GROUND STONE
WINGED PROBLEMATICAL FORMS
This remarkable class of unknown objects will be studied first in the
unfinished form. Previous to this page, in Figs. 320 to 328; and
subsequently in Figs. 331 and 356, I have presented nearly all the steps
or stages of process of manufacture in problematical forms. It would
appear to readers that the accumulation of these types is an easy
matter; it is not, but requires much time and patience and an endless
correspondence. I was more than ten years in accumulating a hundred
unfinished problematical forms. These all vary according to locality and
material. There are local cultures, developed in this form of object as
in flint or other types.
There are some sites in this country where shale or slate occur; notably
at Martin’s Creek, Pennsylvania, where we obtained many unfinished
butterfly and winged stones of Pennsylvania form. These materials are
not as hard as granite, but they are not always soft. So far as I can
ascertain, aboriginal man visited such places and secured masses of
material. He reduced this by pecking or pointing with stone hammers or
round blocks of flint (for a flint pebble makes a better hammer than
other stones).
I have, under each of these figures mentioned, stated at some length
what stages of workmanship the objects represent. Reference to these in
conjunction with reading the following paragraphs will acquaint readers
with the essential facts.
After pecking with stone hammers the surfaces and sides of the slate or
shale until he had reduced it to desired shape, the worker then began to
grind the stone. The scratches on several of these specimens indicate
that they were ground vigorously with other gritty stones, or rubbed
back and forth on the edges of larger stones. There is no other way to
account for the scratches on the surfaces.
[Illustration:
FIG. 330. (S. 1–2.) From the collection of Stephen Van Rensselaer.
Found near Orange, New Jersey. These are typical New Jersey types of
ornaments or problematical forms, and very interesting specimens.
The materials are red and gray slate.
]
The average tablet, a flat gorget, must have been made from a piece of
slate or water-worn shale. It is not to be supposed that the native
would put himself to the trouble and inconvenience of reducing a block
of slate larger than the required size. Large fragments of slate, shale,
granite, and blooded quartz he did make into winged objects. Manifestly,
he could not make a winged object out of a thin, flat stone (such as our
Committee have classified under “laminae”). The flat tablets, gorgets
and pendants are more numerous than the winged objects, for the reason
that they are easy to make. Inspection of the specimens illustrated in
this chapter will prove the point I make that many of these objects
required little work, save in shaping the edges. Man cut or ground the
edges until they were concave or convex or angular to suit his fancy.
[Illustration:
FIG. 331. (S. 1–1.) Andover collection. These are presented to show
the use of the reed drill. Unfortunately, the camera does not show
the perforations and the central cores as it should. What appears to
be a rim in each specimen is the dark circular depression about the
core left by the reed drill.
]
Most of these tablets were ground out, or the stone was nice and smooth,
so no grinding was necessary save on the edges. The tablet was then
ready for perforation, and he perforated it and rubbed and polished it
until the scratches had disappeared. In the case of the winged stones
much more care was necessary. The crescents and the ridged stones being
thicker were not as easily broken, and we find fewer broken specimens
among them than of the winged class. There were more broken “butterfly”
or winged stones than of any other class. Because of the thin wings it
was necessary for him to work very carefully, and probably to place one
half of the specimen on a raised surface covered with buckskin or hide
and to rub that until he was ready to turn the specimen and work on the
other wing. At best the process was a long and laborious one, as the
many unfinished objects of this character attest.
[Illustration:
FIG. 332. (S. 1–1.) Andover collection. Short winged object, showing
that perforation was made by means of a reed drill, the core
remaining in the hole. Reed drills were made use of in many of the
larger and problematical forms. Another example of reed drilling is
shown in Fig. 331.
]
A study of the unfinished winged objects in the Andover collection
furnishes one with a great deal of information. When I said that we had
a hundred unfinished winged problematical forms, I meant of those with
exaggerated wings, those in which the wings are the prominent feature.
Of all classes, unfinished objects of all the types shown in the
outlines (Fig. 292), we have over one thousand.
The larger objects in this series indicate that, after being quarried,
or, if not quarried, after the blocks were chipped or hammered, the
process of pecking followed next. Then grinding, scratching, or cutting.
