164 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



of spearheads, javelin heads, knives, drills, and scrapers, all made 

 from native flint of various shades from white to black. Generally 

 crude in workmanship owing" partly to poor quality of flint, there is 

 little about these points that is distinctive. Most of them exhibit 

 notched and stemmed bases in varying degrees. But no true triangular 

 types were found. The other stone artifacts are hammers and grind- 

 ers made of water-worn stones with little artificial shaping. No pol- 

 ished celts, grooved axes, or pestles were found. Fifty bone tools 

 and implements were recovered comprising awls, punches, needles, 

 pins, and similar articles. The most interesting bone artifact was a 

 small broken piece of deer antler notched near the tip, suggesting its 

 use as part of an atlatl or thro wing-stick. M. R. Harrington writes 

 that it closely resembles the shape of the atlatls found by him ex- 

 cept that this one is of bone instead of wood. As further support for 

 this theory it was found that many of the flint projectile points are of 

 the type associated by Harrington with his atlatls, a diamond-shaped 

 point with contracting stem. Snail-shell beads have already been 

 mentioned as being the only form of ornamentation discovered. They 

 had small holes punched — not drilled — in them, to permit stringing. 

 Mussel shells used as spoons were found inside the carapace of box 

 tortoise shells which had been scraped out to serve as bowls or dishes. 



Summing up the traits of this cave culture and comparing them 

 with those of the known Ozark Bluff-dwellers we find the following 

 common to both : water-worn stones used as crude hammers ; manos 

 and metates ; small chipped axes, diamond-shaped spear and dart 

 points, also some notched and stemmed forms but no true small arrow- 

 points ; bone awls and needles, antler-tip flakers ; flat-bottomed, coarse, 

 thick, shell-tempered, undecorated pottery ; turtle-shell dishes and 

 mussel-shell spoons. The more perishable articles of material culture 

 such as basketry, textiles, and wooden objects may also have been 

 present but may have disappeared through the destructive action of 

 the damp cave atmosphere. 



Following the completion of the work in the caves, three sites 

 containing petrographs were visited. At two localities there were true 

 petroglyphs — pictures and symbols carved into the surface of rocks. 

 The third exhibited painted pictures in red ochre on the wall at the 

 back of a rock shelter. This was known locally as Jacobs Rock, situ- 

 ated on a spur of Boston Mountain about 6 miles south of the town 

 of Snowball at the head of Calf Creek. The figures depicted were of 

 both animate and inanimate objects — humans, snakes, tracks, sun, 

 moon, stars, and unrecognizable forms. On the outer edge of the 

 wall the pictures were blurred and obliterated. That they were done 



