18 



BULLETIN 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Fig. 18.— Arrow-smoothing 



STONE FROM SpUK RaXCH. 



these simple stones is shown in figure 18, Cat. No. 231859, U.S.N.M. ; 

 Spur Ranch, Luna, New Mexico.) 



POTTEBY-WORKING STONES. 



Circular or oblong flattish stones of convenient size for grasping 

 in the palm and fingers of the hand are used by the Pima-Papago- 



Maricopa group, the Mohave, Yumas,Diegue- 

 nos, Kawia, and other southern California 

 pottery-making tribes. These stones are 

 either selected bowlders, stones picked up 

 from ancient sites, or stones probably worked 

 to form by the present tribes. In all cases 

 the stone having the proper contour would 

 be selected for the purpose, and as many 

 neatly dressed stones of the type of the small 

 grinding stone, which is circular or of pillow shape, are to be secured 

 from the inmiediate neighborhood of ruins in this region, they have 

 been taken to the camps of the 

 Indians and employed in pottery 

 making. Russell says that the 

 Pima "use a flat circular stone 

 about 4 inches in diameter."^ 

 The implements required by the 

 Indian potters of the Southwest- 

 ern border are paddles of wood 

 or stone, and an anvil stone, or 

 bumper, which is held within the 

 vessel in process of coiling, and 

 between the stone and the paddle 

 the coils are pressed down^ the 

 clay is thinned or regulated in 

 thickness, while at equal rate the vessel is expanded and reduced to 

 the form desired. By this means, in the hands of an expert potter, 



vessels of remarkable thinness can be 

 produced. 



A smoothing stone which may pos- 

 sibly be a pottery-working tool is oval 

 in shape and finally worked from very 

 hard grit stone. (Fig. 19; Cat. No. 

 231881, U.S.N.M.; length, 5^ inches; 

 width, 4 inches ; thickness, 1 j^ inches ; 

 Spur Ranch, Luna, New Mexico.) A 

 finely finished specimen of purple 

 quartz ite was found at the Stoclrton 

 Ranch on San Francisco River near the mouth of the Blue. The 

 edges of the implement are pecked to give a roughened surface to 



w 



Fig. 19. 



-Smoothing stone from Spur 

 Ranch. 



Fig. 20. — Smoothing stone from 

 LowuR San Francisco River. 



1 26tli Ann. Rept. Bur, Amer. Ethnology, p. 126. 



