ANTHROPOLOGY. 
Ax Inpian Carvine.— At a recent meeting of the Essex Insti- 
tute, Mr. F. W. Putnam exhibited a very interesting carved stone 
which he had received from Dr. Palmer of Ipswich, who stated 
that it had been found at Turkey Hill, Ipswich. 
This stone was evidently carved with care for the purpose of 
being worn as an ornament, and was probably suspended from the 
neck. It is of a soft slate, easily cut with a sharp, hard stone. 
The markings left in various places by the carver, showing where 
his tool had slipped, indicate that no very delicate , instrument 
was used, while the several grooves, made to carry out the idea 
of the sculptor, indicate as plainly that the instrument by which 
they were made, had, what we should call, a rounded edge, like 
that of a dull hatchet, as the grooves were wider at the top than 
at the bottom, and the striz show that they were made by a sort 
of sawing motion, or a rubbing of the instrument backwards and 
forwards. In fact, the carver’s tool might have been almost any 
stone implement, from an arrowhead to askin scraper, or any hard 
piece of roughly chipped stone. 
Figure 114 represents the stone of natural size, its total length 
being two and a half inches. It is of general uniform thickness, 
Fig. 114. about one-fifth of an 
the angles are slightly 
and on the abdominal 
\ . tion representing the 
Carved Stone from Ipswich, nat. size, forked tail, or caudal 
fin, which is rapidly and symmetrically thinned to its edges, as is 
the notched portion representing the dorsal fin. 
The carving was evidently intended to represent a fish, with 
some peculiar ideas of the artist added and several important char- 
acters left out. The three longitudinal grooves in front represent 
the mouth and jaws, while the transverse groove at their termina- 
tion gives a limit to the length of the jaw, and a very decided 
groove on the under side divides the under jaw into its right and 
(488) 
t 
inch, except whiro, 
outline, and the por- ' 
