398 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Bone faces were carved by the Iroquois, particularly by the Seneca. 

 These faces were sometimes made from some animal's patella or 

 from other bone or carved like maskettes from antler. There have 

 been several bone and antler faces found in graves in Ontario and 

 Livingston counties. All are small, none being more than 2 inches 

 in length. Bone faces among the Iroquois belong to the early 

 colonial and midcolonial periods. 



Human faces modeled in clay and baked are found on both the 

 pipes and pots of the Iroquois tribes in New York. The modeling of 

 faces on pipes is particularly interesting and in many cases is 

 exceedingly well done, revealing the work of skilful hands and 

 eyes. Faces are particularly fine on certain prehistoric clay pipes. 

 Faces on Iroquois pipes are found in some of the earliest as well 

 as in some of the most recent sites of Iroquoian occupation in New 

 York. (See Pipes and also Stone faces in the description of the 

 Algonkian occupation.) (See also plate 11.) 



Firestones. A name applied to pebbles or cobbles that have been 

 heated in fires and used for immersion in bark or skin receptacles 

 containing water and food. By the continuous process of putting 

 in hot stones and taking out the stones when cooled, food was 

 cooked without placing the containing vessel directly over the 

 source of the heat. Some firestones were used in sweat lodges. 

 They were heated and drawn inside the small dome-shaped struc- 

 ture, when water was poured upon them, the steam arose and 

 soon the sweat lodge was filled with hot steam. Cooking stones are 

 commonly found on village sites ; some are cracked and granulated. 

 Firestones used in making the steam are commonly found along 

 streams and lakes. Many times a flood that denudes the shore for 

 a few inches will reveal them clustered together in their original 

 position. 



Fishhooks, bone. Bone and antler fishhooks are among the rarer 

 of aboriginal artifacts. They are of various forms and sizes, but all 

 have the hook shape. Some being barbed and others plain. Fish- 

 hooks occur both in j^rehistoric Algonkian and Iroquoian sites, but 

 these older specimens are seldom barbed. Some hooks have a smooth 

 stem, others are knobbed to afiford a better grasp for the line. Fish- 

 hooks have been found on Algonkian sites on Long Island, as at Sag 

 Harbor, and on Oneida lake, especially near Brewerton. On Iro- 

 quoian sites they have been found in considerable numbers, especially 

 in the Pompey forts, the Atwell fort (see page 590), the ShelJjy 



