74 
polished. The concavo-convex shape is, of course, inherent in the material 
from which the objects are derived. The two most complete specimens 
have seven holes, three of those in the one in figure 32 being unfinished; 
the method of producing the holes has been described under “ Perforating.” 
It is impossible to say how many holes pierced the specimens represented 
by fragments; but they all possibly had seven holes, as in three other 
specimens from Ontario (See Boyle, 1, Figure 107; and, 12, Figures 11 
and 12). The holes of six specimens are distinctly worn. Only one speci- 
men bears any markings that might be considered ornamental. They 
consist of a group of five, short, oblique lines near the middle of the convex 
side of one of the broken specimens, and are too closely parallel and 
equidistant from one another to be accidental scratches. Bone gorgets 
from elsewhere in Ontario rarely bear any embellishment ( See Boyle, 12, 
Figures 11 and 12). 
We have no historical information respecting the exact use of these 
objects. Their shape and the perforations suggest that they were worn 
as breastplates or gorgets suspended from the neck by a cord attached to 
two holes nearest the edge, the other holes being probably intended for the 
attachment of subsidiary ornaments. It lias been suggested that these 
objects were valued war trophies (Skinner, 4: 138), but, if this were so, 
they would all be derived from the skulls of adults, whereas almost half 
of the gorgets found here are derived from those of children. If derived 
from the skulls of war captives exclusively, it would be contrary to the 
Iroquois practice of sparing the lives of children. 1 If made from the skulls 
of their own children, there is probably a deeper reason; it is possible that 
they are derived from skulls of epileptics and are analogous to the amuletic 
rondelles found by Prunieres in neolithic deposits in France, half a century 
ago (See Prunieres, 1 and 2; also Fletcher, page 13). 
Similar objects, made from the same material, have been found at 
sites of the same culture in the immediate St. Lawrence valley, at the site 
of Hochelaga, 2 and in Jefferson county, New York; 3 at Neutral sites in 
southwestern Ontario; at early Huron sites in York county; at a post- 
European site in Wentworth county ( See Boyle, 1, Figure 107) ; and at a 
Seneca site in Ontario county, New York (See Beauchamp, 4, Figure 201). 
They seem to be rare at non-Iroquoian sites in the United States. 4 
Stone Gorgets 
Three slate specimens may be parts of gorgets, worn as amulets, 
although, as mentioned on page 65, their purpose may also have been 
ornamental. One, made of greenish grey schistose slate, shaped like an 
LMegalopensis (p. 156), speaking of the Mohawks, sava: “They spare all the children from ten to twelve years 
old." ... . , 
2 Dawson (3:145) describing two specimens found at the site, says: “They are human parietal hones, trimmed 
around the edges so as to form flat bowls, and one of them has a hole at the edge, probably for a string to suspend 
it.” These specimens are both fragmentary; one of them is in the Murphy and the other in the Gravel collection. 
Museum of the Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Society, Montreal. 
3 See Beauchamp, 4, figs. 141 and 333; Skinner, 4, Plate XXIII, figs, a and i; and Parker, 6: 338. _ 
4 One with two holes near the edge was found in the Westenhaver mound, Ohio (Mills, 4, fig. 15). A aisk 
cut from a human skull, found at Longs Hill, near Florence, Nebraska, in the U.S.. National Museum 
(Cat. No. 143,462) is only 1 inch in diameter, is not perforated, and so probablynot to be considered as of the same 
type (See Whitebread, p, 11). Another skull disk, which bears an engraved bird design, was found in the Turner 
group of earthworks in Ohio, and although it is of the same size as some of those found here, it does not seem to 
have been perforated ( See Willoughby, 3, figs, 23 and 24.) 
