University of Virginia Library

IMPLEMENTS OF BONE

From the bones of animals killed for food Bonitian women made
tools to facilitate their household tasks. Awls, for example, were
employed for patching clothing and in the manufacture of coiled
baskets. There were punches for sharpening flint knives, chisel-like
implements of unknown use, and scrapers for fleshing hides.

Bone tools are easily made: a flint flake, sandstone, sometimes a
stone hammer—nothing else is needed. By sawing part way through
with the flake and then applying pressure, it is possible to section a
bone or to shorten it as desired.[6]

A common practice at Pueblo Bonito was to saw deer metapodials
lengthwise so they could be split into halves or even quarters (pl. 32,
d, e). However, in the case of an elk tibia, figure d, splitting was
attempted by means of a wedge—and unsuccessfully, as may be seen
from the result. The wedge mark shows on the lower edge, below the
heavy shadow. In other instances a hammerstone was employed to
spall away the unwanted part. Irrespective of method, with the desired
portion in hand, edges were smoothed, protuberances were removed,

and the implement otherwise was brought to its final form by the
abrasive action of sandstone. The cliff back of Bonito is furrowed by
the sharpening of bone awls (pl. 23, left); similar grooves are often
seen on doorsills, on convenient stones in house walls. Rubbing on or
with sandstone was chiefly the means by which bone implements were
shaped and sharpened.

Awls are the most common of bone tools. Those in our collection
exhibit no attempt at standardization but, on the contrary, differ
greatly in size, shape, and the amount of labor expended upon them.
Properly pointed, almost any bone answered for an awl, even fortuitous
splinters (pl. 33).

With fragments eliminated, 417 bone awls were available for the
present study. Only 42 are listed as avian, and some of these may
actually be from the hollow leg bones of rabbits or other small animals.
It is difficult to identify bones that have been altered; doubly so when
both articular surfaces are wanting. Of the 42 bird bones converted
to awls, only 16 have been identified, and 14 of these are wild turkey
(Meleagris gallopavo). The tibiotarsus was utilized in seven instances,
two of which retain the unmodified proximal end as a grip. The ulna
was employed in three cases; the radius and tarsometatarsus, in two
each. Awls made from the ulna of a golden eagle (Aquila chryaëtos)
and the tibiotarsus of a ferruginous rough-legged hawk (Buteo regalis),
figures h and i, respectively, suggest these birds of prey were
not held so sacred (on account of their feathers) that their bones could
not, upon occasion, be applied to mundane needs.

Among 375 awls made from mammal bones perhaps 70 percent are
too changed for positive identification. The remainder includes the
following eight species, listed in descending order of their occurrence:

• Mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus

• Jack rabbit, Lepus californicus

• Cottontail, Sylvilagus auduboni

• Dog or coyote, Canis familiaris or C. lestes

• Elk, Cervus canadensis

• Bobcat, Lynx

• Mountain sheep, Ovis canadensis

• Badger, Taxidea taxus

The last two are represented by single specimens. Bones of the mule
deer predominate. Although pronghorn-antelope bones occur in local
rubbish piles, none has been recognized among the implements before
us.

The strength and straightness of deer leg bones quite understandably
won for them first choice among awlmakers. Our collection

Plate 26

A, Specialized metate, with newly pitted grinding surface
and grist basin above.

B, Sandstone door showing slight use as a passive abrader.

Plate 27.—a-d, Tablets of fine-grained sandstone; e-g, hand stones used for grinding corn
on metates. The back, or unworn, side only is shown.

Plate 28.—a-h, Knives chipped from various rocks; i-k, three blades from a sealed
repository in Kiva Q.

Plate 29

Upper: Dismantled mealing bins in Room 291. (Photograph by Neil M. Judd, 1923.)

Lower: Zuñi girls grinding the family's daily ration of corn meal. (Photograph by Charles
Martin, 1920.)