Last of all came rubbing with softer materials and polishing. Another
thing that we proved was that most of these winged objects were drilled
with a reed drill. Illustrations of the core remaining in the centre of
the perforation are shown in Figs. 331 and 332. It is also apparent that
the specimens were not drilled until they were nearly completed. A
specimen is worked down until quite thin before the drilling is
undertaken. Apparently, the pecking has been ended, most of the grinding
done, and the fine grinding and polishing remain to be completed after
the specimen is drilled.
Mr. Paul S. Tooker of Westfield, New Jersey, sent me a hundred and fifty
New Jersey specimens for study and description in “The Stone Age.” Of
these, sixteen represent the problematical-ceremonial class.
Unfortunately, they came too late to be illustrated in “The Stone Age.”
I was pleased to observe in the collection a gorget of pink, hard
sandstone, curiously mottled, being on one side pink, and on the other
variegated with yellow and green bands. Apparently this stone was
considered unusual by the Indians. They had drawn five wigwams near one
end, and a snowshoe and other objects at the other end and in the
centre. There are four notches on each side, made V-shaped, and six in
each end.
In New Jersey the winged stones are more frequently of shale, quartzite,
and granite than of banded slate. This is true of Delaware and lower New
York. The stones are thin in the centre (see Figs. 329 and 330) and the
wings usually curve downwards instead of being at right angles, or
expanding from the perforations. These New Jersey types to me suggest a
bird in motion, and may stand for the “thunder bird,” so common in
American mythology.
Mr. Tooker possesses a broken butterfly form of mica schist. This has
been perforated through the centre at right angles to the original long
perforation, and was worn as an ornament until the rough, broken edges
became polished through use. The New Jersey specimens look old and do
not appear to show white man’s influence in any way.
In the collection was a bit of broken winged object (like that shown in
Fig. 338) of the blooded quartz stone from Arkansas. This specimen was
probably secured by the New Jersey natives through exchange.
Dr. Beauchamp’s remarks on certain specimens in Fig. 337 should be
quoted, and I insert them, save the change from his numbers, which do
not correspond with mine:—
[Illustration:
FIG. 333. (S. 1–4.) Northern Illinois and northern Indiana types, from
W. A. Holmes’s collection, Chicago. The winged type and also several
that defy classification are present; notably, those on the upper
row, the heart-shaped objects at either end, and the central unknown
form with three perforations. The heart-form is occasionally found
in the United States, but is rare. Just what significance it
carries, I am unable to state.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 334. (S. about 1–3.) A group of problematical forms, from the
collection of Leslie W. Hills, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Most of these
are in banded slate, although two are in granite. They will fall
under three or four subdivisions of the classification.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 335. (S. 1–1.) Problematical forms found in Cumberland County,
New Jersey. The smaller one appears to be finished and is highly
polished. The larger one is unfinished. The hole is drilled about
halfway through, leaving a projection which indicates that the
boring was done with a hollow instrument, probably a reed. These
specimens are in the collection of George Hampton, Bridgeton, New
Jersey.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 336. (S. 1–1.) Side view of the large form in Fig. 352. George
Hampton’s collection.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 337. (S. 2–3.) These are reproduced from plates illustrating Dr.
Wm. M. Beauchamp’s “Polished Stone Articles used by the New York
Aborigines,” New York State Museum _Bulletin_, vol. 4, no. 18. They
have been drawn, which shows the bands in the stone better than do
half-tones. These types are found in New York State and Canada,
Ohio, and Indiana. As one passes into Michigan or south of Kentucky,
the forms and materials change. Attention is called to the central
object, perforated on either side. This was originally a winged
object, but becoming broken was perforated after the manner of a
tablet and used in a way different from that the original form would
indicate. It must be observed, in studying these problematical
forms, that the perforations or drilling are even in all winged
types and the large objects, but in the flat tablets the holes were
rimmed out, and are wide on the face, and small on the reverse side.
]
“Next from the right is a beautiful article and comes from Fabius or
Pompey, much resembling one in the State Museum from that vicinity. It
is made of a beautiful olive-green striped slate, and in form is like a
slender pickaxe, having a central ridge along both sides, from end to
end. Each end has a slight projection. In the centre, on one side, is a
partially effaced ornament. It is seven inches wide by one and one
fourth deep, and the orifice is nine sixteenths of an inch in diameter.
No finer example of this form is on record.
