STONE AGE IX NEW JERSEY. 327 



imi)leiiieuts of stone admirably adapted to such work are so abundant, 

 we are of opinion that our suggestions as to the use of the latttr arc 

 substantially correct.* 



CiiAriEK XVI. 



BREAST -PLATES A>'D GORGETS. 



On the site of ancient Indian towns, throughout the whole State, or 

 wherever evidences occur of a fierce battle, and in every grave we have 

 opened, are found tablets of easily-worked stone, varying in length and 

 outline, and, as a rule, carefully polished, and perforated with one, two, 

 or more holes. Such stone ornaments — and they were intended merely 

 as ornaments — we have called " breast-xdates," because found lying near 

 the breast of skeletons in the graves which we have examined, or "gor- 

 gets," a good name for them, suggested by Squier and Davis. 



Wo have said that these breast-plates or gorgets vary in shape and 

 size, which is the case, but those found iu IS^ew Jersey are most usually of 

 the shape of our first illustration, (figure 1G3,) and vary only in other 

 details from this, which may be considered the typical form. The min- 

 eral of which they are made varies much, but none have been found of 

 stone as hard as porphyry. 



Figure 103 is four and five-sixteenths inches long and one inch and five- 

 eighths wide at the middle; this specimen has been drilled in two places 

 from each side until the depressions met, the distance between the 

 holes on one side being exactly four-fifths of an inch, a distance noticed 

 particularly by Squier and Davis,+ iu several of the specimens they 

 figured. They remark, " It is a singular fact that the holes in the three 

 specimens first noticed, as also iu some of those which follow, are 

 placed exactly four-fifths of an inch apart. This could hardly have 

 been the result of accident. These relics were found at dill'erent locali- 

 ties, several miles distant from each other." If this similarity of dis- 

 tance between the perforations was intentional, it would seem that 

 the stone had some use other than merely as a breast ornament. Cer- 

 tainly, in such case, the mere distance separating the holes could have 

 had no special use. In figure 163 this distance is variable, inasmuch 

 as the hole is obliquely drilled, and so produces a greater space between 

 the two perforation-s on one side than on the other. This crooked drill- 

 ing and unequal interspacing is quite common, and seems more strange 

 when the accuracy of the drilling in " banner-stones," which were much 

 more elaborate ornaments, is taken into consideration. The rude drilling 

 of some breast-plates may indicate that they are older than banner-stones, 

 and were fashioned when the art of drilling was not much advanced. 



"Mr. Jobu Evaus, of Euglaud, rtfcmug in detail to the various I'onus in a small 

 collection of antiquities forwarded to him by the author, writes of a slato drill, a/ac 

 simile of fig. 14"2 : "I imagine it to have been au awl or boring-tool for soft subsitauces, 

 such as leather.' While this is very probable, we think we have shown clearly that 

 these "soft" drills are capable of drilling ru stone. 



t Auc. Mou. Miss. Valley, p. 2:37. 



