(Cypraecassis rufa) in a grave of the prehistoric Cro-Magnon man in the caves of France was of considerable importance in tracing former trade routes. This species is found only in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Its presence substantiated other archaeological evidence that extensive trade routes for great distances existed among early European man. The Tiger Cowrie (Cypraea tigris), another Indo-Pacific species, has been found in a prehistoric pit-dwelling at St. Mary Bourne at Hants, England, and the Panther Cowrie (Cypraea pantherina), a Red Sea species, has been found in Saxon women’s graves, excavated in several localities in Kent, England.
The seashell with perhaps the widest dispersal by the ancients and modern man is the small, yellow Money Cowrie (Cypraea moneta) which was for many centuries the accepted currency in many parts of the world. Although its natural biological distribution is limited to the vast areas of the Indian Ocean, the East Indies and the islands of the tropical Pacific, its use as currency or for ornamentation has been almost worldwide. The three most unusual records are those located in North America.
When the aboriginal sites along the Tennessee River were being investigated at the beginning of this century, five Pacific Money Cowries were unearthed from one of the graves of the Roden Mounds in Alabama. Evidence points to the fact that these burials had been made before the mound makers had any intercourse with white man. The shells were sent to the United States National Museum by their discoverer, and Dr. William H. Dall wrote the following interesting reply:—
I should incline to the belief that the cowries were imported in or about the time of Columbus’ voyages. Bound, as they supposed, for the Indies, where the cowry was formerly (like our wampum) a staple article of barter, the exploring vessels would have undoubtedly carried cowries as well as other articles of trade we know they carried. It would not have taken them long to find out that cowries did not pass as currency with American natives, and reporting this on their return to Spain later traders would not have carried them for barter. The necklace or bracelet you obtained may have passed from hand to hand as a curiosity (as I have known such things to do) until it reached a people who knew nothing of whites ’till much later. In fact your cowries may have come off one of Columbus’ own vessels.
If not from one of Columbus’ ships, these shells more than likely were brought over from Europe soon afterward by early Spanish explorers. It does not seem so plausible to assume, as some ethnologists do, that these shells were brought by migrating tribes from eastern Asia to America via the Bering Straits long before the time of Columbus.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition brought back in 1805 a handsome dress, possibly of Cree origin, which was adorned with four dozen Money Cowries.
