480 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 9 



of stone. A photograph of the quarry as it appeared in 1894, soon 

 after the beginning of the examination, is reproduced in plate 4, figure 

 2. Two specimens from the quarry are shown in plate 5, figure 1. 

 Both are parts of unfinished vessels and reveal clearly the marks left 

 by the stone implements used in shaping the blocks of stone. 



Finished vessels. — There are many localities in Virginia where soap- 

 stone was obtained by the Indians in prehistoric times, and some of 

 the more important of these have now been mentioned, but other quar- 

 ries of equal extent and interest may remain hidden beneath moss 

 and vegetal mold to be revealed at some later day. 



The vast amount of work that was done at the quarries is indicated 

 by the numerous excavations in the stone, and by the quantities of 

 fractured, partly made vessels that have been encountered nearby. 

 And although many were broken at the quarries, others were com- 



PiGURH 3. — Virginia. Part of a soapstone vessel found on the site of Nandtanghtacund, 

 on right bank of the Rappahannock River, Caroline County. U. S. N. M. No. 378093. 

 One-third natural size. 



pleted and carried away to be fashioned into comparatively symmetri- 

 cal, smoothed vessels. This is revealed by the few entire specimens, 

 and the many fragments of such utensils, that have been found on the 

 sites of ancient villages. Three examples, all discovered on ancient 

 sites in the James River valley, are illustrated in plate 6, 



No entire soapstone vessel is known to have been recovered in the 

 valley of the Rappahannock, but fragments of finished utensils are 

 numerous. One piece of exceptional interest was found at the edge 

 of the water of Port Tobago Bay, on the right bank of the Rappa- 

 hannock, in Caroline County. Tliis was the site of the village of 

 Nandtanghtacund in 1608. Two views of the specimen are shown 

 in figure 3. The projection, of which there was probably a duplicate 

 at the other end of the vessel, had been cut to represent a human head 

 or face. 