Plate 30

A

Types of milling stones used by the Old Bonitians (A) and by the Late Bonitians. In the latter (B), the normally closed upper end
has been removed by pecking.

B

Plate 31

Upper: Outworn metates found on the east side of Kiva Q and presumably fallen from work
rooms partly overhanging the kiva. (Photograph by Neil M. Judd, 1924.)

Lower: Before and after its ceiling collapsed, Room 323 had served as a neighborhood dump.
(Photograph by O. C. Havens, 1924.)

Plate 32.—Bone end scrapers and drawknife (a-c). With flint and sandstone saws,
wanted portions of deer bones are separated and the rest discarded (d-e).

Plate 33.—Bone awls and awl-like tools made from bird and mammal bones.

includes 83 awls made from metapodials that retain at least part of
one articulation and 134 others probably from the same bones. Of
the former, 51 preserve part of the distal joint as a handle—the entire
end in 6 instances, half of it in 44 cases, and less than half in 1 only.
Where metapodials were quartered it is the proximal end, if any, that
survives in recognizable degree. Bones of young animals were utilized
impartially; in several instances the epiphysis has become detached
since the implement was last used. Deer radii were employed for two
awls and, if I judge correctly from shape, curve, and weight, for nine
others that lack articulations.

Second, numerically, are awls made from rabbit bones. The tibia
is identifiable in 18 cases, the radius in 7, the humerus in 5, and the
ulna in 3. Bones of the jack rabbit prevail slightly over those of the
cottontail. Since rabbits are easier to kill than deer, rabbit leg bones
probably were utilized in larger proportion than our figures indicate,
but, being hollow, they were easily broken and as quickly discarded.

From our awl collection we may derive a number of facts and
figures. There are long awls and short awls; thick and thin awls;
awls made in a moment from the first bone within reach and awls
that required days of patient rubbing and polishing. Many even today
are needle-sharp; many are dulled through use and neglect.

The series is predominantly Late Bonitian for, of the 417 specimens
on which these observations are based, only 40 are regarded as most
likely of Old Bonitian origin. Thirty of these were recovered from
dumps in which Old Bonitian rubbish prevailed; three from Old
Bonitian dwellings, and seven under circumstances that mark them
as probably Old Bonitian. In contrast, 200 came from dominantly
Late Bonitian trash, 82 from Late Bonitian houses and kivas, while
13 are considered probably Late Bonitian. Forty-five were found in
dumps where Old and Late Bonitian rubbish was approximately equal;
37, exposed during trenching and clearing operations, remain doubtful.
Thus over 70 percent of our awls are presumably Late Bonitian; only
9.5 percent Old Bonitian.

Of our 40 Old Bonitian awls only one is of bird bone, the distal end
of a turkey ulna broken in such a way that a couple of strokes against
sandstone sufficed to smooth the tip's edges (pl. 33, fig. c). It was
found beneath the floor of Room 151 in what was probably part of
the original Old Bonitian village dump. The other six doubtful specimens,
all mammal bone, came from the West Court exploratory trench.

This paucity of bird-bone awls was not restricted to one part of the
pueblo. It is a phenomenon we noted repeatedly in the course of our
investigations. For instance, of 13 awls in the partial fill of Room 226,

only 1 was of bird bone. Of 14 specimens from Room 290, another
trash pile dominantly Late Bonitian, 3 were of bird bones. Of 32
awls from our stratigraphic trench through the east refuse mound,
chiefly Late Bonitian in origin, only 1 was of bird bone and that a
mere splinter, perhaps from a turkey's tibiotarsus.

Fifteen awls were recovered from Old Bonitian debris of occupation
in Room 323. One has been identified as the baculum of a badger,
sharpened at the proximal end. Two deer metapodials preserve part
of the head as a handle, while seven, varying in length from 2¾ to 5[fraction 7 by 16]
inches, retain half the distal joint. One is made from a deer's radius
(pl. 33, i2); four lack any trace of an articular surface. Two of these
latter are drilled, one being the notched example illustrated as figure
r; one is a spatulate awl (fig. p); and the fourth, a mere splinter.

