212 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 189 



feet and 3.0 feet in the village midden. Whether catlinite was ever 

 reduced to a powder and tliis product used as a body or facial paint 

 or dust is not known to the writer but tliis piece resembles similar 

 pieces of rubbed stone which were put to this use. 



One other small flat nondescript piece of catlinite completes the 

 collection. 



Belemnite. — Sections of belemnite, a conical fossil shell of an ex- 

 tinct cephalopod, were recovered from two of the cache pits, Features 

 9 and 13, and from various isolated midden areas within the site. The 

 blunt spicule ends of two specimens were encircled as though some 

 sort of attachment was added so that they could be suspended. 

 Wliether these were worn on the person or attached to some sort of 

 garment could not be determined. Three other sections were unworked. 



BONE ARTIFACTS 



Several types of bone tools were found in considerable quantity at 

 the Hosterman site. They were particularly abundant in cache pits, 

 midden areas, and to some extent in house fills. Preservation was 

 exceptionally good even though many were broken by the aborigines 

 themselves during the period of occupation. 



Normally, bones from bison, deer, and pronghorn were converted 

 into major types of tools but the bones from other types of animals 

 were converted into other types of tools whenever the need arose. 



Cut aniTnal hones. — Several of the articulative ends of deer, prong- 

 horn, turkey, and other bird bones were found that were severed from 

 their shafts. A V-shaped cut was made almost into the medullary 

 canal, and with slight effort this section was separated from the shaft. 

 These ends are the waste from the manufacture of tubes and beads 

 (pi. 33,^). 



Tlie most outstanding bone tools are those manufactured from the 

 scapulae of bison. In this group are scapula hoes, digging tools, 

 knives, scrapers, hide scrapers, thong stretchers, and even sickles. 



Scapula hoes. — This ubiquitous Plains implement was quite preva- 

 lent at the Hosterman site. Scapulae of bison were not greatly 

 modified in the process of manufacturing these implements (pi. 33, 

 B). The articulative ends remained unaltered, and there was no evi- 

 dence that any hafting was ever attempted. The making of a hoe 

 necessitated only the removal of the spine and the posterior border 

 (postscapular process and acromian), from the exterior surface to 

 about the level of the fossae, thus creating a more or less flat imple- 

 ment. Before the scapula could be put into use as a hoe the working 

 edge (suprascapular border) must be trimmed and sharpened. On 

 some the areas from which the postscapular process and acromian had 

 been removed were left relatively rough. On others this was smoothed 



