Stone Objects
While projectile points are a large focus of archaeology due to their use in chronological dating, many other important stone objects are also found on sites. These objects served a variety of purposes, both utilitarian and ceremonial, and they were made using several techniques that include chipping, pecking, grinding, polishing, and etching or engraving.
The bifacial knives shown here were made by chipping both sides of a large flake to produce an elongate cutting tool. The shape and condition of the edges suggest that these tools were attached to a handle.
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Scrapers were made by unifacially chipping the edge of a stone flake to produce a steep, sharp, uniform edge. These tools, as the name implies, were used to scrape animal hides and other materials. Many, but not all, scrapers were attached to a handle.
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Stone drills were made by bifacially chipping a long flake or spear point to create a sharp, narrow bit. This durable tool could be hafted to the end of a stick and used, either handheld or with a bow, for drilling holes in wood or soft stone.
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Prior to the invention of pottery vessels, materials used for cooking and storage would have included wood and grass woven baskets, wooden bowls, ground turtle shells, and carved stone bowls. Due to issues of preservation and rotting, archaeologist only sometimes find evidence for ground turtle shell implements, and rarely for woven baskets. Therefore, before 1000 B.C., the most common evidence we have for cooking implements is with carved stone bowls – usually made from soapstone. These bowls are found most commonly during the Late Archaic, between about 4000 to 1000 B.C. In North Carolina we know of at least one quarry – the Blue Rock soapstone quarry located in the mountains of Yancey County.
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Discoidals are game stones and are also referred to as chunky stones. These stones were important in the American Indian game called Chungke. Accounts of the game vary depending on the region, but generally the stone would be rolled on its rim down a prepared smooth surface. One person attempted to hit the rolling stone with a spear, while the other person (who had rolled the stone) attempted to block their opponent’s pole with their own spear. Points were gained by either hitting the stone or blocking the opponent from hitting the stone.
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Spherical cobbles of hard stone were used by Indians as hammers for flintknapping and other tasks. With repeated use, the edges of these handheld cobble hammers became uniformly abraded and thus recognizable to the archaeologist as ancient tools. In some instances, these cobbles also have one or more pits or depressions on their surface, suggesting they also served as anvils. 3D models of both artifact types can be seen below.
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The earliest stone axes in North Carolina can be dated to the Middle Archaic period (about 5000 B.C.) and were made by chipping. Called Guilford Axes, they usually were made of fine-grained metavolcanic rock and probably were attached to a wooden handle by lashing. Later axes were made through a process of pecking, grinding, and polishing one stone with another. The materials tend to be made from coarse rocks (often metamorphic), the structure of which makes them ideal for grinding against other materials. Axes and adzes were both ground-stone tools used for woodworking. Their shapes can often be similar, but they were attached to handles (hafted) in different ways.
Ground-stone axes were hafted in one of two ways. Those made and used prior to about A.D. 1000 usually had a groove around the circumference that allowed it to be lashed to a wooden handle. These usually are called full-grooved axes or three-quarter grooved axes, depending upon whether all four sides, or just three, are grooved. After about A.D. 1000, axes were made without grooves and socketed into a wooden handle rather than being lashed to it. Axes of this type have a long triangular or teardrop shape and are called celts.
Adzes appear similar to celts, but they were hafted and used differently. Whereas grooved axes and celts were used to chop wood, and thus were hafted so that the blade or cutting edge was parallel to the handle, adzes were used to gouge or chisel wood. They were hafted so that the blade was perpendicular (at a right angle) to the handle. A distinctive characteristic of stone adzes is that the blade is sharpened mostly on one side, unlike axe blades which are sharpened on both sides.
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Archaeologists occasionally find stone objects that lack an obvious purpose or explanation. Sometimes they are interpreted as being ornamental (something that was worn like jewelry); other times they are called ceremonial objects, which mostly means we don’t know what their purpose was or how they were used. Such objects are included in this category.
Gorgets are usually flat, elongate pieces of stone that have been ground into a particular shape and have one or two holes drilled through the center. They often are interpreted as pendants worn around the neck, and most appear to date to the Early or Middle Woodland periods (1000 B.C. – A.D. 800).
Birdstones have only rarely been found in North Carolina, though they are more common elsewhere in the eastern United States. They also appear to date to the Early or Middle Woodland periods, but how they functioned is not known.
Finally, several fragments of engraved rock and stone pebbles have been found in the Uwharrie Mountains area of central North Carolina, where they are associated with other artifacts that date to the Archaic period. Some of these are drilled and likely were worn as pendants. These engraved artifacts represent some of the oldest surviving art in the state.
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