1920.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA 209 



IRON ORE ARTIFACTS FROM ALABAMA. 

 BY H. NEWELL WARDLE. 



The attention of the writer was recently called to a series of arti- 

 facts of peculiar form and unusual material — all surface finds, from 

 Blount County, Alabama. Their owner and discoverer, Mr. E. S. 

 Ginnane, a local private collector, being unable to account for their 

 singular form, and noting no duplicates on display in the great 

 museums of our cities, kindly sent a selection of the pieces to The 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and, these prov- 

 ing so interesting, followed them with the loan of his entire series 

 for purposes of study. 



The material is iron ore of varying grade — some hematite, some 

 limonite. Many of the pieces, taken by themselves, might be con- 

 sidered as implements in the process of blocking out, but, brought 

 into relation to the series, show a definiteness of purpose that calls 

 for interpretation. 



In general, the outline is amygdaloid, varying to oblong, with one 

 plane surface and one more or less convex. The plane surface, and 

 occasionally the lateral surfaces also, show signs of rubbing or pol- 

 ishing. Though some pieces thus approach the well-known hoat- 

 stone in form,i neither material nor finish permits their assignment 

 to that class, and the objects are obviously tools. Their narrow 

 ends are frequently flattened, squared or notched. This last pecu- 

 liarity was the first to attract attention. Taken in conjunction 

 with their relatively great weight, it seemed to throw them into the 

 group of sinkers. But why the notch should have been placed on 

 the ends, in preference to the sides, as in all recognized sinkers, 

 remained a disconcerting problem. 



A second possible explanation was their employment as weaving 

 weights where a slender weight would have its advantage among 

 the close-hung strands. Not all the pieces are notched, however, 

 and, of those which are, some have the groove much shallower 



^A boat stone of ferruginous rock or limonite, resembling the specimen shown 

 in Plate VII, fig. 1 was found by Mr. Clarence B. Moore, in the Mound near 

 Chandler Landing, Prairie County, Arkansas. Moore, "Antiquities of the St. 

 Francis, White, and Black Rivers, Arkansas." Journ. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Phila- 

 delphia, Vol. XIY, p. 346. 



