pip No!" 25]' JOHN H. KERR RESERVOIR BASIN — MILLER 197 



Adzes are not plentiful. In fact, they can be considered rare, for 

 only three adzes were recovered — two from a single burial and the 

 other from the fill of an old posthole. 



Adzes have been reported from Algonquian sites in New York, 

 particularly in the central, southern, and western sections of that 

 State. They have also been reported in central and western Pennsyl- 

 vania, as well as in sections of New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, 

 Michigan, and Illmois (Willoughby, 1907, pp. 296-306). 



Adzes used mostly as woodworking tools have been used as flesh- 

 ing tools in dressing down raw hides. Whether the presence of these 

 tools may infer the presence of dugout canoes and wooden dishes, 

 such as bowls and spoons, is to be taken into consideration. 



Celts, like adzes, were probably made from natural argillite nodules 

 which resembled in a general sort of way the desired shape of celt. 

 Celts are distinguished from adzes by their general parallel bilateral 

 shape. Both were subjected to similar initial treatment in the forma- 

 tive stages. They were first roughly chipped into shape; the rough 

 surfaces were then pecked or pounded to obliterate the liigh spots and 

 to round out the tool. Additional pecking and pounding smoothed 

 the surfaces and although polishing did not necessarily follow, a 

 definite cutting edge was always created by grinding. 



Celts are of two general shapes: oval and rectangular in cross 

 section (pi. 74, d-f). The former has a more pointed poll measuring 

 anywhere from 10 cm. to 20 cm. or more in length, while the latter has 

 a tendency to be blunter, flatter, and usually smaller in size, measuring 

 from 9 cm. to 17 cm. in length. Fragmentary celts, of both types, 

 occur throughout the midden fill. 



Celts were mainly woodworking tools and served as either un- 

 grooved axes or chisels. They were also used as hide scrapers and 

 hide dressers and could be easily converted into weapons of defense. 



Celts, unlike adzes, have a wider distribution and conform to a 

 generalized shape depending upon a definite time period. The earlier 

 celts tend to be round in cross section and long, but become flatter and 

 shorter during the late Woodland Period. This is not always true 

 for there is a certain amount of "throw-back" to earlier forms during 

 a late culture period. 



Celts did not occur in the Selden Island site in Maryland ( Slattery, 

 1946, p. 265) , but they were present in both the Hughes site in Mary- 

 land (Stearns, 1940) and the Keyser site in Virginia (Manson, Mc- 

 Cord, and Griffin, 1944) . The latter sites are given to Late Woodland 

 shell-tempered pottery, while the former is principally a steatite- 

 tempered component of Early Woodland with a minority of sand- 

 tempered ware. 



Many sites in the Roanoke drainage of the John H. Kerr Reservoir 

 resemble those in the vicinity of the Potomac drainage in that grooved 



