holmes] 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 



351 



may be of copper (fig. 211) , bronze, bone, or wood, all employed with 

 sand as the abrading agent. Joints of cane and the hollow bones of 

 birds were often utilized. 



That tubular drills were in general use in boring stone as well as 

 other softer materials is attested by many specimens, finished and 

 unfinished. An excellent example is seen in the unfinished travertine 

 vase shown in figure 21"2.^ Here 

 the boring out of the bowl was in 

 progi'css when the work was dis- 

 continued, and an illustration of 

 exceptional interest is that of a 

 pendant-shaped tablet of traver- 

 tine, now preserved in the Field 

 ISIuseum of Natural History. The 

 remarkable and entirely unexam- 

 pled occurrence is the presence of 

 the bone drill point in the bore. 



About the year 1895 there was brought 

 to light by workmen digging an irrigat- Fig. 211. 

 ing canal at Ixtapaluco, near Chalco, in 

 the Valley of Mexico, an engraved tablet of remarkable character and, as it 

 happens, of unique interest [fig. 213]. It is a keystone-shaped slab of onyx 

 11* inches long, 6i inches wide at the wider end, and 14 inches thick ; it is 

 drilled longitudinally and has four pairs of biconical perforations along the 

 upper margin. . . . 



Pouring water into the perforation to dampen the dark earth that clung to 

 the sides and served to fix the bone tube in its place, I was at once al)le to 

 press the implement back into the stone and, as the other end of the opening 

 was larger, to remove it with ease. The finely comminuted earth was carefully 

 saved for examination under the microscope. The hollow bone [fig. 213, a] ... 



Tubular drill of copper and 

 section of bore. 



Fig. 212. 



Bowl of travertine vase partially excavated by tubular drill, 

 actual size.) 



(About one-flfth 



probably from the leg of a crane or other large bird, is 2f inches long and 

 three-eighths of an inch in diameter. It is shattered and worn at the upper 

 end, while the lower end or point has the appearance of having been freshly cut 

 off. This latter feature was a matter of some surprise, as a drill point might l)e 

 expected to show decided evidence of abrasion by use. I found, however, on the 

 other hand, that the exterior surface of the tube was scratched and striated as 



1 Saville, An Onyx Jar from Mexico, p. 105. 

 38657°— 19— Bull. 60, pt i 24 



