35 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



usage. They are prehistoric objects and no definite use has been 

 ascribed to them. The central perforation suggests that they were 

 mounted on staffs or spindles giving rise to the name banner stones, 

 alluding to a fancied similarity between them and the ornament on 

 the end of a flag pole. Many writers refer to banner stones as 

 " ceremonials " or " problematical forms." 



The range of form of these objects is varied but in general 

 nearly all conform to a general type, the extremes of which merge 

 into forms similar either to flattened tubes or to boat stones. The 

 usual types of the banner stones are: (i) bilunate, (2) bipennate, 

 (3) palmate, (4) lunate, (5) picklike, (6) hornlike, (7) geniculate, 

 (8) grooved ball. Each of these forms may be still further sub- 

 divided. The bipennate form, for example, has wings of many 

 varieties. Some are rounded, some like the ends of knife blades, 

 some like the flaring butt of an axe, some like a butterfly's wings, 

 and some reel-shaped. There are other common types also. 



The maker of a banner stone had some definite prototype in mind 

 as well as a specific purpose for which to make it. For example, 

 the horned type resembles buffalo horns laced together at the bases. 



The materials from which banner stones were made are usually 

 soft, easily worked stones as marble, steatite or slate. Banded slate 

 seems to have been the favorite material. More rarely some harder 

 stone is employed, as granite, syenite, compact sandstone or even 

 quartz. When made of such materials the labor of shaping the 

 wings and perforating the midrib was one of long duration. Many 

 of these specimens yet in process are found throughout the banner 

 stone area. 



Possible uses. The varied forms in which the so-called banner 

 stone is found suggest in a measure varied uses of this puzzling arti- 

 fact. To the writer it seems probable that the pick or horned type, 

 the thin-winged butterfly type and the elliptically pierced type may 

 have been intended for distinct and separate purposes. 



In many instances by examination it is found that the hole per- 

 forating the body of the banner stone tapers, as if for the insertion 

 of a tapered rod. An examination of many broken specimens clearly 

 indicates fracturing by internal pressure. Banner stones made for 

 experimental purposes and broken by internal pressure within the 

 socket show fracture lines identical with those of andent specimens. 

 Thus it seems reasonable to believe from the form of the stone and 

 its perforation that banner stones were designed to be placed upon 

 rods, spindles or shafts. By placing a banner stone upon a shaft 



