Leaf-shaped knives, end scrapers, side scrapers, drills, choppers, hammerstones, rubbing or smoothing stones, axes and stone pipes were made and used.
Found throughout the Guadalupe Mountains, sometimes at the head of canyons, usually on the canyon floors, are small stone cairns and stone rings or circles. To date, no feasible explanation is given as to their function. These are not to be confused with the “midden circles” previously mentioned.
For other than fuel, wood was widely used as clubs, digging sticks, atlatl, darts, spear foreshafts, bows, arrows, projectile points, fire sets (drill and hearth), seed storage tubes, fending sticks, throwing sticks (rabbit sticks), and wooden stoppers for canteens.
One of the mortar holes near the mouth of the entrance to the Carlsbad Caverns
(National Park Service Photo)
Woodworking with stone tools consisted of seven methods: chopping, whittling, shaving and planing, sawing, splitting, gouging and scoring, scraping and sanding.
Fire was made with the use of a wooden hearth. Friction was created by revolving the point of a stick with the hands in a small depression in the hearth, which contained tinder of punk wood, shredded inner bark or grass. Cedar or juniper bark was probably used for torches.
Animal bone was used for awls, stone flaking tools, jewelry ornaments and weaving tools; animal horn or antler was used much the same. There is a slight possibility that bone gaming dice were made and used, as perhaps were horn ladles and dippers.
In earlier times our Basketmakers used the atlatl as their predominant weapon or hunting implement. It was composed of two parts; the stick for throwing the dart, and the dart itself. Later the bow and arrow replaced this implement in importance. Atlatls were from 19 to 25 inches in length and were made of oak, mesquite, thorn growth Tornillo, sinew and buckskin. Occasionally a small stone was attached to add weight and balance. Atlatl dart shafts consisted of two parts. The foreshaft was of heavy oak or comparatively hard wood with a stone point. This was inserted into the main shaft of sotol bloom stalks. The idea being upon impact that the base would fall away from the foreshaft, thus allowing full penetration and less chance of the animal or man knocking or pulling it out. Both the atlatl and dart shafts were sometimes highly decorated. A variety of stone points were used as was the dart bunt, which possibly was used as a stunner as its appearance suggests. The dart bunt was a round wooden knob carved to insert into the main shaft.
Bows and arrows were made of varied hardwoods and reeds. Bows had an average pull of about 40 pounds and were from 3½ to 5 feet in length. Arrows were 20 to 28 inches long, and the bowstring was either yucca fiber or sinew.