164 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



down and tlie broad edge was fairly sharp. Another blade fragment 

 (pi. 6, fig. 2, b) had been tempered by heating and was well pre- 

 served. It had been ground to a sharp edge and had a rounded notch 

 on the side just above the blade. The presence of this side notch has 

 been taken by Sterns as an indication that such scapula artifacts were 

 mounted on straight handles and used as spades. This is possible, 

 but since typical unnotched scapula " hoes " are also found, it may 

 be that the smaller notched pieces are fragments reworked for some 

 other purpose than digging. The other fragments also showed grind- 

 ing, and one had a rounded notch (as in pi. 6, fig. 2, a) at the butt end. 

 None of these were perforated. 



A large awl, or more probably hand pick, made from the ulna bone 

 of a bison is rather unique (pi. 18, fig. i, a). It contrasts markedly 

 with a small ulna bone awl (pi. 18, fig. i, ;;/) from the same house. 

 Both artifacts had been heat-tempered. The former is 210 mm, the 

 latter 135 mm in length. Several fragments of split and tempered 

 bones, all more or less worked, were found. Split fragments of deer 

 cannon bone suggested the manufacture of bone awls. 



Work in Antler 



Only two artifacts of this material were found, both coming from 

 cache i. The first of these is a shaft straightener of deer antler 

 (pi. 18, fig. I, b). A slender tine was selected and a 12-mm hole, 

 perfectly round and straight, cut through its base. Another tine 

 branching off at this point had been neatly cut off. One end of the 

 specimen culminates in the slender antler point, but the larger end is 

 broken off. The remaining portion is 165 mm in length. The other 

 specimen of antler is a punch or tapping tool (pi. 18, fig. i, e). It 

 is a curved section of antler with the swelling base at one end and a 

 neatly rounded cut at the other. The surface of the antler has been 

 ground down to perfect smoothness, which with its whitish color 

 gives it the appearance of a section of peeled willow stick. It is 95 

 mm in length. As in the case of similar artifacts from house i, 

 Lost Creek, it was probably used for detaching workable flakes from 

 a flint nodule. The larger end is worn as though from being lightly 

 hammered upon. 



HOUSE 3 



Owing to lack of time and the presence of numerous large trees 

 which made excavation difficult and slow, this house pit was only 

 sampled (figs. 19, 22), From the excavations completed, which 

 reached beyond the walls of the house in three directions, the original 



