holmes] 



ABORIGINAL AMEEICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 



23 



The Banner Stone 



with tubular 



does appear, however, in northern Europe (fig. 9) -where the 

 Atlantic is narrowest and most nearly bridged by intervening islands. 

 The gouge was in the Old World a practical implem?nt devoted to 

 ordinary uses, as in the Avorking of wood, digging, cutting, etc. In 

 America it was also a thing of ordinar}^ use. _ 



Within the same region in northeast Amer- 

 ica, and thinning out as does the gouge 

 to the south and west, is an object of rare 



and highly specialized form, 



an axlike implement, known 



as the banner stone (fig. 10) 

 perforation for hafting and 

 with extremely varied winglike blades. It 

 is not found elsewhere in America. In 

 northern Europe there is found a drilled 

 ax (fig. 11) of similar type, and it is a 

 noteworthy fact that this form of artifact 

 throughout the Old World, though orig- 

 inally perhaps a thing of use, had wide and 

 diversified application as a symbol. The 

 following very interesting and suggestive 

 statement regarding the " Amazon Axe " is 

 quoted from Xilsson : ^ 



Stone weapons of this kind are ratlier variable, and tlie central part is often 

 much shorter than the figure here referred to, resembling that shown in figure 

 174. The original of this sketch is from the south of Scania, and is preserved 

 in my collection, but is not finished, there being no hole for the handl^; but 

 this weapon is always known by both ends being much expanded and more or 

 loss sharpened. It is exactly like the axes with which the Amazuns are armed, 



Fig. 8. 



Fig. 9. 



Fig. S. Stone gouge - adz, New 

 England type, (j) 



Fig. 9. Stone gouge-adz, Scandina- 

 vian type, (i) 



Fig. 11. Ax-shaped stone implement, 

 Fig. 10. Ax-shaped "banner stone, "eastern United States, (i) Scandinavian type. (J) 



wherever we see them represented. On a marble sarcophagus in the IMuseum 

 of the Louvre, at Paris, bearing the inscription, '' Scarcophaye trouv6 d 

 Salonique en MacMolncr the warriors wield axes, with one edge and a pointed 

 sharp back; but all the Amazons have such two-edged axes as the one here 

 sketched. The Amazons are represented with such axes even in other places 

 also; for instance, on some antique friezes in the British Museum. In a 

 treatise on "The Sword of Tiberius" (in German, 4to., with coloured engrav- 



1 Nilsson, The Primitive luhahitants of Scandinavia, pp. 71-72. 