Strangely enough, our burial rooms were practically devoid of awls
either as grave offerings or discards. Only two were found in Room
320; three only, in 330. Ten came from Room 326 and all appear to be
deer bones: one, the proximal end of a radius; one, the head of an
ulna; two, a half and a quarter, respectively, from the proximal end
of split canon bones; three, metapodials retaining half the distal joint,
and three from which both articulations were severed. Two of these
latter (U.S.N.M. No. 335051) are drilled three-eighths and fiveeights
of an inch, respectively, from the butt. One of the three distalend
awls is notched or shouldered about a quarter inch from the tip
(pl. 34, fig. q). The notch ends slope in opposite directions—one, up
and forward; the other, down and to the rear.

A similar specimen was uncovered in our stratigraphic trench
through the east refuse mound. In this case, however, the shoulders
are symmetrical and the tip rounded, presumably in consequence of a
habitual wrist twist of the owner while punching splint holes in basketry.
A majority of our deer-bone awls have been ground to a more
or less conical point but no others exhibit the balanced shoulders and
the cylindrical tip of this one.

Kiva B was half filled with floor sweepings and debris of occupation.
From this 23 bone awls were recovered, 18 of them mammalian.
Five were found in the subfloor chamber west of the fireplace, but
there is nothing distinctive about them. Two are splinters; one preserves
the distal joint of a deer's canon bone; one is the short, rounded
pin shown as figure f, plate 34; and the fifth, the flat-sided, conicalbased
fragment described on page 145.

Two awls came from Kiva C, a relatively late structure in the
southeastern quarter of the village. One is made from the tibia of a
cottontail; the other probably from a deer radius (U.S.N.M. No.

335064). This latter, slightly curving, thin, and neatly finished, had
been stuck for safekeeping between the paired ceiling poles resting
upon pilaster 5 and was burned and broken when fire consumed the
timbers.

A single awl found in the west bench recess, Kiva L, is 4⅛ inches
long, sharply pointed, and probably from the quartered proximal end
of a canon bone (U.S.N.M. No. 335075).

We have four awls made from lateral metapodials or splint bones
(pl. 33, fig. b2). This peculiar and seemingly useless bone is naturally
awl-shaped; the average one can be pointed with a half dozen strokes
against sandstone and thus readied for immediate service. It seems
strange, therefore, that splint bones were not deliberately saved despite
their small size and fragility.[7] Ulnae likewise can be converted into
awls with very little effort. We have 16 such: 3 of jack rabbit; 4, dog
or coyote; 9, mule deer.

Out of this study two observations seem paramount: the relative
paucity of bird-bone awls and the fact that, despite preference for the
straighter ones, almost any bone or fragment sufficed for awl making.
Despite variations in weight, length, and quality of workmanship I
detect among our bone awls no distinctive qualities on which to justify
either cultural or time groupings. They are just awls and they were
made out of whatever suitable material was available. Fifty specimens
are nothing but splinters, more or less accidental splinters, from bones
broken by pressure or percussion. Three are pieces of deer mandibles;
five, rib fragments. There is at least one made from the distal end of
a bobcat's humerus (U.S.N.M. No. 335019); at least one from the
distal end of a bobcat's femur (No. 335079); another from the head
of a dog or coyote femur (No. 335068).

Awls may differ in length as in the proportion of bone removed.
Among those made from deer metapodials, for example, and retaining
at least part of the articulation, the longest measures 8[fraction 15 by 16] inches
(No. 335086); the shortest, 1[fraction 13 by 16] (No. 335056). This latter, the
reductio ad absurdum of awls, shows wear on the butt although not
to an extent suggesting that use and periodic resharpening alone could
have worn it down from a length, say, of 9 inches. It is one of three
awls recovered from Late Bonitian rubbish in Room 333, while the
longest, a possible dagger, came from the great West Court trench.

