STEATITE COOKING POTS, PLATES, AND FOOD VESSELS. 



By C. C. Abbott. 



Throughout the whole extent of North America the mineral known 

 as soapstone or steatite was much sought after and utilized by the Indians 

 as a material well adapted for many purposes, in consequence of its being 

 wrought with little labor to any desired shape, and yet being sufficiently 

 firm to withstand quite hard usage, while its adaptability for use in contact 

 with fire is a valuable featui'e. Some of the most elaborate smoking-pipes 

 are carved of this material ; but it is in the large vessels for cooking food, 

 especially, that its great value becomes evident ; and such stone pots are 

 not an unusual feature among ordinary Indian relics wherever found, 

 although wherever the art of making pottery existed the majority of the 

 cooking vessels were made of clay. 



Where large deposits of steatite occur there will frequently be found 

 traces of the ancient quarrying ; and in the Peabody Museum is an inter- 

 esting series of rude stone implements and fragments of steatite from near 

 Christiana, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, concerning which it is stated* 

 "these tools are believed * to have been used by Indians 



of a comparatively recent time for the purpose of shaping the blocks of soap- 

 stone into dishes and pots, and are of interest in showing the use of very 

 rude implements for certain purposes by a race quite far advanced in the 

 stone age." 



It is from the graves of Dos Pueblos and La Patera, however, and from 

 the neighboring islands, that cooking vessels made of this material have 

 been obtained which in size and general excellence of workmanship excel 

 all others. 



*F. W. Putnam in 9th Annual Report Peabody Museum, p. lfi; Cambridge, Mass., 1876. 



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