Fig. 704 A. (S. 1–3.) Four curious club-heads or perforated stones, common in California. Beloit College collection.
But perhaps as interesting as any other of the objects are the oval and flat stones with creases or depressions across them, which are supposed to be the result of straightening or reducing arrow-shafts, lance-handles, and other long, slender objects. All of those shown in Figs. 706, 708, and 709 exhibit differences. Those in Fig. 706, collected by Professor Montgomery, are neatly made and ornament-like in shape.
Mr. Bardwell’s specimen, Fig. 708, is an ordinary bit of sandstone on which there are two deep grooves at right angles. We have a number of them in our Andover collection, and I have shown five in Fig. 709.
Most archæologists agree that the stones were used for the purpose named. Near caverns, rock-shelters, and along bluffs we find that the surface of gritty stones or ledges exhibit such grooves. Fig. 712 is a sinew stone, or an oval stone much creased and worn, not by friction caused by arrow-shafts, but because sinews or cords have been drawn back and forth against the edge of it. There is another singular grooved stone in the State Museum of Iowa. The curator calls it a stone “corn-sheller,” and if one will draw an ear of corn back and forth over the surface of this stone, one is surprised at the ease with which the kernels are removed. Fig. 715 illustrates three unknown objects found in Pueblo Bonito. Fig. 716 is interesting in that it may or may not be a natural formation. It was found on the site of an old encampment and may have been considered by the Indians a medicine-stone. Figs. 717, to and including 721, I shall refer to in the Conclusions of “The Stone Age.”
Fig. 705. (S. 1–4.) Stone tool-handle. Collection of Frank O. Putnam, Campbell, California.
Fig. 706. (S. 1–2.) Grooved sandstone arrow- and needle-sharpeners found near the surface of a mound, North Dakota. Collection of Henry Montgomery.
I wish to speak at some length on Fig. 713. This specimen is one of the cup-stones about which there has been so much discussion. It is something over ten by seven and a half inches in diameter, and on the upper surface are fifteen distinct cup-shaped depressions. It is of sandstone and about two inches thick.