“To the left is a pick-shaped article of black slate, unique in some
respects. The centre is enlarged by a distinct concave sweep on either
side, terminating in a central flattened surface. Near this is a lateral
perforation on either hand, drilled precisely as in the gorgets. No
other has been reported with holes like these, and if the stone had been
placed on a staff, they might have served to attach pendant ornaments.
The sides are covered with transverse lines, suggesting tallies. The
blades are thin, and the total length is six inches, with a depth of one
and one fourth inches. It was found on a camp-site on the Seneca River
in 1875. The ends are abrupt, and may be either broken or unfinished.
“In the lower left-hand corner is a thick, crescent-formed banner-stone
from Skaneateles Lake, made of green striped slate, and one inch deep by
three and three eighths wide. The ends are rounded, and the orifice is a
little over half an inch in diameter, contracting slightly in the
interior of the stone. There are no village-sites near, and but few
small camps.”
Occasionally, there are fine winged objects found in New England, and I
present one in the lower specimen in the photogravure plate, Fig. 338.
This was found in Massachusetts and is of mottled granite. But most of
the New England forms are such as are shown in Fig. 339, from the
collection of Mr. Deisher, and Fig. 342, from the collection of
Professor G. H. Perkins, Burlington, Vermont, and the unfinished one,
Fig. 322. It will be observed that these are quite different from the
winged types of Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio which we have illustrated.
In the photogravure plate, Fig. 338, is a small ceremonial to the right,
of hard, mottled granite from Illinois. A blooded quartz object from
Arkansas is shown to the left, while at the top is a beautiful
“butterfly form” from southern Ohio.
Of the form and distribution of Wisconsin problematical stones, Mr.
Charles E. Brown writes:—
[Illustration:
FIG. 338. _(S. 1–2.)_
_Problematical forms in stone. Localities: Ohio, Massachusetts,
Arkansas. Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, collection._
]
“Wisconsin has produced a large number of specimens of banner-stones,
many of which are of exceptional beauty of material and workmanship.
Unfinished specimens are occasionally found. Portions of broken
specimens (the wings) were sometimes perforated for use as gorgets or
pendants. In the manufacture of local banner-stones slate, syenite,
granite, rhyolite, quartz, and other rocks were employed. The range of
form is quite wide and includes many of the types described from Ohio
and other states. A few forms and varieties from other regions, not yet
described, occur here. The following notes are based upon our present
knowledge of their forms and distribution:—
1. _Tablet or rectangular form._ Fairly common and widely distributed
in southern Wisconsin. Specimens have been recovered in Kenosha,
Dane, Monroe, La Crosse, Fond du Lac, Winnebago, Waupaca, and
Outagamie counties.
2. _Square form._ Specimens of this form are equally as common as the
preceding. Examples have been collected in Washington, Waukesha,
Dodge, Jefferson, Dane, Sauk, Grant, Sheboygan, and Winnebago
counties.
3. _Reel-shaped form._ The only known specimens have come from Green
Lake and Outagamie counties.
[Illustration:
FIG. 339. (S. 1–5.) Problematical form. Material: greenish slate.
Collection of H. K. Deisher, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 340. (S. about 3–10.) Problematical form of cannel coal. This was
found in Mercer County, Ohio, in a gravel-pit. It was on the breast
of a skeleton. Phillips Academy collection.
]
4. _Boat-shaped form._ A single specimen of this shape comes from
Jefferson County; (it resembles no. 3 in Fig. 361.)
* * * * *
5. A fine example of this rare form, from Dane County, is in the
State Historical Museum, at Madison. It measures seven and one
quarter inches in length. Other examples are from Racine,
Kenosha, and Washington counties.
[Illustration:
FIG. 341. (S. 1–2.) Unfinished winged object. From the collection of
Stephen Van Rensselaer, Newark, New Jersey. New Jersey type of
winged stone is interesting in that the wings are graceful and
sloping, usually narrow, and often angular. Compare Figs. 317, 341,
and 342. It will be observed that although there is varying weight
and width in the wings, yet the three specimens present certain
characteristics in common.
]
6. _Butterfly form._ This is one of our most common forms of
Wisconsin banner-stones. It is represented by fine examples in
many public and private collections. Unfinished specimens occur
in several cabinets. The following counties have produced
specimens: Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Washington, Dodge,
Jefferson, Rock, Dane, La Crosse, Manitowoc, Green Lake,
Winnebago, and Waupaca.
