HouiESl RESEARCHES IN QUARRY-SHOPS 31 



making reference to and giving numerous illustrations of these finds. 

 The view taken by 31 r Wilson was that they are paleolithic; and as 

 such they were labeled, distributed, and ]iublished. His assignment 

 of these objects to this period of human jirogress was, I uuderstnml, 

 based entirely on their supposed analogies of form with the paleolithic 

 implements of Europe. 



A somewhat elaborate discussion of the subject took place at a meet- 

 ing of the Anthroi)ological Society of Washington, held in the month 

 of April, 1880. In the discussion of the archeology of the District of 

 Columbia, three papers, by W J McGee, Thomas Wilson, and iS. V. 

 Proudflt, respectivel.y, bore directly on these rude objects. Up to this 

 time, however, no one had essayed to do more than study the surface 

 finds and phenomena, and consequently little was definitely known of 

 the true history and relationships of the objects in question. 



My own investigation began in 1880, and the results of the first few 

 months' work in the bluffs of Piny branch, in the northern suburbs of 

 the city, were published in the American Anthropologist for the year 

 ISOO. The work was resumed in the same place in the spring of 1800, 

 and during that year several other localities were examined. The only 

 sites extensively explored are one on Piny branch and another in the 

 vicinity of the new Xaval Observatory, on the western side of Rock 

 creek. 



Quite early in the progress of the investigations, which were carried 

 on by means of trenching the deposits yielding the objects, it became 

 ajiparent that the sites were ancient quarries, where the aborigines 

 had obtained the material and nmnufactured in)plements of quartzite 

 and quartz, and that the supposed implements were only the failures, 

 rejects, or wasters unavoidably produ(^ed in shaping brittle stone by 

 percussion, and having no significant relationshij) with archaic or paleo- 

 lithic art. The work had been very extensive, and consisted in quar. 

 rying the bowlders from the heavy beds of Potomac age and in roughing 

 out the implements to be made. On accoirnt of the dual nature of the 

 work carried on, I have called these sites quarry-workshops. Tlie 

 important bearing of these investigations on a number of the problems 

 of archeologic science makes it advisable to present them in consider- 

 able detail. 



GEOLOGY OF THE LOCALITY 



As a preliminary step to a study of the evidence of human industry 

 on these sites, it is important that the geology of the vicinity be care- 

 fully reviewed. Fortunately this is an easy task, as the identification 

 and relationships of the various formations have been recently made 

 out thoroughly by Messrs ^IcGee and Darton, of the tieological Survey. 

 It is found that the only clastic formations with which the quarry 

 phenomena are directly associated are Cretaceous, and we are there- 

 fore not called on to trouble ourselves about the significance of this 



