Grooved Stones Other Than Axes.
Three subclasses of grooved stones, differing in essential features from axes, may be discriminated. They are as follows:
Fig. 93.—Grooved round stone.
A. Slightly or not at all worked, except the groove; often showing marks of violent usage. With these may be classed the large stone hammers of the Lake Superior region.
B. Round or ellipsoid stones; in the latter the groove may follow either axis. The type (figure 93) is of sandstone from Carter county, Tennessee.
C. Resembling axes in all but the edge. Of class A there are none in the collection; their form and size are such that they could have been for no other purpose than hammerstones. Of class B there are some from Savannah, which may be sinkers or club heads. According to Morgan, oval stones with grooves were secured in the heads of war clubs,[40] and Carver observed that the southwestern Indians used as a slung-shot a curiously worked stone, with a string a yard and a half long tied to it, the other end being tied to the arm above the elbow.[41]
The specimens of class C may be broken axes. [Figure 94] (granite, from Butler county, Ohio) shows a form quite common throughout central and western Ohio. They are generally small, have evidently never been sharp, and were in all probability intended for hammers from the beginning.
Mortars.
The Indian mortars in the collection are nearly always of sandstone of varying degrees of fineness. As is the case with cupped stones, when made of slabs, both sides have been worked; when of rough blocks, only one.