REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I916 16/ 



throughout eastern Xorth America and Canada on prehistoric vil- 

 lage sites and in mounds. 'Mr E. P. Upham writes that of the 

 approximately three hundred specimens in the National Museum, 

 about one-half came from "mounds,'' a small number from vil- 

 lage sites, and the remainder from ploughed fields or from the 

 surface. 



That banner stones should have been abandoned by the many 

 tribes who used them, as they came in touch with the white invader, 

 is significant. Does this not mean that they were given up because 

 some more useful article was obtained from the white man? Cer- 

 tainly we know^ of several aboriginal utensils that became gradually 

 obsolete with the coming of European goods. Or should we hold 

 that banner stones were abandoned long before the coming of the 

 European ? 



The varied forms in which the so-called banner stone is found 

 suggest varied uses of this puzzling artifact. It seems probable 

 that the pick or horned type, the thin-winged butterfly type and 

 the elliptically pierced type may have been intended for distinct 

 and separate purposes. 



Banner Stones on Handles or Shafts 



In man}^ instances, by examination, it is found that the hole per- 

 forating the body of the banner stone tapers, as if for the insertion 

 of a tapered rod. An examination of many broken specimens 

 clearly indicates fracturing by internal pressure. Banner stones 

 which have been made for experimental purposes and broken by 

 internal pressure within the socket show fracture lines identical 

 with those of ancient specimens. Thus, it seems reasonable to 

 believe from the form of the stone and its perforation that banner 

 stones were designed to be placed upon rods, spindles or shafts. 

 By placing a banner stone upon a shaft and studying its poise and 

 the use it suggests, we may arri^-e at some approximation of the 

 actual purposes of the implement. In conducting our investiga- 

 tions, therefore, a thin-winged banner stone was placed on the rear 

 end of a javelin shaft to see what effect this would produce. A\'e 

 found by experiment that an ordinary spear shaft headed with a 

 sharpened flint does not fly with precision but rotates to a percept- 

 ible degree at the point of balance, causing both point and tail to 

 describe circles, the circumference of which depends on the degree 

 of rotation and the length of the shaft. Thus, a spear does not 

 fly with absolute precision. To be of correct form for throwing. 