Three awls have random lines finely incised upon the convex surface

but without an attempt at design (pl. 33, h2). Two others are notched
on the edge or face. One of these bears 10 conspicuous notches along
one edge, 11 along the other (fig. r). On a second example (No.
335053), edge notches at the left of the tip change to short, incised
lines that continue up the crest of the convex side to end at upper
right.

Twelve specimens are drilled at the butt end. Their length varies
from 2¼ to 7½ inches, averaging 4⅝. Some are rounded, some are flat;
some are thick and some are thin. The diameter of the drilling varies
but not necessarily in proportion to the breadth of the shaft. One is
drilled laterally through half the distal joint of a deer metacarpus.
Only one in the lot might properly be described as a needle (pl. 34,
fig. a). It is of split mammal bone, 2¾ inches long by [fraction 5 by 16] inch wide,
and was found in the east mound where most of the trash is Late
Bonitian.

One specimen is notched on the rear corners, 1 inch from the tip,
and grooved part way across the front as if by friction of a cord.
Above this groove and along the right margin are half a dozen lesser
furrows (pl. 33, fig. e2). Cord-worn grooves are noted on four other
awls or fragments. The point of a second example, grooved an inch
and a half from the tip, was broken off at a parallel groove an eighth
of an inch above. A third is furrowed on the convex face only, threefourths
of an inch from the tip. Whatever their primary function,
one might guess these five were also employed for firming cords or
tightening warps on the loom.

Two other groups remain for consideration, and it is quite possible
they should have been separated completely from the awls. First is
a series of eight with spatulate butts. Four, one being a reworked
fragment, were made from heavy bone, undoubtedly deer. Longest of
the four, 4⅜ inches (pl. 33, fig. p), is round-ended, and this is also
true of that illustrated by figure s, plate 34. The fragment mentioned,
itself made into an awl, has an obliquely ground end but it lies to the
right, or opposite that of figure k, plate 33. In each case the beveling
is on the concave surface; all except the fragment possess a gloss that
comes only with long use. Whatever their purpose it certainly differed
from that of the four delicate little spatulate implements shown on
plate 34, figures b-e. A fifth possible member of this latter series is
made of bird bone, its concave side rubbed flat at one end (U.S.N.M.
No. 335026).

For the group next to be described a separate classification seems
even more justified. There are 32 in the series, and they might be
likened to pins (pl. 34, figs. f-p). They vary in length from 1[fraction 9 by 16] to

7[fraction 13 by 16] inches; in diameter, from [fraction 3 by 32] to [fraction 7 by 32] of an inch. Average length is
a trifle under 4 inches. All are solid and made from mammal bones.
A few, split from metapodials, are naturally flattened on one side near
the butt; a few possess the slight longitudinal curve of a mule deer's
radius or tibia. Some are purposely tapered at the butt end, although
most are direct and square cut. All have tips more finely and sharply
drawn than the ordinary bone awl. It is this latter feature, together
with the uniformly rounded shaft, that evidences exceptional care in
manufacture and suggests that the group might have been articles of
adornment—hair ornaments or pins to fasten shoulder blankets—
rather than bodkins for sewing cloth, leather, and basketry. It should
be noted, however, that only one of the 32, and that the bluntest
(fig. o), is scored at the butt end, as if for attachment of feathers or
other appendages.

Shortest of the series (fig. g) differs from all the others in having a
shouldered or doweled butt an eighth of an inch long, clearly designed
to fit into a socket. Another of comparable length, but flat-sided and
with both extremities now missing, has a conical butt that likewise
could have fitted into the end of a reed shaft (U.S.N.M. No. 335062).

