HOLMES] PROCESSES OF SHAPING 27 



result beiny reached by striking one stone against another of proper 

 relative durability. The several acts are known as battering, bruising, 

 and pecking, the latter term l)eing in common use for the act by which 

 8ha])ing was mostly accomplished. Materials suitable for shaping by 

 this process are plentiful and widely distributed. They occur in the 

 tidewater country wherever tlakable stones abound, but the most favor- 

 able localities, so far as observed^ are along the river banks about the 

 head of tidewater. Village-sites located on the lower terraces about 

 Wasliington and Georgetown furnish many specimens illustrating fail- 

 ures in all stages of the shaping of celts, grooved axes, pestles, and 

 ceremonial articles from bowlders of diorite and various of the denser 

 varieties of crystalline metamorphic rocks. An examination of certain 

 inhabited sites farther up the river, and in various parts of the liigli- 

 land, develops the fact that extensive work of this class was carried 

 on, and it is probable that a large part of the lowland supplj' of 

 pecked tools was derived from these distant sources. Such a site and 

 its products are described in detail further on. There is no evidence 

 that the stone used was obtained by quarrying. The ordinary practice 

 seems to have been to select water- worn stones of suitable texture that 

 already approximated the form desired. Battering processes, and the 

 tools produced by them, are presented systematically in a subsequent 

 section. 



Ahradin;/ ^^rort'S.st'.y — Shaping by abrasion in its most elemental form 

 consists ill rubbing one object against another with such force as to 

 remove miuute particles from one or both. The operations ai'e gener- 

 ally expressed by such terms as grinding, sawing, boring, rubbing, and 

 polishing. All stones are abradable, and all hard stones can be made 

 to serve in the active operations of abrading. These processes were 

 usually supplementary to those of flaking or battering, and were 

 suited especially to sharpening edges and points already ai)proximate 

 in shape, and to giving smooth finish to surfaces. Their employment 

 was very general but not confined to particular localities to such an 

 extent as to leave extensive evidences of the work done. Stones modi- 

 fied in shape and surface characters from use in grinding and polishing 

 are found on many sites in the tidewater country. The products of 

 this group of processes are properly treated for the most part in con- 

 nection with those of pecking. 



Incising proveHses — This ini])ortaiit class of operations shape mate- 

 rials by cutting, piercing, scraping, etc. They imply the use of a hard 

 edged or pointed tool, and a substance to be shaped of somewhat less 

 hardness. The i)resence of steatite in large bodies and often in 

 exposed situations along the western border of the tidewater country 

 from the Susquehanna to the Savannah led to the extensive utilization 

 of cutting processes by the later aboriginal inhabitants of the region. 

 Our extensive exi)Ioratiou of the quarry sites has given us a clear 

 comprehension of methods of procuring and shaping, and of the results 



