3/0 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



liollowed out varying from a slight depression to as complete an 

 excavation as the stone would allow. 



New York forms may be divided into three t}pes : ( i ) the arch- 

 backed bar more or less deeply excavated; (2) the hump-backed bar 

 sometimes having a grooved ridge projecting above and between the 

 perforations; (3) blunt or Mat-ended canoe-shaped forms deeply hol- 

 lowed and having the back bounded b}- a curved plane. 



Boat stones are usually made of striped slate or some similar soft 

 material. In the south some have been found made from steatite. 

 Boat stones are associated with the gorget and banner stone culture, 

 and are tmdotibtedly prehistoric. Specimens are fairly rare com- 

 pared with banner stones, for example. 



Uses. During the past few years several important boat stones 

 have been discovered, which shed a certain amount of light upon the 

 purpose for which these artifacts were intended. The excavations 

 of Mr Clarence B. Moore along the Harpeth river resulted in the 

 discovery of wooden ornaments like boat stones, which when placed 

 together resembled milkweed pods. The pod was filled with a mass 

 of fiber in which small pebbles were embedded. It has been thought 

 that these pendants resembled milkweed pods and the fiber and peb- 

 bles the seed and seed-down. These wooden objects have been pre- 

 served by their copper coating.^ A recent discovery was made by 

 William C. Mills in the mound in Ross county, Ohio, of copper boat 

 stones filled with pebbles. In conjunction with the podlike ornament 

 found by Mr Moore, this might lead one to think that a boat stone 

 was the remaining portion of a similar hollow or podlike pendant 

 or rattle, the other portion of which had been wood or some other 

 perishable stibstance. 



Our conclusions regarding boat stones would be that they are the 

 survivals of more complex arrangements of which the boat stone 

 represents the only durable portion. 



Bone, uses of.- Bone was an important and useful material to 

 aboriginal man in New York, as well as elsewhere. It was compara- 

 tively easily worked and was suitable as a material for numerous 

 implements. The bones of various animals and birds were used, 

 particularly those of deer, elk, moose, bear, buffalo, duck, turkey, - 

 goose, heron and other large water birds. From the bones of the 

 larger mammals there were made awls, spatulate blades, gouges, 

 arrow points, pottery markers and stamps, harpoons, spearheads, fish 

 hooks, needles, shuttles, spikes, phalangeal cones and other devices, 



1 See Moore, Aboriginal Sites on the Tennessee River, p. 263-65. 



2 Consult also Beauchamp, New York State Mus. Bui. 50. 



