Ohio History Journal

THE SPETNAGLE CACHE OF FLINT

SPEAR-POINTS

Few better examples of ceremonial offerings of

chipped flint artifacts than the Spetnagel cache of flint

spear-points, recently placed on exhibition in the Mu-

seum of the Society by Mr. Albert C. Spetnagel, of

Chillicothe, have been found in Ohio or elsewhere. This

remarkable cache-lot of upwards of 200 ceremonial

spears was unearthed in the spring of 1922 in excavat-

ing the basement for a dwelling-house in the northern

suburbs of Chillicothe. The discovery, coming to the

attention of Mr. Frank Grubb, a member of this So-

ciety, was reported to Mr. Spetnagel, who immediately

took steps to secure the specimens. It developed that

workmen on the building contract had come upon the

offering at a depth of about eighteen inches below the

surface, placed apparently in some order but without ac-

companying skeletal remains or any particular prepara-

tion. Evincing no interest in the find, the workmen per-

mitted scrapers to drag the specimens out into the gar-

den lot where the earth was being used for grading

purposes. At considerable expense Mr. Spetnagel had

this earth carefully examined and thus recovered the

specimens so carelessly disposed of. In addition, he se-

cured from numerous individuals specimens which had

been carried away as curios.

The ceremonial spears, upwards of 200 in number,

are chipped from the drab nodular flint found in south-

ern Indiana and in Tennessee. They range in length

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640     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

from 3 inches to 10 1/2 inches, and are of two types, as

shown in the accompanying drawing, by H. R. Good-

win, of the Museum staff, which illustrates typical speci-

ments in their natural sizes. By far the greater num-

ber are of the type of the smaller of the two spears illus-

trated.

A regrettable feature of the find is the fact that

prior to depositing the spear-points in the shrine-like

aperture, the aboriginal owners intentionally broke

them -- the ceremonial "killing", so often observed in

exploring mounds of the great Hopewell culture group.

Fortunately a number of the specimens were only

slightly broken, or were fractured into but two or three

parts, so that about one-half the entire number were

readily re-united and restored. They completely fill a

large display case in the Museum, in close proximity to

the specimens from the Mound City group in Camp

Sherman. The nearness of the site of the cache-find to

the mounds in Camp Sherman, together with the fact

that the ceremonial spear-points apparently belong to

the same (Hopewell) culture, indicate strongly that the

builders of the Mound City mounds were the original

possessors of the spears.

It is presumed that this unusually large and finely

made lot of spears were deposited where found as an

offering to some deity of the ancient inhabitants of the

present Ross county.