26 PERFORATED STONES 



Professor Putnam adds: 



Such an article as this might -well he considered us a sort of haton; but after hold- 

 ing it in the hand for a moment it becomes evident that it would he as formidable 

 as a weapon as it is ornamental as a badge of office. The elaborate finish of this 

 weapon certainly precludes the idea of its having been intended as a digging stick, 

 though its pointed end would allow of its being so used. 



A second "clublike pike'' from the island of New Britain, close to 

 New Guinea, resembling those just mentioned, is also described by Pro- 

 fessor Putnam (op. cit., p. 144), who remarks: "And as the stone with 

 which this weapon is armed so closely resembles many of the hard, circu- 

 lar, perforated stones from California, the weapon is of great importance 

 in suggesting a very likely use of stones of this character wherever 

 found." The staff of this specimen is 4 feet 4 inches in length and 

 ends in a long, sharp point. The sp< cimen differs from the New Guinea 

 example above referred to in being only slightly ornamented by "a 

 single circle of small pieces of shell placed in the gum on each side oi 

 the stone," and in the manner the stone is secured to the staff, this 

 being effected by means of a very tenacious gum. 



The implements just described, especially the first, seem to closely re- 

 semble those in the National Museum collection and here figured, and, 

 as suggested by Professor Putnam, a frightful blow could be struck 

 with one of them; yet the highly decorative character of the implement 

 as a whole, and especially the form of the handle, which is quite unsuited 

 to the function of a club handle, should, it seems to me, be sufficient to 

 exclude implements like these from the class of clubs or weapons and 

 cause them to be placed in the category of ceremonial staves. Such 

 appears to be one, at least, of their functions in New Guinea, and to 

 this they seem to be better adapted than to any other. 



The well known "banner stones" dug from the mounds of the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley were formerly considered by many authors as hatchet 

 or club heads, but they are now, with much greater propriety, classed 

 by most archaeologists as "banner" or "ceremonial" stones and con- 

 sidered to have been used in festivals, dances, &c. They apparently 

 belong in the same class as the above specimens from New Guinea. 



Peruvian star shaped disks. — Bearing a close resemblance to the disks 

 just mentioned are the star shaped perforated disks of copper and stone 

 from the graves of Peru, where they are very common; and, like those 

 from New Guinea, they, too, usually have been classed as clubheads. 

 Many unmounted specimens of stone from which the handles, if they pos- 

 sessed any, had long since decayed, have been received at the National 

 Museum, together with one 1 mounted on a fragment of its handle. Of 

 the latter, which is from Ancon, Peru, a figure is here given (Fig. 13). 

 The handle measures 27 inches in length, but from appearances it was 

 originally considerably longer. It is about 1} inches thick at the thick- 

 est part. The handle of this particular specimen is too much decayed 

 to afford very satisfactory evidence of its use, but there is little about 



'No. ', 407b, National Museum. 



