18 AN ANCIENT QUARRY IN INDIAN TERRITORY. {Solooy 



beeu (lone with the hope of reducing- the thickness and securing a blade 

 or any form of implement of which we have knowledge. 



If flakes were removed to be used in arrow-making they were carried 

 away as flakes, for there is not a trace of the manufacture of small 

 articles at this site, the smallest unbroken worked piece found in several 

 days' examination being- more than 3 inches long. The flakes removed 

 from the cores, as indicated by the facets, were in many cases as long as 

 this, but they were usually thin and fragile; and, if used for implements 

 that required further elaboration, they must have been flaked by pres- 

 sure, a process not employed so far as observed in or about the quarry. 



HAMMERSTONES. 



The hammerstones found associated with the debris of the quarry 

 shops do not differ materially from those found on similar sites in other 

 parts o^the country. They are not so numerous as elsewhere, but it is 

 probable that good stone was scarce in the region. Water-worn bowl- 

 ders and masses of quartzite were used, but tough pieces of the chert 

 reduced to discoidal or globular shape are found in greater numbers. A 

 specimen of rather small size is shown full size in plate xi. It is a 

 mass of gnarled chert, flaked and battered into shape. These ham- 

 mers vary in diameter from 2 to 8 inches or more. 



AGE. 



A glance at the quarry-shop phenomena is sufficient to convince one 

 that the work is not of high antiquity. The pits are still quite deep, 

 and the debris is not compacted or filled or covered with earth or vegeta- 

 ble matter. Some pits have appearance of greater age than others, and 

 the same is true of the shops, but the difference is not so marked as to 

 suggest Avidely separated periods of work. Occupation was evidently 

 confined to a single period. The pits and trenches were dug in the for- 

 est, and it seems probable that the older oaks were standing when the 

 work was done. Strangely enough a glance over the site at the present 

 time shows that nearly all the older trees stand on the ridges of undis- 

 turbed ground between the excavations, whilst some of the younger 

 ones grow in the pits. In order to determine the meaning of this 

 phenomenon I selected one of the most antiquated trees on the quarry 

 site — a gnarled and stunted oak of the variety locally known as post 

 oak— and cleared away the debris about the roots. Shop refuse inclosed 

 the base of the trunk, which had expanded in knotty lobes over the top 

 of the flinty mass. The roots did not extend into the body of refuse, but 

 were confined almost entirely to the underlying bank of original ground 

 between two pits as imperfectly shown in plate xii. The appearances pre- 

 sented seemed to indicate that the tree stood here when the excavations 

 were made, that the pitting was carried around it, that the trench was 

 filled in with flinty refuse covering the base of the trunk, that this pre- 



