112 



STONE IMPLEMKNTS 



Imi. ANN. 15 



tbat the industry in wliicli tbey were employed was oue of importance 

 and lon^' standing;. Nt-arly all the forms are represented in the several 

 plates awonipanyiug this chapter. 



The number of the tools and their importance to the steatite- working 

 peo])les is illustrated by the followin}^ observations: Around a sin<;l(s 

 pit located in a plowed tield on I'atuxent river, and nearly obliterated 

 by successive plowings, I found during a single visit some 30 entire and 

 broken implements, and fntm the excavation in the (piarry near C'lifton, 

 Virginia, nearly (our dozen of the chisel-like tools, some broken and 

 some entire, were found. 



Manner of Usino the Tools 



There are three or four ways in whicli the cutting tools could have 

 been used. The simjdest was that of holding the pointed stone in the 



hand or hands, and thus striking the potstone. 

 This would, however, be a most unsatisfactory 

 method and would hardly be applied where 

 opportunity was afforded for superior methods. 

 Another manner of use was that of setting 

 the sharpened stone or chisel in a short handle 

 of buckhorn, and striking this with a stone 

 or billet of wood. The chisel marks left iu 

 many cases suggest this method very strongly, 

 and the heavy end of the tool as found is usu- 

 ally furnished with a short and rough-llaked 

 point suitable for setting iu a handle, as sug- 

 gested in ligure 16. Many specimens of this 

 class are too minute to be utilized in any other 

 way, and some are slightly notched as if mere 

 knives. 



A third method is that of hafting the pointed 

 stone as an adz or ax is hafted. The grooved 

 tools were undoubtedly used in this way, and many of the grooveless 

 fonfis could have been attached as is the ordinary primitive adz. This 

 would give much greater eflflciency iu all the work of cutting and 

 roughing-out, and the boldness and irregularity of the stroke marks 

 left on the (piarry tace and on the detached masses and jtartly tinished 

 vessels make it [)ractically certain that this was the manner of their 

 attachment. With short handles, such as indicated iu figure 17, etlect- 

 ive and very neat work could be done, and it may be remarked that 

 such a tool could be handled iu the cramped quarters in which the 

 cutting was often carried on almost as conveniently as could the chisel 

 driven by a mallet. 



Among the chisels there are numerous slightly curved forms, some 

 with one ground point that could have been hafted as iu a, figure 17, 

 and others with two ])oints that may have been mounted so as to make 

 both points effective, as iu b, figure 17. The shortest two-pointed tool, a 



Fni. IG— Probalile manner of haft- 

 ing the smaller chisels. 