[Illustration:
FIG. 342. (S. 1–2.) Winged problematical stone. Vermont. University of
Vermont collection.
]
7. _An allied form, with rounded wings._ Only two examples, one from
Washington and the other from Ozaukee County, are known. The
latter is made of ferruginous quartz, and is in the Joseph
Ringeisen, Jr., collection at Milwaukee.
8. _Oval form._ This form is of quite as common occurrence as the
butterfly form. Nearly all of the specimens are made of plain or
banded slate. Specimens have come from Kenosha, Racine,
Waukesha, Dodge, Dane, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Kewaunee, Brown,
Door, Marquette, Winnebago, Waupaca, and Wood counties. Wood,
Waupaca, and Door counties mark the northern limit of its
distribution. This form also occurs in the adjoining states of
Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa.
[Illustration:
FIG. 343. (S. 1–1.) Winged form of mottled granite. Wisconsin
Historical Society; kindness of the _Wisconsin Archeologist_. One
can distinguish this form at once as typical of the
Wisconsin-Michigan region.
]
9. A related form, of which specimens have been obtained in Racine,
Dane, and Sheboygan counties. It also occurs in Iowa.
10. _Double-crescentic form._ An example of this graceful form in the
State Historical Museum comes from Dane County. Fragmentary
specimens are known from Kenosha and Waupaca counties. All are
fashioned from slate. This form also occurs in Illinois and
Michigan.
11. _Crescent form._ Specimens have been recovered in Racine, Fond du
Lac, and Green Lake counties. Michigan, Iowa, and Indiana have
produced specimens.
12. _Knobbed crescent form._ A fine example, in the C. T. Olen
collection, comes from Omro, Winnebago County. It is made of
banded slate. A fragmentary specimen is reported to have been
found at Winneconne in the same county. Illinois and Ontario
have produced specimens of this form.
13. _Pick-shaped form._ Specimens have been found in Racine,
Washington, Green Lake, and Brown counties. This form also
occurs in Michigan.
14. _L-shaped form._ Specimens of this interesting form have been
obtained in Dodge, Dane, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Columbia, Sheboygan,
Fond du Lac, Marquette, and Manitowoc counties. All are made of
slate.
_Description of Fig. 344._
+------------------------------+
| |
| 1 2 3 |
| |
| 5 |
| 4 6 |
| 7 |
| |
| 8 9 10 |
| |
| 11 12 13 |
| |
+------------------------------+
1. Banded slate, Kentucky.
2. Mottled granite, Trigg County.
3. Banded slate, Meade County.
4. Soft green slate, Madison County.
5. Compact blackstone, Livingston County.
6. Steatite, Madison County.
7. Greenstone, Franklin County.
8. Hard red material, Livingston County.
9. Blooded quartz, Hancock County.
10. Slate, black, Trigg County.
11. Blooded quartz, Oldham County.
12. Green banded slate, Madison County.
13. Quartz, Trigg County.
These specimens, found in Kentucky, are beautiful, highly finished, and
represent the acme of stone-age art in the problematical class. The
double-winged crescents at the top on either side are to be noted. Also
the fine crescent, no. 5. No. 9, of blooded quartz, is a type somewhat
common in the South, but very seldom found in the Ohio Valley and never
in the East, or west of a line drawn between Omaha, Nebraska, and
Dallas, Texas.
No. 13 is of that same beautiful blooded quartz, which material was
selected by the natives because of its fine texture and brilliant
colors. This plate emphasizes that while winged objects, as a general
proposition, may be somewhat alike, yet in the detailed form and
material they are different, and those of one section can be
distinguished from those of another.
[Illustration:
FIG. 344. (S. 1–4.) Problematical forms. B. H. Young’s collection,
Louisville, Kentucky.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 345. (S. 1–1.) Ceremonial axe of stone. Found at Thornhill Lake,
Volusia County, Florida. From “Certain Sand Mounds, St. Johns River,
pt. II.” This is one of the angular Southern forms, with expanded
wings. It is not of the butterfly type. It reminds one very strongly
of a Wisconsin-Michigan form which is typified in Fig. 343. There
are few of the winged stones found in Georgia, Florida, or Alabama.
