C. The crescentic banner stones might better be termed “semilunar,” since most of them are flat at one end and curved at the other. Occasionally one has both ends curved and parallel, the sides also slightly curved, making the article reniform. Others have the ends straight and parallel, with the sides curved or like the zone of a circle. Two have a midrib for the hole, with the sides dressed down quite thin, as with the butterfly gorgets. All were finished in form before the drilling was done, though some had not received their final polish. The type is illustrated in figures 141 (steatite, from northwestern North Carolina), 142 (pagodite, from Rhea county, Tennessee), and 143 (sandstone, from Jefferson county, Tennessee). The last form is sometimes called a perforated ax, but the material and fragile make exclude it from every class except the ceremonial stones.
| District. | A | B | C | D | E | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Savannah, Georgia | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Western North Carolina | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Montgomery county, North Carolina | 1 | |||||
| Kanawha valley, West Virginia | 2 | |||||
| Eastern Tennessee | 1 | 2 | ||||
| KEY: A = Steatite. B = Slate. C = Granite. D = Reddle. E = Pagodite. F = Talc. | ||||||
D. The “butterfly” gorgets are so named from their resemblance to a butterfly with expanded wings. The sides or wings are usually quite thin, either semicircular or like a spherical triangle in outline. The perforated mid-rib is shorter than the wings and carefully worked. A good example, shown in [figure 144], is of ferruginous quartz from Monongahela, Pennsylvania, and that illustrated in [figure 145] is of banded slate from Kanawha valley. There is also one of the latter material from Lewis county, Kentucky.
Fig. 143.—Banner stone, crescent-shape.
Fig. 144.—Butterfly banner stone.
Fig. 145.—Butterfly banner stone.