HOLMES] STEATITE QUARRIES IN VIRGINIA 133 



stoue crops out near the top of a narrow ridge on which considerable 

 manufacturing- seems to have been carrieil on, as fragments of vessels 

 are numerous. 



RELATION OF CLAY AND STEATITE POTTERY 



It might appear that peoples employing earthenware would hardly 

 resort to the difficult task of quarrying and working steatite for vessel 

 making, since the uses to which both classes of utensils were devoted 

 must have been nearly identical; but that the historical tribes made 

 pottery and at the same time employed soapstone vessels is known 

 through colonial records, and also from the frequent occurrence together 

 on village-sites and in shell banks of vessels made of both materials. 

 It has also been observed that pulverized steatite was often used in 

 tempering ordinary pottery, and that the vessels so tempered are occa 

 sionally modeled in the form of steatite vessels, having the heavy pro- 

 jections or handles at the sides. 



The occurrence of grooved axes and celts in the quarries, and the 

 adaptation of these tools by slight modification to use as picks and 

 chisels, indicates with sufficient clearness that the quarrying of steatite 

 was a comparatively recent industry, practiced after all forms of pol- 

 ished implenients had been perfected, and in all probability by the 

 Algonquian peoi)les. 



VARIOUS ARTICLES OF STEATITE 



The number of miscellaneous carvings of steatite found in the tide- 

 water districts is very limited, and the execution is usually inferior. 

 They are iu striking contrast with the work in neighboring districts in 

 North Carolina and Tennessee, which furnish pipes and ornaments of 

 remarkable beauty. 



The fragment of a neatly carved platform pipe shown in a, i)late 

 xoix, was found on an Anacostia village-site, near the Pennsylvania 

 avenue bridge. The rudely shaped, channeled, sinker-like objects, b, c, 

 (I, are from village-sites near Little falls of the Potomac, and the bit of 

 pipestem e is from a dwelling site neiw the Clifton quarry, Virginia. 



The specimens illustrated in plate c are from village-sites in Virginia, 

 and represent several stages of the shaping operations — a was roughed- 

 out by breaking and sawing; b was reduced to approximate shape by 

 cutting and abrasion, but the bowl is not yet excavated; and c appears 

 to be a finished specimen, tliough (juite rude iu apxiearance. The object 

 shown iu d has been carefully trimmed, but the work is not sufficiently 

 advanced to show whether a pipe or an ornament was to be made. 



That such a very limited number of miscellaneous steatite carvings 

 should be found in the tidewater country is a matter of some surprise. 



