REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 1916 I 73 



frequently carved of bone and have at their upper portion, that 

 curve to fit the mouth, wooden projections which are used as 

 handles and held in the teeth. On the lower side is the socket in 

 which the top of the spindle is inserted. One of these headpieces 

 worn through by long use and pushed down over the shaft would 

 quickly suggest a new use. The possibility of wearing through 

 is not remote because the holes were drilled in the bone to a con- 

 siderable distance in order to prevent the slipping out of the 

 spindle. Indeed, to prevent the rapid wearing into the bone or 

 ivory the Eskimo even recently mortised into the headpiece small 

 pieces of rectangular stone into which the hole was drilled. Not 

 all headpieces take a similar form and there is a large individual 

 variation. In general, however, the headpiece was curved upward 

 so as to fit against the mouth, which gives a crescent or boat shape 

 to many specimens. 



The utility of such an object as a whorl, once discovered, would 

 bring about many further variations and new outline motives would 

 be employed. Dr George Byron Gordon in his study of banner 

 stones 1 suggests that certain forms were derived by the lines sug- 

 gested by a whale's tail and we see no reason why this idea should 

 not seem plausible though tails of other aquatic creatures may 

 have been likewise copied. 



Our conclusion is that the banner stone is a portion of a more 

 complex utensil or ornament and was designed to be placed upon 

 a shaft or spindle. The manner in which this was done and the 

 purpose is suggested by the experiments described. We can by no 

 means be certain that any of these suggested uses were employed, 

 but likewise we can not positively say that none of them are valid, 

 especially in the face of the presumptive evidence we have 

 advanced. 



Notes on the Process of Manufacture 



In the New York State Museum collections are some score of 

 banner stones in the process of manufacture. We are able through 

 an examination of these articles (specimens of which are found 

 in almost every stage of the process of manufacture from the 

 crude block of intermediate form to the finely polished specimen) 

 to describe in a measure the various stages in the making of banner 

 stones. The unfinished forms are usually not of slate, which was 

 easily worked and quickly finished, but of compact shale, schist, 

 sandstone or granite. The material out of which this series is 

 made is tough rock not easily worked or perforated. 



1 Museum Journal, U. of P., June 1916. 



