480 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION^ 1916. 



PECKING STONES. 



A very large number of implements that were formerly used in 

 dressing the stones of the masonry were naturally excavated both 

 inside the rooms and outside the walls. Some of these had pits 

 on the two opposite faces and were pointed, others were girt by a 

 shallow groove midway in their length. They were made of a much 

 harder stone than that composing the walls of the building and were 

 evidently brought from a distant locality, probably from the Mancos 

 Eiver. One of these made of hematite was more angular than the 

 others. It would appear that these pecking stones were sometimes 

 furnished with a handle. 



The many stone mortars and pestles, some of which were much 

 worn, and the numerous metates and manos are instructive. There 

 were also found flat stones on which pigments were ground, and the 

 iron oxides used for paint were not missing. All of these objects are 

 identical with those from the cliff houses and add their quota of evi- 

 dence to that contributed by the ceramics and architecture, that the 

 pueblos and cliff dwellings of the Mesa Verde were inhabited by peo- 

 ple whose cult objects were identical in character. 



BONE IMPLEMENTS. 



The assortment of bone implements, dirks, needles, bodkins, and 

 the like is instructive. They vary in form, in kind of bone, and other 

 particulars. It is rare to duplicate a perforated needle, one of which 

 was found in kiva A. The skin scraper made of a bear bone is the 

 same as those reported from Cliff Palace. The sections of small bones 

 cut off in a cylindrical form are probably ornaments. Their shape 

 resembles those from Spruce-tree House, suggesting that they were 

 strung on a cord worn about the neck. 



ANIMAL FIGURINES. 



At least three different forms of stone idols were found, all buried 

 in kivas. In the ventilator of kiva D one of the workmen discovered 

 the head and part of the body of a quadruped made of sandstone, 

 which resembles a bear's head. Another figurine of the same soft 

 stone had head, ej^es, and ears fairly well made, but the body elon- 

 gated and angular, destitute of both legs and tail. The third specimen 

 (fig. 7) was pointed at one end, rounded at the opposite with flat side 

 or base, reminding one of the clay image of the Homed Serpent made at 

 the winter solstice ceremony ^ at Hano, one of the villages on the East 

 Mesa of the Hopi. This striking likeness more than anything else 

 has led me to suspect that it is an idol. 



1 Winter Solstice Ceremony at Hano: Amer. Anthrop., Vol. I, No. 2, 1899. 



