MINOR ANTIQUITIES
(continued)

STONE IMPLEMENTS

Stone implements from Spruce-tree House include axes, mauls, stone hammers, and grinding stones, in addition to other objects of unknown uses. As a rule these stone implements are rudely made, although some of them are as fine as any known from the Southwest. It is but natural that these implements should have been manufactured from more compact and harder rock than that of which the walls of the buildings were constructed. Apparently these objects were not picked up in the neighborhood but brought to the site of the ruin from a great distance.

FIG. 11. Stone axes.

AXES

The author collected several stone axes (pl. 21 and fig. 11) from Spruce-tree House, some of which (a-f) are fine specimens. These are all of the same general type, sharpened at one end and blunt at the opposite end, with a groove midway for attachment of the handle. In no case is there a ridge bordering this groove which in one specimen (pl. 21, g) is partially duplicated.

One ax has a cutting edge at each end, while another (fig. 12) has the handle still attached, recalling the two specimens figured by Nordenskiöld.

Among the objects of stone taken from Spruce-tree House are several similar to those called by the Hopi tcamahias (pl. 21, h). These implements are as a rule long, with smooth surfaces; they are sharpened at one end and pointed at the opposite end. Generally they have no groove for the attachment of a handle; in one instance, however, there is an indentation on opposite borders. The use of these objects is unknown; they may have been axes or planting implements.

Stone objects of precisely the same type are highly prized by the Hopi and play important parts in their ceremonials. A number of these objects are arranged about the sand picture of the Antelope altar in the Snake dance at Walpi.a

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aSnake Ceremonials at Walpi, in Journal of American Archaeology and Ethnology, IV, 1894.

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Similar specimens are attached by the Hopi to their most sacred palladium, called the tiponi, or badge of office of the chief of a priesthood. The tiponi of the Antelope society has one of these projecting from its top. The meaning of this association may be even greater than at first would be suspected, for according to legends the Snake family, which is the guardian of the fetishes used in the snake ceremonies, originally lived at Tokonabi, near Navaho mountain, at the mouth of the San Juan river. The culture of the ancient inhabitants of the ruins at that place was not very different from that of the people of the Mesa Verde.

FIG. 12. Stone ax with handle.

GRINDING STONES

Both pestles and hand stones used in grinding maize were excavated, the latter in considerable numbers. There were found also many stone slabs having rounded depressions, or pits, on opposite sides, evidently similar to those now used by the Hopi in grinding the paints for their ceremonials. In some places peckings or grooves in the surfaces of the rocks show where these grinding stones were used, and perhaps flattened to the desired plane. These grinding places are found in the plazas, on the sides of the cave back of the village, and elsewhere. A number of these grooves in a lower ledge of rock at the spring indicate that this was a favorite spot for shaping the hand grinders, possibly for grinding corn or other seeds.

The hand stones are of several types: (1) Polygonal, having corners somewhat worn, but flat on both sides, and having grooves on opposite edges to insure a firm hold for the hand; (2) convex on one face and flat on the opposite; (3) having two faces on each side, separated by a sharp ridge. The third type represents apparently the last stage in the life of a grinding stone the surfaces of which have been worn to this shape by constant use.

Several flat stones, each having a slight depression on one side, were found to be covered with pigments of various colors, which were ground on their surfaces by means of conical stones, as shown in figure 13. Two rectangular flat stones (pl. 21, i, j) with finely polished surfaces and rounded edges have a notch on the rim. Their use is unknown. Nordenskiöld refers to similar stones as "moccasin lasts," but there seems no valid reason thus to identify these objects except that they have the general formÑalthough largerÑof the sole of the foot. The Spruce-tree House aborigines wore sandals and had no need for lasts. Moreover, so far as known, the Pueblo Indians never made use of an object of this kind in fashioning their moccasins.

POUNDING STONES

FIG. 13. Stone pigment-grinder.

In the course of the excavations a large number of stones having pits in the sides were exhumed, but these are so heavy that they were not sent to Washington. Several of these stones are cubical in form and have lateral pits, one on each of four faces. Some are thick, while others are thin and sharpened at the end like an ax. These stones are probably the mauls with which the masons dressed the rocks used in the construction of the buildings. With such mauls the surfaces of the floors of some ceremonial rooms were cut down several inches below the original level. Some of the pounding stones resemble in a measure the grinding stones, but in them pits replace grooves commonly found in the edge of the latter.

Corn was usually ground on flat stones called metates which were found in considerable numbers. These metates commonly show wear on one or both surfaces, and a few specimens have a ridge on each border resulting from the wearing down of the middle of the stone.

CYLINDER OF POLISHED HEMATITE

Among the objects from the ruins of Mesa Verde figured by Nordenskiöld is one designated a "cylinder of polished hematite, perhaps a fetish." Another stone cylinder closely resembling this was found by the present author at Spruce-tree House. This object closely resembles a bead, but as the author has seen similar stones used on Hopi altars, especially on the altar to the cardinal points, he is inclined to accept the identification suggested by Nordenskiöld. On altars to the cardinal points small stones of different shapes and colors are arranged near ears of corn surrounding a medicine bowl. As black is the symbolic color of the underworld, a stone of this color is found on the black ear of corn representing the nadir. If this cylinder is a fetish it may have been somewhat similarly used.