Section II, 1921 [83] Trans. R.S.C. 



The Stone Medallion of Lake Utopia 



By W. F. Ganong, Ph.D. " 



(Read May Meeting 1921) 



x-Xmong the treasures in the museum of the Natural History 

 Society of New Brunswick at St. John is the large stone medallion, 

 carved with the profile of a human head, well represented in the 

 accompanying photograph. It was found in 1863 beside Lake Utopia 

 in the southwestern part of New Brunswick, but its origin remains 

 yet undetermined despite the studies of our local archaeologists. 

 Some new data, however, which I have been able to gather in course 

 of a long interest in the stone, bring us much nearer to a solution of 

 the puzzling problem it pregents, as the following discussion, intended 

 to be monographic of the subject, will attest. 



Description 



The material of the medallion is a fine-grained hard red granite, 

 plentiful in southwestern New Brunswick. Its extreme length is just 

 under 22 inches; its extreme breadth is just over 18f inches; its 

 thickness varies from 2f inches to f of an inch, though prevailingly 

 much nearer the former figure; and the weight is 51| pounds. The 

 head is therefore considerably above natural size. The side that is 

 carved was evidently flat in the original slab, but has been worked 

 in the carving to a truer surface. Presumably the back, now so 

 irregular, and tending to flake in a manner suggesting the action of 

 fire, was originally also flat, or nearly, for the high parts show signs 

 of rough working like the face. The stone gives the impression of a 

 flat slab formed naturally by jointing, but improved for his purpose, 

 and of course worked to its oval form, by its proficient unknown 

 carver. 



No description is needed for the design on the stone, which in 

 our photograph speaks for itself. The head is cut practically in 

 intaglio relievato, that is, with the high parts approximately on the 

 level of the original surface. The sharpness of the profile is skillfully 

 intensified by the polishing of the concave slope thence up to the 

 rim, a notable feature of the work. A diagonal line, faint in the original 

 and barely discernable in the photograph, has been taken to repre- 

 sent a fillet binding the hair, but probably signifies no more than a 



