Fig. 89.—Cupped stone or paint cup.
Cupped stones are found wherever representatives of the Bureau have worked, and numerous references might be given concerning their existence in other localities.
Mullers.
The objects known as mullers are generally flat and smooth on one side and convex on the other, sometimes with a pit in one side or both, mostly of granite, quartzite, or sandstone; rarely of other materials.
A fine specimen of white quartz from Elmore county, Alabama, has the bottom flat and highly polished, the edge perpendicular to bottom and rounding off into the slightly convex top, with a pit at center. [Figure 90] represents a muller of marble or crystalline limestone from a grave in Randolph county, Illinois. It has a smooth, flat bottom, with convex top somewhat smaller than the base; around the circumference there is a depression polished by wear. A similar specimen, of diorite, from Carter county, Tennessee, seems to be the lower part of a pestle with expanding base, whose top or handle has been lost, the part remaining having a place for a handle pecked around it.
Fig. 90.—Muller, showing polished surface.
The discoidal stones with this shape were probably used as mullers; they were also used as pestles in the hollow mortars, as the edge is often chipped or pecked, which would account for the pits on the faces. [Figure 91] represents a muller of granite from Savannah, Georgia. Sometimes the base has an elliptical instead of a circular outline, as seen in other specimens from Savannah.
Mullers are found wherever there are indications of occupancy for any considerable length of time.