iron, for the holes in many instances are so small and regular they could not have been made with a flint point."
 

     A few other bone tools were recovered. One of these was a fragment of a human ulna over one end of which there was a small piece of meteoric iron. A band of the same material, 1 cm wide, encircled it a short distance below this. About four hundred bears' claws were found, principally in the altars.

Fig. 62. Decorated Bones from Altar 2.

     Fig. 62 shows three examples of bone carving; a is made from the femur of some large animal, and was probably the handle of a ceremonial implement. The surface has been scraped, and the joint cut in the form illustrated. The interesting feature is that a thin strip of meteoric iron was placed across the end, and a band or ferrule of the same material fastened around and riveted. A portion of the iron which still adheres is shown in the drawing.

     Textiles.—Both in the altars and with burials, there were numerous traces of textiles which had been preserved either by charring or by contact with copper or meteoric iron. From these we may gain a slight clew to the character of the garments worn by the ancient people.

from The Hopewell Mound Group of Ohio, Warren K. Moorehead - 1922