PLUMMET-SHAPED IMPLEMENTS. 



195 



Fig. 07. 



Fig 67 represents an allied specimen from Dos Pueblos of these un- 

 grooved, pear-shaped weights. It is made from a fragment of coral rock, 

 and apparently pecked or hammered into shape; but 

 this is by no means certain, and an interesting feature 

 of the specimen is the uncertainty of the method employed 

 to thus correctly shape this material. The whole sur- 

 face is quite rough, and exhibits no attempt at polishing 

 at any point. 



A similarlv-shaped implement, made of serpentine 

 and well finished, was obtained by Mr. Bowers at San 

 Miguel Island (P. M. 13671) 



A photograph of a series of these " weights," col- 

 lected by Mr. Schumacher at various localities in Cali- 

 fornia (P. M. 76jo), represents seven specimens of 

 various shapes, but all of one general form. One of 

 these, 7 inches in length, is quite similar to Fig. 67, but 

 is not as acutely pointed at one end, and is more bluntly 

 terminated at the other. These specimens are all 

 labelled " Spindle-whorls, or weights for distension of 

 thread." 



An editorial note at the conclusion of Mr. Hen- 

 derson's paper, from which I have quoted, gives, as it 

 seems to me, an admirable resume of our present knowl- 

 edge of this class of implements, and I quote it entire: 



"These 'plummets' or 'sinkers,' as they are more commonly called in New Eng- 

 land, are of quite common occurrence in the vicinity of Salem, Mass., and we have in 

 the collection of the Peabody Academy a number of specimens varying in size from an 

 ounce or two to several pounds in weight, but all made on the general pear-shaped pat- 

 tern, though they exhibit about as many modifications within the shape, as shown by 

 the hundreds of varieties of the pear itself. Local archaeologists here in general con- 

 sider them as 'sinkers,' principally from their shape and from the fact that they are 

 more often found along the seashore than in the interior, though not uufrequeutly met 

 with at a distance from the coast. The very large size of some of the specimens would 

 perhaps indicate some different use from any proposed by Mr. Henderson, and in fact 

 some of them run so decidedly into the group of implements classed as 'pestles' that it 

 is almost impossible to draw the line between the two groups, which are well marked 

 by their extremes. The peculiar shape of these instruments has also caused them to 



Plummet-shaped imple- 

 ment of stone 



