FEWKES] IMPLEMENTS FROM FOUR-MILE RUIN 159 



STONE I>IPLEMENTS 



ComiJaratively few stone iinpleineuts were collected at Four-mile 

 ruin, and they were, for the most part, so similar to those from other 

 Little Colorado ruins that much space need not l)e here devoted to 

 them. 



There were found several serrated stone implements which seem 

 worthy of special mention. They are made of hard stone, chipped to a 

 sharp, toothed edge. The use of an implement of this kind is obvious; 

 for with it, as with a file, a number of mechanical operations, such as 

 sawing, filing, and .scraping, are possible. Specimens of this form 

 occur at almost ever.y large ruin at which the author has worked in 

 the last two years, and many of them were picked up from the surface 

 of the ground. 



The number of small stones showing pecking or artificial working 

 which can be found at a Southwestern ruin is much larger than the 

 proportion in collections would seem to indicate. From their great 

 weight, as well as their numbers, the majority have to be left behind, 

 and as a rule those which are destitute of a special form are rejected. 



It was apparently the Indian custom to pick up any stone near at 

 hand, to use it for jjounding or other purposes as long as needed, and 

 then to cast it away. It thus happens that innumerable stones 

 slightl}' pecked on one or all sides, but without the form of any imple- 

 ment, are very numerous upon the mounds of almost every ruin. 



The burials in the north cemetery wei"e deep, and there was evi- 

 dence that a considerable quantity of soil had been deposited over 

 them, having been washed down from neighboring mounds. A few 

 feet below the present surface of the ground in this superimposed 

 soil the stone object shown in figure 100 was found, the probable use 

 of which was a subject of some speculation. Having occasion later to 

 open a room in the mounds above the point where this stone was 

 discovered, the author found on the floor, several feet below the 

 surface of the soil which filled the room, other specimens ha\dng the 

 same general shape and character. In a guilty between the room and 

 the cemetery there was still another of these objects — making in all 

 seven specimens. 



The localities in which these stones wei-e found indicated that they 

 all belonged together, and that the two found outside the room had 

 been separated from the others and had been rolled down the sides of 

 the mounds, perhaps bj' the water, the course of which is marked by 

 deep gullies in their sides. The forms of all these stones are much the 

 same, irregular, ovate, with one flat side, and truncated at one pole. 

 They were evidently fashioned with care, and, as the rock is hard, they 

 must have been made with considerable difficulty. All had a small pit 

 or depression on the flat side near the rounded pole. 



Several suggestions were made by members of the party regarding 

 the possible u.se of these stones, of which the following .seemed to be 



