NO. 8 MANAHOAC TRIBES IN VIRGINIA BUSHNELL 45 



the material and determine the period to which the various specimens 

 should be attributed proves to be difficult and in many instances 

 impossible. Such are the conditions encountered in the valleys of 

 the Rapidan and Rappahannock. 



\^ery few specimens of any sort are now found on the sites except 

 axes, projectile points, and fragments of pottery vessels, although 

 other objects, including shallow mortars, long cylindrical pestles, 

 hammers, discoidal stones, and pipes, are frec{uently described as 

 having been discovered in the past, only to be lost again or scattered. 



Axes, and axlikc implements and weapons of two distinct types, 

 have been discovered in the ancient Manahoac country and are 

 thought to represent different periods of occupancy. The first, and 

 undoubtedly the older, are the crudely flaked specimens of which 

 the surfaces are weathered and worn away as a result of long ex- 

 posure to the elements. Typical examples are shown in plates 6 and 

 20. They are numerous in the valleys of the Rapidan and Rappa- 

 hannock and represent forms encountered over a wide area north- 

 ward to New England and southward through Virginia. Specimens 

 from one site often vary greatly in size as is indicated by the outlines 

 given in figure 5, and for that reason they are thought to have served 

 various purposes as weapons and implements. Those discovered in 

 the Rapidan-Rappahannock area appear to be very old ; they are 

 uniformly altered and must have belonged to an earlier culture than 

 that represented by the historic Siouan tribes. This belief is sub- 

 stantiated by a specimen discovered in the autumn of 1928 on the 

 supposed site of Stegara, near part of a large burial mound on the 

 right bank of the Rapidan in Orange County. Although the site is 

 beyond the bounds of the region being considered in the present 

 narrative, this single specimen must, nevertheless, be mentioned at 

 this time. It is a flaked axlike object made of diabase. After it was 

 used and later abandoned or lost, the surface became greatly weathered 

 through exposure. Centuries elapsed before it was found, the edges 

 rechipped, and it was again used. But the surface exposed by the 

 removal of the flakes during the later process of reshaping has 

 become only slightly altered, although the object in its present 

 condition has been exposed to the elments for not less than two and 

 one-half centuries. This is conclusive evidence of at least two dis- 

 tinct, long-separated periods of occupancy in piedmont Virginia.'' 



"° Bushnell, David I., Jr., Evidence of Indian occupancy in Albemarle County. 

 Virginia. Smithsonian Misc. Coll. vol. 89, no. 7, 1933. 