Five of our "pins" bear discoidal heads that seem purely ornamental.
Three of these are represented by figures i-k, plate 34, the third being
notched six or seven times around the periphery. Longest of the five,
4[fraction 7 by 16] inches, has a flat-sided shaft with rounded edges and to this extent
differs from the others. And if these were really ornaments, why not
also that with the triangular head (fig. u); the slightly modified jackrabbit
ulna (v); the bobcat fibula (h), needle sharp?

None of the 32 pins, plain or ornamented, was found in Old Bonitian
houses or rubbish.

We recovered only one antler prong with tip rubbed to awl sharpness,
and that came from Late Bonitian debris in Room 290 (335090).

Punches (?).—Three of the specimens (m-o) figured on plate 33
are doubtless one-time awls applied to some other purpose. Their tips
are rounded and polished as if repeatedly rubbed with pressure against
dressed skins, basketry, or similar resilient substances. The second
and longest has been worn obliquely and in line with an old break,
largely because the tool balances best in the right hand when held
concave edge down and thumb in the marrow cavity. Of our six socalled
punches none is scarred and gnawed about the point to identify
it as a flaking tool.

Another specimen (U.S.N.M. No. 335189), 2½ inches long by ⅜
diameter, likewise remains unmarred by use as a flaker. Down its

length striations of the sandstone abrader are plain; a number of
slanting notches appear on one edge.

Chisels.—Five chisel-like tools are next to be considered (pl. 34,
figs. w-a2). They vary, as awls do, from splinters to sawed and carefully
smoothed sections of metapodials. Their one feature in common
is a chisel-like blade, but this varies in width from one-eighth to fiveeighths
of an inch. With one exception (fig. w) each blade is beveled
from both sides. Specimen z is blunted at the tip as though from
retouching chipped knives and arrowpoints. A sixth possible member
of this group (fig. b2) lacks the thin cutting edge of the others. Except
the fragment, a surface find, all six came from Late Bonitian rooms.

"Bark strippers" is undoubtedly an incorrect designation for the
five round-ended specimens shown on the same plate as figures c2-g2,
but it is in the right direction. Each evidences greatest wear on the
inner or concave side where wear facets show the tools were held at
an angle of from 10° to 35° when in use. In figure d2, as illustrated,
the left side clearly received most pressure in operation; reciprocal
wear appears on the opposite side of the convex surface. This suggests
that the instrument was forced between two resistant surfaces (as, for
example, in stripping bark from prospective ceiling beams), but similar
wear facets do not occur on either of the other specimens. The shortest,
g2, appears to be comparatively new but the other four display the
polish that comes through use.

Worked ribs.—Two sections of deer rib, 4¾ and 6⅞ inches long and
both from the rubbish fill of Room 255, have their distal ends worn
obliquely, and round off with the lower edge. In both the direction of
wear is rearward from the concave side as if the ribs had been used
by a right-handed person in smoothing, say, the abrupt inner curves
of earthenware vessels. However, these two (pl. 32, figs. a, b) are the
only ones of their kind; we found nothing comparable elsewhere in
the village.

The rib fragment shown on plate 33 as figure q is also the only one
of its kind. Both edges are slightly worn by scraping, but whether
before or after the specimen was converted into a rude awl it is impossible
to say.

Drawknife.—Another lone example is a drawknife made from the
radius of a mule deer (pl. 32, fig. c). It comes from the fill of an
abandoned kiva underlying the East Court arbor identified as Room
286. Its lower edge is still keen; the upper, despite considerable
wear, preserves the conchoidal notches that prove that a hammerstone
roughed out the knife. Both ends have been burned.

End scrapers, or fleshers, made from deer humeri are familiar to all

students of Pueblo prehistory. They belong to the Pueblo III horizon
but apparently are restricted in distribution chiefly to the Mesa Verde
region (Nordenskiöld, 1893, pl. 41; Fewkes, 1909, p. 49; Morris,
1919a, p. 36; 1919b, pl. 45, b) and thence southward across the Chaco
to the Zuñi country (Roberts, 1931, p. 152; 1932, p. 137). One would
expect them in late cliff dwellings of the Canyon de Chelly, but I find
no published record of their occurrence there. In the Kayenta district,
two have been reported from Betatakin (Judd, 1930, p. 62). They
are unknown throughout the old Hopi territory. Except for the Pecos
fragment described by Kidder (1932, p. 235), the type is not recorded
from the Rio Grande drainage.

