ANCHOR STONES. 685 



elsewhere iu the Mississippi Valley, having on one side, and sometimes 

 on both, shallow, basin-like depressions artificially scooped out. Stones 

 of this character are found of various dimensions and different kinds, and 

 are commonly known as "mortars," the general belief being that they 

 were used iu some inexplicable way for grinding grain with the aid of i)es- 

 ties, somewhat as the nietate is still employed by the Pueblos and Mex- 

 icans. Fig. 2 (Plate I,) represents a typical specimen of the objects 

 mentioned, now in my collection. It was found nea^ the bank of the 

 Illinois Eiver in excavating a cellar in the city of Beardstown, in this 

 county, on the site of an ancient Indian camping ground. It is a smooth, 

 water- worn bowlder of hard greenstone (diorite), with both sides hol- 

 lowed out dish-like to the depth of almost an inch at the center below 

 the edges. It weighs a fraction o\'er 15 pounds, is 9i inches iu length, 

 7 iuclies wide, and 3i in thickness at the circumference; with rounded 

 borders smooth, excepting at both ends, and on one side for a space the 

 stone is roughened and battered as though it had been used as a maul 

 for breaking other stones, or as an anvil upon which hard substances 

 had been hammered. Fig. 3 (Plate II) is another so-called mortar of 

 the class most frequently found, from one of the counties in the south- 

 ern part of this State (Illinois) ; a rough block of granite weighing 16 

 pounds, with smoothly-worn depressions on both sides. The excava- 

 tions in all the objects of this class, including Fig. 1, are so insignificant, 

 so shallow and broad, as to preclude their supposed use as mortars. 

 " Dished " stones of this character are comparatively common iu south- 

 ern Illinois and farther east on both sides of the Ohio River. And iu 

 the same territory stone muUers, of which Fig. 4 (Plate II) is the ordi- 

 nary type, are also frequently met with. The correlation of the two im- 

 plements is a natural inference at first sight, but the experiments I have 

 tried with those in my collection satisfied me that the two implements 

 were not used together. I could find none of the pestles to fit the mor- 

 tars. The iJestles have broad, flat bases not adapted to concavities, 

 and must have been used, if used an pestles at all, on plane surfaces, as 

 our painters of a generation ago employed similar stone mullers for 

 grinding their paints on broad, flat slabs of marble. The "dished" 

 stones, in my opinion, are simply the rubbing-stones, or whetstones 

 upon which, with the aid of sand and water, the diorite axes and celts 

 received their cutting edges. 



The anchor stone I was describing when led into this digression was 

 found in a small sand mound, 15 feet in diameter and 2 feet high, a 

 short distance from the Illinois River, in the suburbs of the city of 

 Beardstown. The mound covered the much-decayed skeleton of a 

 large, middle-aged individual, who had been laid on the surface of the 

 ground, on his back, at full length, with feet to the west and arms ex- 

 tended down his sides. The back of the skull rested in the concavity 

 of the stone, which had been placed as a pillow under the occiput of 

 the corpse. Under each shoulder and under each elbow, each hip and 

 each heel of the skeleton, was found a common, smooth, water worn 



