196 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 189 



Practically all of the scrapers have been neatly made. The ma- 

 jority of the end scrapers occur on especially prepared flakes. The 

 bulb of percussion of the ventral surface indicates that flakes were 

 utilized and purposefully struck off in the manufacture of scrapers. 

 The scraper end, opposite the bulb end, is neatly trimmed and one or 

 more sides are retouched forming a tool with either a rounded, 

 straight, or ogival double working surface. As a rule, retouching oc- 

 curs on all edges, but it can occur on only one edge. Scrapers are 

 characterized by retouching along one or more edges of the dorsal sur- 

 face, and the ventral surface is unworked and is either flat or concave 

 as the result of the initial flaking in which the piece was cast off from 

 a core. 



MacNeish (1954, p. 246), while observing Slave practices, found 

 that end scrapers were used primarily in fleshing and scraping the 

 skins of the animals they killed. On the other hand, side scrapers 

 could also function equally as well as skimiing knives and were used 

 in separating the skin from the animal and in the preliminary removal 

 of muscle tissue from the skin. Both functions appear plausible from 

 the form of the many scrapers recovered from the Hosterman site. 



The total collection of scrapers from the Hosterman site includes 

 777 specimens. Materials used in the manufacture of scrapers appear 

 to represent the entire range of silicious minerals present at the site 

 or in the immediate vicinity of it. They are described as chalcedonies, 

 quartzites, jaspers, cherts, and flints. By far the more common are 

 the chalcedonies. 



As described many times, the basic scraper form is the result ot 

 striking a core a blow aimed slightly inward so as to produce a short 

 flake. In a number of instances it breaks with a hinged fracture. 

 The flake when viewed from the side is usually considerably thicker 

 at the end opposite to the striking platform and the bulb of per- 

 cussion. In some there is a pronounced downward curve near the 

 thicker end. When viewed from the top, many are trapezoidal or 

 pointed oval in outline with the greatest breadth at or near the thick- 

 ened end. 



"As is true at so many of the later Plains sites, end scrapers made 

 on flakes are a common type of chipped stone artifact. . . . The only 

 retouching considered to be indispensable was that on the broader end, 

 that produced a more or less straight or smoothly curved working 

 edge and a steep face that intersects the flake scar at an angle approach- 

 ing 90 degrees. Retouching on the sides was presumably intended 

 to produce the proper shape only ; it may be absent if the flake already 

 had a suitable form, or it may be present on only one side. Very thick 

 flakes sometimes show a steep and bold retouch with flake scars from 

 both sides meeting in or near the center to form a longitudinal keel. 



