92 ■ STONE ART. [eth.anx 13 



mix tliem with cold water, iu a clay bason, wliere the shells subside. The other 

 part is an oily, tough, thick, white substance . . . with which they eat their 

 bread.' 



Lawson's language regardiag the Indians of North Carolina is even 

 more definite. He says : 



[They gather] likewise hickerie nuts, which they beat betwixt two great stones, 

 then sift them, so thicken their venison broth therewith, the small shells precipitat- 

 ing to the bottom of the pot, whilst the kernel, in the form of flour, mixes it with 

 the liquor, both these nuts [hickory and chimiuapin] made into meal makes a curi- 

 ous soup, either with clear water, or iu any meat broth. - 



Neither of these statements seems to liav e any reference to cupped 

 stones. The first is a good description of a mortar with a round pestle 

 while the second says nothing about any particular form of stone ; yet 

 they have been referred to time and again as proof of the nut-stone 

 theory. There would be some difficulty in pounding nuts fine in small 

 holes half an inch or more below where the pounding stone could reach. 



C. C. Jones ' was satisfied that cupped stones were used for cracking 

 nuts because great numbers of nut-bearing trees grow where they are 

 found; while Whittlesey, noting the fact that hundreds of them are 

 found throughout northern Ohio, considered them as sockets in which 

 the end of a spindle rested. Daw.son ^ speaks of " stones having deep 

 hollows in the sides which were mortars for grinding pigments, or 

 sockets for fire drills." 



The cupped stones in the Bureau collection are almost invariably of 

 reddish sandstone, of varying texture, from a few ounces to 30 pounds 

 in weight. The holes are from one to twenty- five in number, of various 

 sizes even in the same stone, and follow the natural contour of the sur- 

 face even when that is quite irregular; the stone is never dressed or 

 flattened to bring the cups on a level ; none show any marks of work, 

 but are the rough blocks or slabs in their natural state. 



Many of the holes are roughly pecked in, but the larger ones are 

 usually quite smooth, as if ground out, and almost complete hemis- 

 pheres. They range from a pit only started or going scarcely beyond 

 the surface to one 2 inches in diameter. The smaller ones with one 

 cup pass into the pitted stones. Occasionally at the bottom of a large 

 cuj) there is a small secondary hole as though made by a flint drill. 



The polished cups may have been used for fire-drill or spindle sockets, 

 though why there should be a number of holes when but one could 

 be used at a time awaits explanation. The rough ones may have been 

 for holding nuts, and so long as they wei'e on the same plane any 

 number could be utilized ; but when they are on different parts of the 

 stone, even on opposite sides, as many of them are, the question re- 

 mains open. Slabs or thin pieces nearly always have cups on both 

 sides, while blocks or thick slabs have them on one side only. On the 



' Adair, James; American Indians, p. 409. 

 ■'Lawsou, John; History of North Carolina, p. 53, 

 ^Antiquities of the Southern Indians, pp. 315-.^20. 

 * Fossil Men and Their Modern Representatives, p. 112. 



