hrdliCka] stone industries OF THE ARGENTINE COAST 



141 



use, as mortars, pestles, mullers, and hammer-stones, in intimate asso- 

 ciation with the dark-colored and the light-colored stone implements 

 described above, made of 

 local materials, chiefly 

 quartzite and sandstone. 

 Their form in cases is so 

 liighly specialized and 

 typical as to enable us to 

 say with confidence that 

 the makers were well ad- 

 vanced in the arts of bar- 

 barian life, and no good 

 reason appears in the 

 manner of their occur- 

 rence or in the specimens 

 themselves for assuming 

 that all do not pertain to 

 the same or to kindred 

 peoples and to the same or 

 approximately the same 

 time. Hammers or club- 

 heads, which may have 

 served in the domestic 

 arts or in war and the 

 chase are illustrated in 

 figures 13 and 14. Two 

 mortars, one a block of 

 quartzite with a shallow 

 depression in the upper 

 surface and the other a large fragment of the same stone with a 

 deeper depression, are included in the collection. A muller or muller- 



pestle of remarkable proportions is 

 shown in figure 33; this is a sym- 

 metrical, well-finished slab of gritty 

 sandstone 20| inches long, 7| inches 

 wide at the widest part, and If 

 inches thick. The flat faces, toward 

 the middle, are somewhat smoothed 

 by use. The feature that distin- 

 guishes this from kindred utensils 

 is the narrowing to a point at one 

 end. Another specimen of sunilar 

 type, but smaller, is represented by a 

 large fragment. A cylindrical pestle 

 with a tapering top, made of the same stone as the above, is shown in 

 figure 34; this is 7| inches long and 3 inches in diameter and is 



Fig. 31. Plano-convex blades of white quartzite, showing the 

 carefully chipped convex faces and the profiles, (i actual 

 size.) Campo Peralta. a, Neatly chipped and thin, b, 

 High back and of reject type, c, Curved edge carefully 

 chipped, d, Both edges carefully chipped. 



Fig. 32. a, Narrow high-backed blade of quartz- 

 ite. (i actual size.) Laguna Malacara. b. 

 Spikelike form of quartzite. [i actual size.) 

 Playa Peralta. 