When Pepper (1905b, pp. 186-190) first directed attention to the
humeri scrapers of Pueblo Bonito he carefully stated that they were
rarely decorated; that their decoration, if any, was most likely to be
incised meanders, crosshatching, and animal figures. However, his
description of one inlaid with turquoise and jet, together with fragments
of two similarly embellished specimens, tended to overshadow
the more numerous, plainer variety. The latter were found throughout
the village, in rubbish heaps and elsewhere. Almost all evidenced use;
many were broken.

Hyde's table showing the distribution of worked bone (Pepper,
1920, pp. 366-368) lists 37 scrapers. Presumably they are all of the
type under consideration. Twenty-five rooms are represented, and ten
of them are elsewhere identified, either positively or probably, as
depositories for debris of occupation. From that rubbish Pepper
recovered 18 of his 37 scrapers. Since we do not know the makeup
of the debris we cannot guess its source, but 8 of the 10 dumps were
in Late Bonitian structures, 6 of which closely bordered the old,
original portion of the village. If separation were to be made on a
basis of the type of masonry of the room in which found, a meaningless
criterion in this instance, we should find that 9 scrapers came from
Old Bonitian structures, 28 from Late Bonitian. In either case it is
clear that end scrapers, or fleshers, made from deer humeri were fairly
common tools at Pueblo Bonito and that they were lightly tossed aside
when broken.

Describing his two inlaid specimens from Room 38 and the fragment
from Room 170, Pepper (1905b, pp. 185-196) quite properly
emphasized their artistic quality. He assumed they were made for
ceremonial purposes; regarded them as "part of the altar paraphernalia
of some religious society" solely, so far as I can judge, because
they are exceptional and he was loath to believe such exquisite tools
were employed in fleshing ordinary deer and coyote hides. The thought

is equally distasteful to me, and yet I see no cause for putting the two
in a special class. Certainly there is no justification for stamping the
inlaid scrapers "ceremonial" just because they were found on a broken
shelf in the same 6-inch layer of blown sand with five turquoise ducks
and a turquoise-collared jet frog. If so, then all the beads and pendants
intermixed with them, both jet and turquoise, likewise are ceremonial.

During the course of the National Geographic Society's explorations
20 humeri fleshers were unearthed. Four are inlaid. Three of the
latter, figures a-c, plate 36, lay side by side on the floor in the middle
of Room 244. Why they were left in that particular spot is not evident,
for the room had been vacated and stripped of its furnishings before
blown sand sifted in to spread a 1-inch blanket over scrapers and floor.
Under the sand and against the south wall were a few fragments of a
corrugated pot and a hatful of miscellaneous sherds, nothing more.
The ceiling, partially consumed by fire, had settled to within 1 to 4
feet of the floor before masonry from the upper walls crashed through.
In and upon this broken stonework were a number of artifacts—fragments
of 4 jar covers, 5 hammerstones, 8 manos and fragments of 3
others, part of a metate, etc.

Our fourth inlaid specimen, figure d, was found beneath an oval
basket tray buried with Skeleton 9, Room 326. This association, oval
basket tray and bone flesher, invites inquiry. In all our digging we
encountered only four such trays or recognizable portions thereof.
All four were in Room 326. Each had been interred with the body
of a woman; each was accompanied by an end scraper made from the
humerus of a mule deer. The left humerus was utilized in three cases;
the right, in one only. In each instance the basket lay flat and upright.
Three of the fleshers had been placed inside their respective trays;
the fourth, as noted above, lay underneath.

