A PREHISTORIC CEMETERY. 



447 



rife. Still other relics are strikingly like some found elsewhere, not 

 particularly in this country, but in Europe, as will be shown further 

 on. Among the most curious and anomalous of all are certain pecul- 

 iarly grooved bones, as represented in Fig. 1.* They are usually made 



Fig. i. 



of the leg-bones of the deer or elk. But few of the specimens are per- 

 fect, the majority having been broken by use and wearing away of the 

 bone. The groove is often highly polished, though scratches running 

 the long way are visible. These scratches were made in the manu- 

 facture or use of the instrument or tool, but what its use was no one 

 has been able satisfactorily to determine. Archaeologists are puzzled, 

 and pronounce them to be unique. It has been supposed by nearly 

 every one that they were used in dress- 

 ing skins, but no such scratches as are 

 observed could be made in that opera- 

 tion. Some have suggested that perhaps 

 they were made to serve some purpose 

 of ornamentation, but neither is this ex- 

 planation probable. It seems to me that 

 the groove has been the result of rub- 

 bing, for the purpose of polishing certain 

 other relics found here. There have been 

 found numbers of peculiar cylindrical 

 pieces of bone and horn, like Fig. 2, as 

 unlike anything found elsewhere as the 

 grooved bones ; and it seems probable 

 that these cylinders of bone have been 

 rubbed and polished in the grooved 

 bones. We find that the different-sized 

 cylinders fit well into the different-sized grooves, and certainly constant 

 rubbing would both round off and polish the cylinders, and leave 

 scratches in the groove. It has been a matter of speculation, also, 

 to determine the use of these cylinders. Some have said that they 

 were used in playing a game ; but it is more likely that they were 

 made into a belt for the waist, or a necklace, thongs being woven be- 



* Copied from " Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History," vol. iii., plate 1. 

 Most of the figures herein given are made from specimens in the collection of the Cincin- 

 nati Society of Natural History. 



Fig. 



