lO SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 89 



There has ever been a degree of mystery attached to the exten- 

 sive soapstone quarries existing in the piedmont. When and by 

 whom they were operated are questions that have never been an- 

 swered. No reference is known to the use of soapstone by historic 

 tribes. Fragments of the material are seldom encountered on the 

 village or camp sites, and consequently there is no evidence to prove 

 its use by the Monacan, Manahoac, or other tribes belonging to the 

 later period of occupancy. The lack of evidence of the use of the 

 stone in recent times suggests that the quarries were opened by the 

 earlier occupants of the country — those by whom the crude stone 

 implements, now so weathered and revealing great age, were made 

 and used. 



It is believed that proof or indications of an early period of occu- 

 pancy will eventually be recognized over a wide region, extending 

 from the New England States southward through Virginia, with the 

 extreme bounds difficult to determine. This belief is partly sug- 

 gested by the discovery in the Connecticut Valley of specimens simi- 

 lar in form, material, and degrfee of weathering to those just de- 

 scribed and illustrated in plates 3 and 4. Many examples now in the 

 United States National Museum were found in or near an ancient 

 soapstone quarry not far from Portland, Middlesex County, Conn., 

 and are believed to have been implements used in working the stea- 

 tite. Similar objects have been encountered just northward in Hart- 

 ford County (U.S.N.M. Nos. 34260 and 5860). The discovery of 

 the implements in the vicinity of ancient quarries tends to strengthen 

 the behef, as previously expressed, that the Virginia specimens were 

 fashioned by the tribe or tribes who occupied the piedmont, and there 

 opened the soapstone quarries, long before the coming of the Siouan 

 groups from their earlier habitat beyond the mountains. 



SITES, AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF VARIOUS OBJECTS 

 Traces of Indian occupancy are plentiful throughout the region, 

 many of the sites being small, others very extensive. The finding of 

 great numbers of arrowpoints wuthin a rather restricted area is be- 

 lieved to indicate that such a place had been a favorite hunting 

 ground, a region where game had been more easily taken than else- 

 where. Several such localities have been discovered about midway 

 between the James and Rivanna Rivers, and undoubtedly other sites 

 as interesting and as rich in material of Indian origin as those al- 

 ready encountered remain hidden in the forest-covered country, on 

 the banks of streams, in the vicinity of springs, or occupying the 



