FE^v^cER] COLLECTIONS MADE ITT 1897 183 



Stone Objects from Pueblo Viejo 

 implements 



The ancient people of Pueblo Viejo were still in the stone age, and 

 their implements were similar to those found elsewhere in the South- 

 west. The stone hatchets are, as a rule, flnelj' made, as is generally 

 the case in the Gila and Salt river ruins. A considerable number 

 were collected, some of which were among the finest known to the 

 author. They were, however, identical with stone implements that 

 have ah-eady been collected in other parts of Arizona. There was 

 nothing strikingly peculiar in the arrow and spear points collected in 

 this region. The stone axes were flnelj' polished and very numer- 

 ous. There were many hammer stones, 

 pounders, rubbing stones, stone knives, 

 and drills. 



Although nothing distinctive was noticed 

 in the arrowheads, a fine collection of these 

 implements made of volcanic glass, from 

 the cave in the Nantacks hereafter dis- 

 cussed, should be mentioned. A number 

 of spherical stones, varying fi*om the size 

 of the fist to that of a large marble, were 

 picked up on the surface of the mounds. 

 Some of these may belong to a type of stone 

 objects referred to in early accounts as 

 being used by the people in warfare. 

 They are thus mentioned by Castaiieda: 

 "Farther off was another large village, 

 where we found in the court-yards a great 

 number of stone balls of the size of a 

 leather bag containing one arrolia. They seem to have been east 

 with the aid of machines, and to have been employed in the destruc- 

 tion of the village." What the nature of this machine was we are not 

 told, but it was possibly a kind of sling. Problematic stone disks 

 with depressed faces an<l circular forms are not rare. Simple stone 

 disks of the same shape, but perforated, may once have been attached 

 to drills. There were pottery disks which were supposed to have 

 had a like use. 



Ai-row polishers (figures 112, 113) or grooved stones for rubbing 

 down wooden sticks occur in numbers. The depressions in some of 

 these were so smooth that their efiSeiency in grinding must have been 

 small, while in general shape and size they correspond so closely with 

 those stones which are still used for that purpose that there can be 

 little question as to their use. 



A large number of metates, or stones for grinding corn, were col- 

 lected in the excavations at Epley's ruin. These were made of several 

 kinds of rock, the favorite being lava or malpais. Evidences of long 



]i:i Ai-row polishei- from 

 Pueblo Viejo. 