What is the significance of this association, if any? Only four
baskets, but each with its end scraper and each accompanying the
burial of a woman! Although only one of the scrapers is inlaid with
turquoise and jet, perhaps Pepper was correct after all in surmising
that it, and its kind, held some religious connotation.

Our four fleshers from Room 326 are illustrated in plate 37. They
are thoroughly representative except that their distal ends have been
altered more than usual. The first (fig. a), found in the tray with
Skeleton 6, was so pressed down by the overburden as permanently to
fix its imprint in the coils of the basket (pl. 44, c). Decayed basket
fibers still adhere to its convex surface. Scraper b is the one found
underneath the oval tray with Skeleton 9. The fourth flesher, d, lay in
the tray at the right shoulder of Skeleton 12 (see pl. 92, upper), while

c had been placed in another tray (field No. 1681), with a burial my
notes do not specifically identify. It is possible that this fourth basket is
the more fragmentary of the two with Skeletons 8 and 9, no portion
of which could be salvaged.

Of our 20 humeri scrapers, two came from as many kivas, while
three are miscellaneous finds. The remainder were recovered in nine
separate rooms of which two only, Rooms 320 and 326, are Old Bonitian.
Six of the nine rooms and one of the kivas had been utilized as
neighborhood dumps. The lone specimen from Room 320, seen in situ
beneath the outermost of the two cylindrical baskets on plate 91,
lower, is one of two in the series from which the distal articulation
was entirely cut away. It is the only one with a suggestion of painted
decoration—three faint black lines encircling the shaft an inch below
the butt. None of our fleshers bears incised ornamentation.

Twelve specimens in the series are complete. They vary in length
from 3½ to 7¾ inches; average, 5⅓ inches. The longest, unfinished, is
made from the right humerus of a mountain sheep, while the other 19
have been identified as deer, most likely mule deer. Although all four
of our inlaid examples were made of left humeri there is an almost
equal division in the series as a whole—9 right, 11 left.[8] All but five
are beveled on the inner or concave face of the blade, showing that it
received most wear from friction while in use.

The drawing, figure 38, illustrates the simplicity of scraper manufacture.
It was necessary only to batter off the head and then grind
away an adjoining section of the shaft until a suitable edge was
achieved. But we detect a certain procedure in the grinding: When
the marrow cavity was first exposed, and at intervals thereafter, the
inner edges were chipped away with a flaking tool just to speed the
work. Transverse striations show use of an active abrader while the
artisan supported the humerus by its distal joint and let the opposite
end rest on his knee or the ground. Preservation of the high-curving
trochlea naturally prevented utilization of a sandstone block fixed in
position. The section removed is always the same, with a little latitude
one way or the other, and extends from the middle inside wall of the
shaft to and including all or most of the deltoid crest. The portion
preserved thus retains for its cutting edge the widest possible part of
the humerus. Commonly the more prominent articular ridges were
rubbed down and smoothed over but not always to the degree evident
on the four scrapers from Room 326. These four also surpass the

average in the extent to which the whole distal end was modified. But
however much the coronoid fossa was altered, its opposite, the olecranon,
remained entirely unchanged.

Fig. 38.—A bone flesher,
unfinished.

The three inlaid scrapers from
Room 244 deserve a special word.
First of all, they look newer, cleaner,
than the others; they are polished
but in a different sort of way. It
may be the gloss that results from
repeated handling rather than of use
but, even so, over a period of years
the oil and dirt on priestly hands
should have turned them darker
than they are now. Their trochlear
prominences have been neatly leveled;
the borders of their coronoid
fossae have been smoothed and
squared inconspicuously and their
epicondylar portions cupped for embellishment.
On the first and third
specimens these cups are occupied
by half-inch disks of pink shell
(Spondylus princeps Broderip)
from the Gulf of California, but
the disks on the latter are set within
jet rings less than one-sixteenth inch
wide. A segment is missing from
the ring seen in our illustration (pl.
36, fig. c), but its opposite is not
even cracked. Considering the brittleness
of jet, I regard this particular
scraper, with its two perfectly
ringed shell disks, as one of the
foremost examples of lapidarian
skill, of precision in craftsmanship,
ever reported from the pre-Spanish
Southwest.

