474 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 39 



was sometimes followed even though it was necessary to cut blocks 

 from the solid mass. 



The second and more characteristic way of shaping and removing 

 the blocks was practiced when the stone was compact, relatively soft, 

 and easily worked with the primitive tools. A spot was selected on 

 the exposed surface of the soapstone, and the outline of the desired 

 block was channeled, or rather grooved, by the use of stone imple- 

 ments. The groove was widened and deepened to the depth of the 

 piece to be removed. During the preliminary cutting the block as- 

 sumed the form of the intended vessel, often with projections at the 

 ends which were later fashioned into lugs or handles. 



Many stone implements have been discovered in the vicinity of the 

 quarries which had been used in preparing the blocks of stone and later 

 in trimming and shaping the utensils. Some are deeply weathered, 

 indicative of age. A large number of the objects are made of quartz- 

 ite, often crudely flaked boulders with slight secondary chipping. 

 These differ in size; some are rather massive and heavy, and others 

 are slender, chisellike implements. They appear crude, but were so 

 formed to serve definite purposes during the process of shaping and 

 reducing the blocks of stone. 



When viewing an exposed surface of an ancient quarry, it is not 

 difficult to visualize a scene that would have been presentxid centuries 

 ago when the quariy was being worked by Indians. Some of the 

 workers would have been engaged in cutting and removing blocks 

 of stone from the mass, after the earth and mold had been cleared 

 away; others would have been near the pits pecking and battering 

 the pieces thus removed with crude stone implements, in the endeavor 

 to hollow and shape the vessel. It was during this stage of the work 

 that many partly formed vessels were broken and abandoned. The 

 restoration of a typical scene at an ancient quarry is shown in plate 1, 

 after a painting by E. G. Cassedy. 



FINISHING THE VESSELS 



After the outside of the vessel had been roughly shaped, the more 

 difficult process of hollowing the inside was begun. This work 

 resulted in many pieces being broken and abandoned as useless. It 

 is evident that few, if any, vessels were carried from the vicinity of 

 the quarry until after they had been entirely formed and were in a 

 condition to be used, although the surfaces, both inside and outside, 

 remained very rough and irregular. The finishing of the surface 

 was accomplished at the village, after the return from the quarry, 

 and obviously much of the smoothing resulted from the long use of 

 the vessel. 



