At least four lunate forms in the shape of a quarter moon appear at the Jeffers Petroglyphs site in southwestern Minnesota. An old petroglyph (that has been nearly worn away but that was recorded by T.H. Lewis in the 1890's) also appears at the Fort Ransom Writing Rock in Fort Ransom, North Dakota.
In visiting the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago during the SAA convention in May 1999 I came across a museum display that showed a lunate form that was displayed as an Old Copper Age object used by women as a kind of knife or ulu. A wooden handle crossed the points of the moon shaped copper knife to make a handle and apparently this object had been excavated from an Old Copper Age site somewhere in the Midwest. At the Jeffers site there are what have been interpreted by Jack Steinbring as Old Copper Age tanged projectile points - without the representation of the wooden shaft. This is similar to Bronze Age objects that are sometimes carved into stone cists and at Stonehenge that show the metal component only of a composite tool made from metal and wood. Another possibility for the lunate forms at Jeffers would be the interpretation that the lunate forms were gorgets like those found in Hopewell excavations. These often had holes to hold with rope the gorget around the neck. These holes do not appear in the rock art representation. None of these interpretations would preclude the object symbolizing the moon or women or being some kind of ethnic symbol or marking since physical objects of metal can have symbolic meanings as well. Unlike the Jeffers lunates, at Fort Ransom, where the petroglyph looks like a "cents" sign the rock art may be an attempt to show the wooden handle of the knife.
Chapter 9 of Jack Steinbring's 1975 Ph.D. dissertation is entitled "Lunar Symbolism During the Archaic: An Hypothesis" and sets out in great detail, ethnographic and archaeological evidence suggesting a symbolic as opposed to functional meaning of the lunate form. Guy Gibbon in his 1998 article "Old Copper in Minnesota: A Review" Plains Anthropologist Vol.43, No.163 pp.27-50 summarized this as follows:
Steinbring (1975) has argued that at least some copper crescents had a nonutilitarian function. This is suggested by: (1) their most common in situ context, which is as mortuary furniture; (2) their presence in all but one (Osceola) of the major cemetary sites; (3) their position in the thoracic region of some burials, which suggests they were suspended on the chest; (4) the general absence of average-to large-sized crescents in excavated portions of habitation sites; (5) the delicate nature of the miniature crescents that do occur in habitation contexts; (6) the unsuitable shape of some for butchering functions, especially those with exceptionally long "handles." He supports his suggestion that they served as lunar symbols with evidence from both ethnographic and archaeological sources. This evidence includes the presence of lunar mythology among historic populations in the Upper reat Lakes region and a possible association between burial type (high status), burial alignment (to the full or half moon), copper crescents, and lunar-compatible numbers of incisions upon burial furniture (Gibbon 1998:42).
Steinbring (1975:270) reviewed the ethnographic accounts as follows:
The most readily analogous form for which broad ethnological support would be available is that of the lunar symbol. Its pictographic representation among hunting societies of the Upper Great Lakes region is well established, particularly among the Ojibwa (Mallery 1893:242, Hoffman 1891:249,294, Landes 1968:82,83) who are regarded by Landes (1961:87) and Jennings (1968:112) as reflecting direct descent from the Archaic. Lunar mythology among these populations is also well developed (Jenness 1929:9,54,60,62,76,96,97,109). The Ojibwa are reported by Keating (1825) to have had a "moon cult" and Hoffman (1891:294) describes a pictographic representation of moon-phases associated with the Midewiwin as "probably having reference to certain periods at which some important ceremonies or events are to occur." Radisson reported the Ojibwa to have made "half-moons of copper" (Thayer 1940:58), and the association between copper and the Ojibwa pictographic recording of mythological tradition is precisely conveyed by Warren (1885:89,90) [quotation omitted].
Steinbring points out that in burial #10 at the large cemetary site on the south shore of Lake Butte des Morts in east-central Wisconsin 3 copper crescents were found and he included a photograph of the artifacts. The points tend to angle back like they were tangs rather than having a perfectly smooth quarter moon shape as the Jeffers petroglyphs are carved. The drawing of the triple burial shows two of the crescents with their points facing northeast (summer, moonrise or sunrise?) and the curved part facing southwest (winter, moonset or sunset?).The third lunate was drawn by Ostberg as being over the L3 area but also overlapping some ribs. Steinbring indicates "A third crescent is located upon the lower chest, with the tangs pointed toward the head" Steinbring 1975:274). One of the crescents is notched which could be notational. Steinbring cites Warren (1885:89,90) at length for an Ojibway of the Crane family who had kept 8 notches on a circular copper plate which was kept buried in the ground most of the time. The notches were the number of ancestors who had passed away since the Ojibwe first lighted their fire at Shang-a-waum-ik-ong near La Pointe (Steinbring 1975:271).
There is an historic photograph taken of Red Cloud that shows him wearing a lunate around his neck and Frances Densmore illustrates and describes a lunate form given to an Ojibwe infant to be worn around the neck. These suggest a likely connection to shamanism.The Ojibwe, of course only arrived in Minnesota during the historic period and the distant time of the people and culture of the late Archaic 5000 years ago arguably attenuates the possible cultural analogies. The Ojibwe however could certainly have preserved the traditional meaning of a symbol and artifact that derived from Archaic times.
Gibbon, Guy 1998 "Old Copper in Minnesota: A Review" Plains Anthropologist Vol.43, No.163 pp.27-50
Hoffman, W. J. 1891 "The Mide'Wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa," 7th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp.143-300, Washington D.C.
Keating, W.H. 1825 Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, Lake Winepeck, Lake of the Woods, Ec. Performed in the Year 1823, by Order of the Hon. J.C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, under the command of S.H.Long, U.S.T.E. 2 volumes, London.
Landes, Ruth 1968 Ojibwa Religion and the Midewiwin, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Mallery, Garrick 1893 Picture Writing of the American Indians 10th Annual Report of the Bureau of Amereican Etnology Washington, D.C. Dover reprint 1972 Toronto
Steinbring, John Henry (Jack) 1975 Taxonomic and Associational Considerations of Copper Technology during the Archaic Tradition Ph.D. dissertation. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Thayer, Burton 1940 "Notes on Glacial Flot Copper," The Minnesota Archaeologist Volume 6, No. 2, p.52,56, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Warren W.W. 1885 History of the Ojibwa Nation, Based upon Traditions and Oral Statements. Minnesota Historical Collections, Volume 5, pp.21-394, St. Paul.
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