woodland period moundbuilders of the bluegrass - Kentucky ...

Bone and antler served more functional purposes, too. Split deer orturkey bones, sharpened to a point, served as awls used to pierce hides.Stone tool makers used animal bone and deer antler flakers to shape orresharpen spearpoints and scrapers.The atlatl, used to propel spears, was an Adena hunter’s main weapon.It was a two-part tool that required skill to make and use. A hunter madethe spearshaft from wood or cane, and fitted it with a point of bone,antler, or chert. Adena chert spearpoints were broad-bladed and hadstems with straight or oval bases.The atlatl itself consisted of a handle and a hook made of wood,bone, or antler. To improve performance, hunters often attached a stonecounterweight to the handle. Boatstones made from barite sometimesserved as these weights (see pg. 12). A locally available stone, barite iswhite, chalky, and heavy like lead.These people used locally and non-locally available stone for a varietyof other tools. Hand-held chert scrapers, or ones socketed into a wooden,bone, or antler handle, were used to cut meat and work hides. Large chertspearpoints also could have served as knives, but small chert blade toolswould have worked just as well.Pitted sandstone rocks, sometimes called nutting stones, were used toprocess nuts. Sandstone pestles and grinding stones were used to prepareplant foods and dyes. They madewood-working tools, such asadzes and grooved axes, fromgranite. Toolmakers pecked ortapped these objects into a roughshape, then they finished them bygrinding and smoothing them.Adena peoples used wood,skin or net bags, gourds, andturtle shells as containers forcooking, food storage or serving,and during rituals. They usedceramic pots for these purposes,too.In making their vessels, Adenapotters added finely crushedfragments of locally availablerock, usually limestone, to theThis jar is incised with nesteddiamonds.clay. Adding these particles,called temper, improved the16