Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Anthropology/Aboriginal Soapstone Quarry and Shell-Heaps in Alabama
ABORIGINAL SOAPSTONE QUARRY AND SHELL-HEAPS IN ALABAMA,
By Charles Mohr, of Mobile, Alabama.
In the course of a mineralogical trip through the region of metamorphic rocks in this state, stopping at Dudleyville, Tallapoosa County, I heard much of an ancient soapstone quarry, worked by a race of which, according to the statements of the first settlers amongst the Creeks and Muscogees, no tradition existed among these tribes. I was urgently pressed, but could not go, to visit the quarry myself, so it is due to Dr. Johnston, of Dudleyville, that I am enabled to make this contribution. The gentleman writes: "I picked up the large fragments near excavations in the rock from the very place where the ancient stonecutter left his rude and unfinished work." Allusion to these so called soapstone excavations and pottery is made in the second biennial report on the Geology of Alabama, by Professor Tourney, 1858, and also in the first report of the Progress of Geological Survey of Alabama, by Dr. E. Smith, 1874, pages, 86, 94, and 118. The rock from which this specimen has been quarried is rather a fibrous serpentine, intermixed partly with an asbestoid actinite than a soapstone. A stone chisel has, according to the statement of Dr. Johnston, been found in the soapstone quarries, and was undoubtedly an instrument used in cutting and dressing the vessels, and is of a porphyritic or dioritic rock foreign to the geological formation in that section.
I found a peculiar tablet of indurated ferruginous clay, the straight lines along the margin of which would lead one to think that it was used for a tally, worn around the neck suspended by a string. It was found in an old field on the western shore of Mobile Bay, near Magnolia race course. In this county two kinds of shell-banks or shell-mounds are met with.
The first are situated in the low marshes of the delta of Mobile River, first recognized as artificial accumulations of shells, and described as the gnathodon beds by Professor Tourney in his second biennial report on Geology of Alabama, 1858. He mentions the same at the time of his visit extending over several acres of ground, and some with an elevation of from 10 to 20 feet, presenting the shape of truncated cones, covered with a growth of native forest trees. These beds are almost entirely made of the shells of Gnathodon cuneatus, but in some quantities of stone of Cyrena carolinensis and the Neritina reclivata have served in a less degree to swell those accumulations 5 together with these, charcoal, ashes, and the bones of birds and animals are found. Relics of the handicraft of the builders of these shell-mounds are almost unknown. Professor Tourney speaks of an instrument cut from the shell of the Pyrula ficus which he found 10 feet below the surface, and of scarce fragments of pottery. These beds are, at this day, almost all levelled to the ground, and are rapidly disappearing, many having been appropriated as excellent sites for market gardens, and vast quantities of shells have been, and are still, removed for the construction of our shell-roads. The time is rapidly approaching when scarce any vestige will be left of them, and it is therefore most to be wished that the little of what yet remains should be closely investigated, and a minute account be put upon permanent record.
The other shell-banks are situated on the eastern and western shores of Mobile Bay, and along the coast of the Mississippi sound to the mouth of the Pascagoula. They are all above tide- water on dry land, contiguous to the extensive oyster beds in these waters, and composed exclusively of the oyster. The most interesting and the most extensive of these accumulations made by the ancient Ostreaphagi is found on the north side of the Bayou Cock d'Indes near its mouth, a few miles distant from Bayou La Batterie, in the extreme southern part of this county. But comparativeiy a small part of the large mound is left, and what remains serves as a beautiful site for a farm house, shaded by magnificent live oaks of the growth perhaps of scores of decades, offering under their shade, from an elevation of from 25 to 35 feet, a fine view of the surrounding country, and the island-studded waters of the Gulf. A quarter of a century ago these banks furnished this city for years with lime for building, and are still much used for the construction of roadbeds; having, however, passed of late years into the hands of farmers, the application of lime for agricultural purposes tends now, more than anything else, to their demolition and rapid disappearance. Considerable quantities of remains of the industries of these shell-bank builders have been found, mostly in the shape of ornamental pottery, as testified by a collection of these relics in the hands of Major Walthall. They consist of a pipe, bowls, handles of pots, mouthpieces of jars, representing heads of birds and animals, and human heads with a most characteristic and impressive cast of features, reminding me strongly of the faces of Mexican idols. Some of these are almost identical with those mentioned by Mr. Putman, in his report on the Peabody Museum of Archæology and Ethnology, published in the June number of the American Naturalist, and figured under Nos. 7775-76, specimens representing female heads bearing the very same features and the same style of head-dress as No. 7778. They are all made of soft clay found on the bay shore, mixed with very small particles of burnt shell. What interested me mostly in looking over these remains is the occurrence of the same double concave, rounded, and polished disks, agreeing exactly with those of No. 7838 in the same paper.
I learn that near Mount Vernon Arsenal, 30 miles distant from this city, and about 3½ miles from the Alabama River, are ancient burial grounds, and that the exploration of the same has, from time to time, been attempted by different persons, I do not know with what result.