]
Figs. 343, 349, 357 illustrate the Wisconsin types. Other specimens from
Ohio, Indiana, etc., illustrate the more widespread Wisconsin types.
It often happens that a later tribe makes use of an object of ancient
form and special purpose, for some service totally foreign to the mind
of the original owner.
This fact is illustrated in specimen number 38,205, from our Andover
exhibit, shown in Fig. 352, which has a remarkable and interesting
history. It was found in Indiana on the banks of the Wabash River, on
the site of a Miami Indian village. The Miamis lived on that site about
seventy years ago, and the specimen was found shortly after they
departed for their reservation west of the Mississippi. As will be seen,
the object is an unfinished ceremonial, or possibly an ornament.
Material, banded slate. The maker had done little more than block it out
roughly. The specimen is clearly prehistoric and is covered with patina.
It has every appearance of age. It was picked up from its ancient site
by some Miami Indian who was in search of a suitable instrument for
tapping sugar-trees. As the specimen was of the right weight, and shaped
something like a hammer-head, he lashed it in a stick and used it as an
instrument with which to drive pegs or chips into the sugar-maples. The
original handle has been preserved, although it is now frail and much
decayed.
[Illustration:
FIG. 346. (S. 1–3.) Four winged objects and one pick-shaped from the
collection of A. L. Addis, Albion, Indiana. Attention is called to
the central object, a crescent with the broad ends. This type is
interesting, and different from others. Several have been found, but
no one can explain the purpose of these peculiar projections on the
tips of the wings.
]
Moreover, the specimen carries a moral. We cannot explain the purpose of
the “ceremonial” or unknown or “problematical” class through information
or data obtained from modern Indians, and so far as prehistoric times
are concerned, modern folk-lore sheds little light on them. In this case
the Indian made use of an unfinished ceremonial as a rude hand-hammer.
No glimmer of what that specimen stood for in the mind of prehistoric
man entered his head. He saw a convenient tool and he made use of it
accordingly. How long ago that ceremonial was manufactured, it is
impossible to determine. One fact stands forth indisputably, and that is
that the modern Miami had not the faintest conception of the original or
true import of the object he used as a hammer.
[Illustration:
FIG. 347. (S. 1–1.) Very highly polished slate winged object.
Collection of Leslie W. Hills, Fort Wayne, Indiana. This was
originally of butterfly form, such as is shown at the top in Fig.
350, and my theory is that it was broken and the wings ground down
until this form resulted.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 348. (S. 1–6.) This is a group of interesting problematical forms
showing type specimens from Indiana. The double crescent in the
centre is one of the finest of its class I have ever seen. On either
side are two ridged gorgets, the elevation being horn-like in
character. Some tubular pipes from California are shown at the top.
Some of the ornaments are quite unusual. The light-colored one to
the left of the lower part of the double crescent is made of galena.
The bar-amulet, just below the central tubular pipe, is a fine
specimen. Collection of Leslie W. Hills, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 349. (S. 2–3.) Problematical forms from the collection of Beloit
College, Wisconsin. The two objects in the centre are not unlike
Ohio Valley forms, but the upper one to the left and the one in the
lower right-hand corner are typical of Wisconsin. These two are made
of mottled granite and beautifully worked.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 350. (S. about 1–2.) Types of finished problematical forms. Ohio
Valley. Of these four winged stones, I would call attention to the
one in the lower right-hand corner. It is very unusual to find an
object with wings so short that it appears more like a reel on which
to wind cord than a true problematical stone. It is believed that it
originally had longer wings, but these becoming broken, were ground
down until nothing remained but what appears in the present
specimen. The object is fully finished, and highly polished.
Phillips Academy collection, Andover, Massachusetts.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 351. (S. 1–3.) A group of winged objects from the collection of
Leslie W. Hills, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Material: banded slate and
black slate. One or two are not entirely completed. An imitation of
horns in stone is shown in the lower specimen. These antler-shaped
stones are not uncommon, although one as pronounced as this type is
rare. It is possible that they were part of a head-dress, as the
perforation would indicate it was worn with the points extending
upwards.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 352. (S. 2–5.) Found in Indiana. Material: banded slate. Handle,
hickory. Phillips Academy collection.
]