On each of the three, from one edge of the cut-away section to the
other, the middle shaft is decorated with an inlaid band of jet-black
lignite and sky-blue turquoise, an incomparable combination. That
with the jet-ringed disks at the handle has three rows of purple
S. princeps shell tesserae alternating with four of turquoise, the outermost

of which are bordered by jet. On each specimen the longer
tesserae have been ground in place to match the convexity of the bone
and presumably their opposite sides are correspondingly concave.
Similar pieces, from Kiva Q and elsewhere, of claystone, jet, and
turquoise were concavoconvex. A reading glass over our illustration
will show how perfectly the individual rectangles were fitted; that
instead of eliminating an irregularity at the end of one bit, the next
was ground to conform. A resinous substance, presumably pinyon
pitch, holds the pieces in place. A channel of measured width and as
deep as the combined thickness of pitch and tesserae was in each
instance cut out for reception of the mosaic.

A flesher that imitates our type specimens was
fashioned from the right mandible of a half-grown
deer by cutting off the ramus and grinding the inner
wall to a bladelike edge back of the third molar
(U.S.N.M. No. 335172). The exposed teeth had
been knocked off. The piece does not evidence extended
use. It was broken at the second bicuspid and
the anterior portion lost.

A closely related variety of end scraper was made
from deer toe bones (fig. 39). Of 13 in our collection,
4 are from right proximal phalanges, 8 are from
left, and 1, not at hand when this study was under
way, remains unidentified.[9] Their average length is
just a shade under 2 inches. With the possible exception
of the misplaced one, found beneath the floor
of Room 151, all are from Late Bonitian rooms or
rubbish. Four came from kivas, two of which held
trash piles.

Fig. 39.—End
scraper made
from the toe
bone of a deer.

Striations on the abraded surfaces vary all the way from transverse
to longitudinal; therefore, and especially since the distal end did not
interfere, we may be confident the grinding was done on a passive
abrader. As with the humeri scrapers, length of the section removed
varied somewhat, depending upon the angle at which the phalanx was
held for grinding. The polish that comes with use lies on the flatter
or concave face. Since none of our specimens is grooved or otherwise
marked for attachment, we may assume each was held directly in the
fingers of the operator.

Half the distal end of a canon bone recovered from Old Bonitian

rubbish in Room 323, 2[fraction 9 by 16] inches long and beveled through wear on
both faces, could be considered an ancestral type (U.S.N.M. No.
335154). It is the only one of its kind we found and echoes Guernsey's
B.M. III specimen from Segi Canyon (Guernsey, 1931, pl. 56, i).

Antler.—With so many tools of deer bone one could expect to find
a proportionate number made from antler. On the contrary, and
despite a suitable representation of beam fragments and tines, we
recovered few antler artifacts. One tine is finely pointed and doubtless
answered for an awl; another, perhaps an awl in the making, is
ground on opposing sides of the tip.

At Aztec Ruin, Morris (1919a, p. 43) observed a similar want of
antler implements, while Hodge (1920) reports a relative abundance
of them from historic Hawikuh. Historic Pecos pueblo likewise produced
numerous antler artifacts (Kidder, 1932, p. 272).

Like bone, antler was commonly cut by sawing with a flint knife or
sandstone blade until it was possible to complete the separation by
physical force. But green horns were often cut from the skull and
the larger prongs removed by hacking or gnawing with an edged tool.
The marks left suggest flint; they are too fine and their results too
minute for a stone ax.

Although we found no examples, wedges of some sort, probably
antler, were employed in splitting out juniper boards and the ceiling
slabs for certain third- and fourth-period rooms. Neither antler
wedges nor wooden mallets for pounding them were unearthed during
the course of our investigations.