448 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



BANNER STONE, QUARTZ, DRILLED AND FINELY 

 POLISHED. 



Illiuois. 



Cat. No. •ilW.n, r.S.N.M. ?-.; natural size. 



North America, the purpose of -which is unknown, which, for want of 

 a better name aud in accordance with a supposed use or function, have 

 been called " Ceremonial objects." Any description of or argument 

 concerning their ])0S8il)le use would be part of the history of the civili- 

 zation of the times and belongs to 

 technology, or to industrial, but not 

 fine art. They have been pecked or 

 battered into general, then ground 

 into particular form, then polished, 

 and lastly drilled. The correctness 

 of their forms, their symmetry, their 

 smoothness of surface and ])erfection 

 of detail, together with the supi)osi- 

 tiou of their ornamental and not util- 

 itarian function, causes them to be 

 classed among objects of tine art. 



Banner stones. — This name has 

 been given empirically and only for 

 want of a better. Fig. 100 repre- 

 sents one of these implements, half 

 size. It was found near Dubuque, 

 Iowa, by Mr. H. T. Woodman, is of ferruginous quartz, translucent, 

 reddish color passing over to white, within one or two degrees of being 

 as hard as the diamond. Despite all its rounded corners and smoothed 

 edges it will scratch glass without difHculty. It has been hammered or 

 pecked, ground, polished and drilled, and its entire surface made 

 smooth as glass. It is 

 symmetric viewed from 

 either side or edge. The 

 amount of skilled labor 

 required to reduce it to 

 its present elegant ap- 

 pearance, the difficulties 

 in accomplishing this, all 

 of which was only to pro- 

 duce an ornament, jus- 

 tifies its classification 

 among objects of tine 

 art. Fig. 101 rejjresents 

 another specimen of the 

 same kind. It has been 

 finished in the manner 

 just described, and it is submitted with the same idea. It was found 

 in Prince George County, Maryland, and was contributed by Dr. 

 E. E. Reynolds. 



Fig. 102 represents another banner stone of the same general style, 

 introduced because of its beauty and the fineness of its manufacture. 



Fig. iol. 



BANNER STONE, SYENITE, DRILLED AND FINELY POLISHED. 



Prlneo George Conrcy, Marjiantl. 



Cat. No. X4fAS, U.S.N. M. h ii.itural si7,e. 



