Comparatively few stone implements, such as mauls, hammers, axes, and
spearpoints, were found; but some of those unearthed from the mounds
are finely finished, being regular in form and highly polished. There
were many spherical stones, resembling those still sometimes used in
Tusayan on important occasions as badges of authority. These stones
were tied in a buckskin bag, which was attached to a stick and used as
a warclub. Many of the axes were grooved for hafting; one of the
specimens was doubly grooved and had two cutting edges. By far the
largest number were blunt at one pole and sharpened at the opposite
end. A single highly polished specimen (plate CLXXI, _f_) resembles a
type very common in the Gila Salado ruins.
Arrowheads, some of finely chipped obsidian, were common, being
frequently found in numbers in certain mortuary bowls. Three or four
specimens of other kinds of implements fashioned from this volcanic
glass were picked up on the surface of the mounds.
Metates, or flat stones for grinding corn, were dug up in several
houses; they were in some instances much worn, and were eagerly sought
by the Indian women who visited our camp. These specimens differ in no
respect from similar mealing stones still used at Walpi and other
modern Tusayan pueblos. Many were made of very coarse stone[89] for
use in hulling corn preparatory to grinding; others were of finer
texture, and both kinds were accompanied by the corresponding mano or
muller held in the hand in grinding meal.
The modern Hopi often use as seats in their kivas cubical blocks of
stone with depressions in two opposite sides which serve as handholds
by which they are carried from place to place. Two of these stones,
about a cubic foot in size, were taken out of the chamber which I have
supposed to be the Awatobi kiva. In modern Tusayan these seats are
commonly made of soft sandstone, and are so few in number that we can
hardly regard them as common. They are often used to support the
uprights of altars when they are erected, and I have seen priests
grind pigments in the depressions. Incidentally, it may be said that I
have never seen priests use chairs in any kiva celebration; nor do
they have boxes to sit upon. During the droning of the tedious songs
they have nothing under them except a folded blanket or sheepskin.
Excavations in the Awatobi rooms revealed several interesting shallow
mortars used for grinding pigments, but no one of these is comparable
in finish with that shown in the accompanying illustration (plate
CLXXII, _a_). This object is made of a hard stone in the form of a
perfect parallelopipedon with slightly rounded faces. The depression
is shallow, and when found there was a discoloration of pigment upon
its surface.
In almost every house that bore evidence of former occupancy,
beautifully made mullers and metates were exhumed. These were
ordinarily in place in the corner of the chamber, and were much worn,
as if by constant use. In one grave there was found a metate reversed
over a skeleton, probably that of a woman--although the bones were so
disintegrated that the determination of the sex of the individual was
impossible. Several of these metates were taken by Indian women, who
prized them so highly that they loaded the stones on burros and
carried them ten miles to Walpi, where they are now applied to the
same purpose for which they were used over two centuries ago.
On the surface of the mesa, beyond the extension of the ground plan of
the ruin, there are many depressions worn in the rocks where the
Awatobi women formerly whetted their grinding stones, doubtless in the
manner practiced by the modern villagers of Tusayan. These depressions
are especially numerous near the edge of the cliff, between the
eastern and western sections of the ruin.[90]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY