4IO NEW YORK STATE ^lUSEUM 



6 Grooved hammers, in the form of elongated stones nicely worked 

 with grooves for hafting. This form is rare in New York State and 

 specimens are usually small. They resemble thick grooved axes but 

 of course have no edge. Both butt and face show use, but princi- 

 pally the face. 



7 Celt or adz forms made either from celts or adzs that had the 

 cutting edges accidentally broken, or purposely battered by use as 

 hammer faces. Most celt forms found in this State seem to have 

 been made after the edge had been dulled or broken, but oddly 

 enough beveled adzes used as hammers are particularly numerous. 

 Some were used to such an extent that only enough remained to 

 hold to the handle binding. 



8 Pestle hammers in the form of long heads purposely shaped 

 from hard stone or made from long pebbles of more or less cylin- 

 drical or elliptical cross section, are sometimes found. The 

 roughened and scarred ends of these hammers indicate their usage 

 for pounding or breaking stone, and not grain or other soft sub- 

 stances. In length the pestle hammer is not more than 6 inches and 

 may be as short as 3. Some of them appear to have been hafted. 



Hammerstones are found in quantities on all Iroquoian sites and 

 only in a slightly lesser degree upon those of Algonkian origin. 

 Hundreds, for example, were picked up on the Richmond Mills pre- 

 historic Iroquoian site. Mr Dewey enumerated 265 actually known 

 to have been found there. Mr Luther picked up 300 on the 

 prehistoric Algonkian site near Naples, Ontario county. Wherever 

 hammerstones are found mullers will be found and also shallow 

 metates and anvil stones. Pitted hammerstones are the most abun- 

 dant. These may have from two to four pits on each opposite side. 

 Pits are sometimes picked in with sharp flints, bruised in by concus- 

 sion, or more rarely drilled in neatly. Drilled forms occur in the 

 Chenango vallc}^ and the ball form most commonly in the Genesee 

 valley and the upper Hudson. 



Hammerstones seem to have been used for pounding stone, for 

 cracking nuts and marrowbones, and indeed for any purpose that 

 they would serve. Those that show no bruises may have been 

 housewives' utensils used for cracking bones, rubbing hides, or 

 perhaps for firestones used in heating water or soup. Hammerstones 

 that plainly show their use against stone were undoubtedly employed 

 for reducing other implements, as celts, to form. By continuous 

 impact upon another stone the surface flakes off where struck and 

 the implement in process gradually takes form. 



