192 STONE IMPLEMENTS, DISTKICT OF COLUMBIA PROUDFIT. 



ony and the people of PowLatau. Inquiry being made as to Smith's in- 

 tended movements he answered : 



We sent him word we intended no sucli thing (an invasion) but only to goe to Pow- 

 hatan (the country) to seek stones to make hatchets ; except his men shot at us, as 

 Paspahegh had told us they would; which if they did shoote hut one arrowe, we would 

 destroye them, etc. 



Now did Smith tell the truth ? Did the colony in fact make stone 

 implements in exchange for the products of the Indian fields, or did he 

 merely assign a cause for his intended trip which would appear reason- 

 able to the Indians'? Whatever the truth may have been.it is to be 

 hoped that the statement proved more satisfiictory to the Indian then 

 than it does to the archoeologist now. 



This much however of valuable suggestion is found in the Smith in- 

 cident. The Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy were accustomed to 

 frequent certain places for the purpose of obtaining suitable material 

 for their tools and weapons, and the fact was well known to the colo- 

 nists. In short, the place thus indefinitely designated by Smith may be 

 accepted as ^historic " workshop," for the practice of reducingthe rough 

 material to at least primary forms at the place where it was found seems 

 to have been generally followed. 



Workshops were established where abundance of material was found 

 in conjunction with special conveniences for working it, such as near- 

 ness to water, etc. The materials most available were quartz and quartz- 

 ite, and these were to be had from the gravel beds of the valley. That 

 the pebble, or small bowlder, was used instead of the rock in mass is 

 easily to be seen from any series of chipped implements made of these 

 materials. It does not follow, however, that surface pebbles were used. 

 The Indian well knew that the stone fresh from the ground worked bet- 

 ter than the sun-baked stone, and it is quite probable that he took pains 

 to secure the former, though absolute proof of such practice in the Dis- 

 trict is yet wanting.* 



A place possessing all the requisites for an Indian workshop is found 

 on Piney Branch, a small stream that enters Rock Creek on the out- 

 skirts of Mount Pleasant. On the north side of the branch, and just be- 

 low where it is crossed by Fourteenth street road, Blagden's hill rises 

 abruptly from the bed of the stream, a steep gravelly hill, with its sides 

 and summit well covered by native forest trees. Here, over a space of 

 several acres, lie scattered the chips, flakes, and chipped stones left by 

 the native workman as the arrow-head and knife grew under the deft 

 touch of a practiced hand. The ground in places is literally covered 

 with this work. Some stones show but a single fracture, while others 

 are fashioned into the rude subovate forms, so familiar on the village 

 site. One of the most common forms is the split pebble with its outer 

 face worked at the edges and the center uutouclied; and another not 



*Thi8 paper was written before Mr. Holmes's exploration of the Piney Branch work- 

 shop. (See " The Anthropologist," Vol, 3, No. 1, p. 1 ; also, Vol. 2, July, 1889, pp. 

 241-246.) 



