pip. Ifo! 25]' JOHN H. KERR RESERVOIR BASIN — ^MILLER 201 



steatite nodules have a pinkish cast, resembling a deposit that occurs 

 in the upper reaches of the Roanoke Eiver, while other nodules have 

 a bluish cast or tint resembling a deposit in the vicinity of La Cross, 

 Va., on the Meherrin River. In either case both deposits were easily 

 within reach of the inhabitants of this site. 



A small, thin, ovate piece of reddish sandstone bearing a slight 

 depression upon each side near the broader end of the oval had a series 

 of blunt indentations or serrations running down the stone toward 

 the narrower end or tip. This stone could have served equally well 

 as a pendant or as a potter's tool. If used as a potter's tool, a comblike 

 effect would be the issue. Such treatments were found on either the 

 exterior or interior surfaces of pottery vessels. This tool or pendant 

 is shown in plate 75, h. Across one face of this object there are 

 two faint parallel lines, 5 mm. apart, running down and diagonally 

 from the vicinity of the grooves for a distance of 23 mm. Apparently 

 this treatment was intended to be decorative. 



Other thin plates of slate were worked. One fragment (pi. 75, 

 a), is roughly pentagonal in outline. Two edges bear serrations. 

 Separating these two edges is an edge which has been rubbed and 

 smoothed. The remaining two edges are unworked. Pulling the 

 serrated edges across a plastic clay resulted in a series of parallel 

 indented lines resembling the combed effect found on various sherds. 

 ^Yliether this, too, was a potter's tool and formed part of his kit could 

 not be determined, but it seems highly plausible since the tool has both 

 a serrated edge and a smoothed edge ; both are necessary in the manu- 

 facture of pottery vessels. 



Several small, waterworn pebbles were recovered from various mid- 

 den pits. All are highly polished varieties of hard stone. They vary 

 in general outline from triangular to round. One specimen is illus- 

 trated in plate 75, c. It is questionable whether these pebbles were 

 rubbing stones, serving as parts of a potter's kit, for mider magnifica- 

 tion no striations, which would have resulted from such use, were dis- 

 tinguishable. They are black, red, or white in color. If it can be 

 inferred from a corresponding use of such stones in the Southwest, 

 these stones with their colors might be fetishes denoting the various 

 cardinal directions. The writer cannot, however, vouch for either of 

 these interpretations of the pebbles. 



Very thin flakes of polished slate (pi. 75, ff), bearing worked edges 

 on one of two sides, may have served as hide dressers or as pottery 

 smoothers, but these are scarce. We find that slate occurs mostly as 

 unworked plates or chips. From evidence f omid in this site and from 

 others within the reservoir basin, it seems that slate was used princi- 

 pally in the manufacture of gorgets of the bar type. 



Many flakes of chert, rhyolite, quartz, and quartzite, together with 

 broken bits of sandstone, were found in several of the midden pits. 



