360 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and studying its poise and the use it suggests, we may arrive at some 

 approximation of the actual purposes of the implement. In conduct- 

 ing our investigations, therefore, we placed a thin- winged banner 

 stone on the rear end of a javelin shaft to see what effect this would 

 produce. We found by experiment that an ordinary spear shaft 

 headed with a sharpened flint does not fly with precision 

 but rotates to a perceptible 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 we discovered that the shaft must have a certain taper. 

 The taper offsets to a considerable degree the rotation of the 

 extremes and has a well-defined mechanical eff'ect on the shaft. A 

 well-tapered rod can not be thrown small end foremost; if this is 

 done it will turn in midair and proceed large end foremost. 



Using a well-tapered shaft 5^ feet long and i^ inches in diameter 

 at the head and about one-half of an inch at the tail and placing 

 a banner stone upon the tail, we conducted experiments in javelin 

 throwing. It was found that the thin wings of the banner stone acted 

 in a similar manner as the feathers do to an arrow. The javelin thus 

 arranged could be thrown with greater precision, with greater poise 

 and at least one- fourth farther, than a shaft without the banner 

 stone. Although the banner stone consumed a certain amount of 

 additional propulsive force, yet the advantage was so great through 

 the addition of poise that the projecting force was not expended in 

 keeping up the wabbling flight. Besides giving poise and adding 

 distance the banner stone gives the additional advantage of greater 

 weight, greater impact and greater speed. 



It would seem that objects of so brittle a substance would not 

 stand the use of throwing. The author, however, having made one 

 of soft steatite threw it more than fifty times in an ordinary field 

 with no breakage, except a slight one caused by the incomplete 

 insertion of the shaft. When this breakage was sustained the stone 

 was placed with the wide end forward, although the reverse seemed 

 to be the proper method. 



The banner stone thus employed on the spear shaft does not break 

 because the shaft strikes the ground at an acute angle and if it does 

 not strike into the ground it has but a slight distance to fall. 



By placing a shorter shaft in the hole of a banner stone another 

 experiment was conducted. The pick-shaped banner stone resembles 

 in miniature the war club of the modern Sioux and it will be noted 

 that many of these decorative clubs had comparatively slender 

 handles. B\' pushing the spindle through the banner stone for some 



