Natural Science in Archaeology

126 6 Soft Stones and Other Carvable Materials
figurines, beads, gorgets, sucking tubes, pipes, mortars, and utilitarian and decorative
stone bowls. Steatite bowls are characteristic of the Terminal Woodland Period
in the eastern United States, where steatite also was a pottery temper. In California,
it was used especially for figurines, beads, effigies, and pipes. Steatite vessels in
eastern North America are widely distributed, from southeastern Canada to Louisiana,
in the time horizon 1800–800 BCE. Steatite outcrops are concentrated along
the eastern flank of the Appalachian Mountains. Truncer (2004) provides a map of
steatite quarries and outcrops in the eastern United States.
Carved steatite tubes and pipes, some with incised figures, were recovered from
the Coal Draw site in north central Wyoming. The large number of intact and broken
specimens suggested to the excavators that the tubes had been used as sucking
tubes by shamans. Since the pipes contained no residue, it was hypothesized that
they may have been deposited as grave goods during late prehistoric or protohistoric
times (Frison and VanNorman 1993). In northwestern Wyoming, small- and
medium-sized bowls of a truncated ovoid shape with flat bases were made from
steatite (Wedel 1954). Fine bowls representing seated human figures, human heads,
and zoomorphic shapes were made from high-quality local steatite by prehistoric
peoples along the middle and lower reaches of the Fraser River and the Strait of
Georgia area in southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington (Duff
1956). Steatite quarries in Pennsylvania are suggested as the source of steatite vessels
found at habitation sites in Delaware. The Shawnee later utilized these quarries
around 1750 CE (Crozier 1939). Steatite artifacts were found associated with
tools found at a quarry near Westfield, Massachusetts (USA), and dated to the Old
Algonkian Culture. Two pipe forms and more than 26 pot forms ranging from
15–30 cm in length were recovered, suggesting that artifacts were at least partially
finished before they were transported from the site (Fowler 1943).
About 7500 years ago, Montagnais-Naskapi Indians of southern Labrador made
plummets, possibly used as fishing sinkers, of steatite. These plummets were also
found at Late Maritime Archaic sites (4000–3500 BCE) in southern and central
Labrador and in Newfoundland. The Dorset Eskimos of central Labrador used steatite
for lamps, cooking vessels, and amulets about 4000 years ago (Allen et al.
1978). During the Dorset tradition (550 BCE–150 CE) in the Arctic, it was carved
into human and animal shapes, and it was also used extensively for posts and lamps
(Allen et al. 1978; Maxwell 1985). A steatite spindle whorl found at the Viking site
of L’Anse aux Meadows indicates that Europeans also made use of the local steatite
quarries. The most likely source of these artifacts is the local quarries in Labrador,
at Freestone Harbour and Moores Island near Okak, and large outcrops at Fleur
de Lys Island in Newfoundland. Crushed steatite was used as a temper in some
early eastern North American ceramics. Heavy steatite bowls were widely traded in
the northeastern United States. In the southeastern United States, steatite was used
for atlatl weights, net sinkers, ornaments, and cooking vessels during Preceramic
Periods.
Steatite was employed for carving beads, small statuary, cylinder seals, scarabs,
amulets, bowls, vases, and other utensils in the Old World. The Harappan civilization
in the Indus Valley made extensive use of steatite. Seals, beads, figurines, and