1896.] Piney Branch (D. C.) Quarry Workshop. 991 
This, with the item just mentioned, leaves us without evi- 
dence as to the antiquity of the quarry work except as fur- 
nished by the implements themselves. Their rejection as evi- 
dence would leave the question of its antiquity unanswered, and 
would render the quarry of slight archaeological value. If 
Mr. Holmes had found stone axes, hatchets or gouges, spear 
or arrow heads, pieces of pipes, or fragments of pottery, these 
would have served as evidence of Indian origin, but the utter 
absence of any of these leaves the Indian theory unsupported ; 
It is a canon of prehistoric archeology, verified by every 
worker in the field, that no such extensive work as claimed for 
this quarry could have been done by prehistoric man without 
having left some of his tools, implements or utensils. But 
here not an implement or weapon fragment of polished or 
smoothed stone, not an arrow or spear head, nor pottery, was 
found. Mr. Holmes says (p. 13), “ Only one was found * * * 
(with) a rude stem worked out at the broad end. This speci- 
men was found near the surface. Two other pieces found at 
considerable depth exhibit slight indication of specialization 
of form, which, however, might have been accidental.” And 
this was all. 
If it be said that this was a quarry for bowlders with which 
to make these implements, and that their finding in the dis- 
turbed and disarranged deposits is evidence of this fact, I re- 
ply, that the surface of the neighborhood is covered with the 
same kind of bowlders and many of the same kind of imple- 
ments, and there is no more evidence to show that the imple- 
ments were made in the quarry than there is that they were 
made on the surface. For anything shown in the quarry, the 
whole batch of turtle-backs, double and single, flaked stones, 
waste, debris, etc., etc., might have been originally on the sur- 
face, made there, possibly, in times of antiquity and been tum- 
bled into the ditch, whenever it was filled up. 
NE: 
Mr. Holmes’ paper is radical and final. He not only de- 
termines every proposition presented by the implements found 
at Piney Branch, but he determines them finally, and further 
