THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 10/ 



as onh' a " war point '' but also as a hunting point. Plenty of knives 

 are found on Iroquoian village sites, but only a few chipped imple- 

 ments that may be regarded as spearheads. \^ery few flint drills 

 are found in comparison with other occupations. The same remark 

 is also true of scrapers, although these are found occasionally. The 

 Iroquois were not flint workers as were their predecessors in this 

 region ; they used other material in place of flint wherever possible. 



Polished stone implements. The celt^ better termed the un- 

 grooved axe and the flat-bellied adz, were used by the Iroquois who 

 seem never to have used the grooved axe. Their ungrooved axes, 

 however, are well made and both types are, in many instances, care- 

 fully polished. The small celts and adzes are common and seem to 

 have been used as chisels and scrapers rather than as axes. In many 

 instances these are simply waterwashed stones suitably shaped by 

 nature and rubbed to a cutting edge. The Iroquois seem never, or 

 rarely, to have used gouges. They had perforated polished stone 

 beads but no gorgets, stone tubes, bird stones or banner stones. This 

 is so common an observation on the part of the archeologist that it 

 may be safely said that no ancient polished stone implement with a 

 hole drilled straight through it is Iroquoian. There were, indeed, 

 polished stone pipes but no straight pipes. We except also stone 

 beads and occasional small stone faces. 



Stone tools. The Iroquois along the Susquehanna may have used 

 stone hoes but the various overlapping occupations render this 

 doubtful. It is certain, however, that the Iroquois did not generally 

 use the long cylindrical roller pestle, but some have been found on 

 early sites. They did use a flattened muller and a shallow, flattened 

 mortar or meal stone, and these are common on nearly all Iroquoian 

 sites (see plate 8). 



Notched sinkers are very common and generally were made of a 

 flattened water-washed stone, about the size and shape of the palm 

 of the hand, though various sizes larger or smaller are found. 



Pitted stones are abundant. Some appear to have been hammers, 

 judging from the battered edges, but others are pitted on either side 

 and show no battering on the edges. Some of the pits are neatly 

 and symmetrically drilled, others roughly picked in as if a flint had 

 been pounded against the stone. This is especially noticeable in the 

 softer stones. Other hammers are of diabase, granite or other hard 

 rock and have no pits. Their battered sides, some in flattened planes 

 or faces, others rounded, give evidence of hard and prolonged 

 usage. 



