72 
including eight specimens with one bar, six with two, one with three, three 
with four, and one with six, bars. The bars are on one side on one speci- 
men and on both sloping sides of another. 
Some specimens have more than one kind of marking — thus, three 
have both pits and burnt markings, one has notches and markings, three 
have pits and incised markings, and three others have incised transverse 
lines and burnt markings. 
It is difficult to say for what purpose these objects were used, because 
no similar specimens are in use among modern Indians anywhere. It has 
been suggested that some, especially those bearing markings, were used like 
dice in a game. Collectors in the vicinity of the site call them shuttles, 
especially the kind with the front ground down at a slant at both ends. 
Other suggestions are given elsewhere in this report (pages 75, 76). The 
flattened backs and the slight wearing seen on the edges of a few of the 
small holes at the distal end of some of the objects, the deeply concaved 
edges of some of the frontal openings, and the signs of wearing in the deep 
grooves across the front of others, suggest that some of them were lashed 
to something else. 
Objects of the same kind are found at other nearby sites of the same 
culture as Roebuck, in the St. Lawrence valley as far west as Prince Edward 
county, at the site of Hochelaga, 1 and in Jefferson county, New York [See 
Skinner, 4, Figure 36, and Parker, 6:338). They also occur at Tionontati 
sites in Simcoe county and at early Huron sites in Simcoe, York, and 
Victoria counties, but they seem rare at Neutral sites [See Boyle, 10, 
Figure 10, and 13, Figure 43). Similar objects, although not flattened to 
such an extent as those from this site, were found at an Erie site in 
Chautauqua county [See Parker, 1, Plate 34, figures 5, 6, 16, and 17), and 
others at a Seneca site in Alleghany county, New York. They seem to be 
exclusively of Iroquoian origin. 
The manufacture of these objects can be illustrated by bones in vari- 
ous stages of manufacture, the ultimate form depending on the amount of 
grinding on the front and back of the bone. The fronts of several speci- 
mens were slightly scorched, probably to facilitate grinding. The appear- 
ance of others suggests that a hole was purposely made through the front, 
the broken edge being in some cases afterwards scorched. The pits on the 
front near the distal end of the bone seem to have been made by scooping 
or scraping, and the notches and incised lines may have been made with 
the sharp edge of a chert chip. The round spots and the bars and other 
markings, seen on the front of other specimens, were probably produced 
by applying a small, live coal to the surface of the bone. 
OBJECTS OF SUPERSTITION AND RELIGION 
Some of the objects found at Roebuck may have been charms or 
amulets; others may have been used for magical purposes and in religious 
ceremonials. 
Dawson (2: 369) speaks of "numerous objects formed of bones of the feet of quadrupeds, ground flat on one 
side and hollowed in a peculiar manner, with a email hole bored in one end/’ found at the site of Hochelaga. 
