46 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 



The crudely made objects found on the sites along the Rapidan and 

 Rappahannock are assumed to have belonged to the earlier of the two 

 periods indicated by the flaking on this interesting specimen. 



Polished grooved axes and celts are thought to have been of much 

 later origin than the preceding. Excellent specimens have been 

 found on the Rappahannock sites below the mouth of the Rapidan, 

 but no examples were encountered above the junction of the streams, 

 although they doubtless occur in some localities. Several are illus- 

 trated in plates 3 and 7. Similar forms are numerous on sites along 

 the Potomac, within the territory occupied by the historic Algonquian 

 tribes in 1608, by whom they had probably been made and used. 

 The specimens discovered in the vicinity of the falls of the Rappa- 

 hannock, and a short distance above, may have been of Algonquian 

 rather than Siouan origin, and obviously should be attributed to the 

 recent, or later, period. Many of the earlier, cruder forms previously 

 mentioned also occur on the Potomac sites, the majority being made 

 of quartzite, whereas a large proportion of those discovered in the 

 Rapidan-Rappahannock area are made of diabase or related rocks. 



The collection from the Potomac sites were described and figured 

 by Holmes ^^ some years ago, and much of the information presented 

 at that time will apply equally well to the region now being con- 

 sidered. 



If the crudely fashioned implements found on sites above the falls 

 belonged to a time before the coming of the Siouan tribes, the 

 interesting question is presented as to what type of axes, or of axlike 

 implements or weapons, was used during the later period. Possibly 

 the Manahoac tribes had not been in the country for many years 

 before they were discovered in 1608, and if this is true, only a small 

 part of the specimens now found would have been made and used 

 by the last of the native tribes to claim the region. Bone, antler, and 

 wood may have been used extensively, just as the same perishable 

 materials were employed by other Siouan tribes at a much later day 

 in the country beyond the Mississippi. All traces of objects made 

 of any one of the three would long since have disappeared, and 

 this may, in part, explain the small number of artifacts now en- 

 countered on many sites. 



PROJECTILE POINTS AND OTHER SMALL FLAKED OBJECTS 



Innumerable projectile points, and many small flaked objects, the 

 use of which is often difficult to determine, have been found on sites 

 along the Rapidan and Rappahannock Rivers ; others are frequently 



-" Holmes, W. H., Stone implements of the Potomac-Chesapeake Tidewater 

 Province. In 15th Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethnol., 1897. 



