A Pre-Historic Native American Hopewell Mound Peoples Stone
1500 BC to 1000 BC USA
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A Pre-Historic Native American Hopewell Mound Peoples saddle shaped granite
banner-stone, and a diorite-gneiss bird-stone, both used as atlatl weights, and a double ended serpentine chunky stone
Circa 1500 – 1000 BC
Size: a: round : 7cm dia. – 2¾ ins dia.
b: bird: 10cm long, 4cm wide, 4.5cm high – 4 ins long, 1½ ins wide, 1¾ ins high
c: saddle: 8cm long, 6.5cm wide, 4cm high – 3 ins long, 2½ ins wide, 1½ ins high
banner-stone, and a diorite-gneiss bird-stone, both used as atlatl weights, and a double ended serpentine chunky stone
Circa 1500 – 1000 BC
Size: a: round : 7cm dia. – 2¾ ins dia.
b: bird: 10cm long, 4cm wide, 4.5cm high – 4 ins long, 1½ ins wide, 1¾ ins high
c: saddle: 8cm long, 6.5cm wide, 4cm high – 3 ins long, 2½ ins wide, 1½ ins high
cf Finch and Co catalogue no. 9, items 4 and 5, for two pipes from the pre-historic Hopewell peoples
Archaic atlatl weights, banner-stones and bird-stones have been found from the Appalachians to Iowa and from Florida to the Great Lakes. The significance of these objects has not yet been conclusively proven, but made of subtly shaped and polished quartzes and banded claystones and other colourful materials often imported from faraway sources, these minimal geometric forms were clearly highly valued. Functioning as weights for spear throwers, which was the primary weapon used for thousands of years before the bow and arrow, the quality of their craftsmanship suggests that they also served as emblems of prestige and status conferred upon hunters coming of age and as magical talismans for increasing the spear throwers efficacy.