[Illustration: Figure 25. Bone Tools _(1. Ulna awls, 2. Beamer, 3. Deer scapula hoe, 4. Splinter awls)_]
[Illustration: Figure 26. Bone Beads and Burned Clay Daub _(1. Cut bone, a step in making beads, and bone beads. 2. Daub with whole cane impressions and evidence of interweaving of canes)_]
There were twenty pieces of brickette flattened and smoothed in such a way as to indicate that they were probably part of house floors. They were smoothed on one side and grass impregnated on the underside and throughout the body of the specimen as the result of puddling the clay. They were made of a sandy clay and ranged in size from 2 to 4 cm. in thickness. The undersurface was irregular and showed no contact with a prepared surface such as the cane mats of wall daub specimens would leave.
There were 163 pieces of fired clay objects showing considerable use which were made of a poorly fired sandy clay. Four specimens were tempered with crushed shell while one was clay tempered. Most of the others contain some grass although many are without any apparent tempering material. Use of these specimens is undetermined. One specimen (FS 425) was a rectanguloid brickette 10 × 12.5 cm. and 2 cm. thick with a slightly rounded base (Fig. 27;3). This was found in a form fitting depression on the fired clay floor of house 3. It shows considerable wear from use, especially on the bottom. It, perhaps, was used for grinding seeds or rubbing skins. The other clay objects are of different shapes, seemingly of round cylindrical devices with flat bottoms and rounded edges. From some of the better samples they appear to be about five inches in diameter but the length or height could not be determined. They do not show any appreciable wear. There was no evidence of excessive firing and most of the specimens crumble easily. The latter may be due to the sandy clay from which they were formed. It is suggested that these were anvils or stretchers for use in skin work or other soft materials such as textiles. They certainly were an important domestic item.
There was one specimen with a central hole, apparently lengthwise, which suggests that it was suspended, perhaps as a loom weight (Fig. 27;1).
The clay objects occur in considerable numbers in all parts of the site and throughout the deposit and constitute the biggest percentage of all the brickette material from the site. In point of fact these items are not broken bits of daub, such as are so common on Mississippian sites, but are items of domestic importance in the material culture assemblage, and must be so treated in the final analysis. They are not accidental formations, such as building daub, but have been precisely formed to a pattern. While many seemed to conform to a cylindrical shape others did not. One specimen has a groove around it but its position with reference to the complete object was not apparent. One piece shows a coarse textile impression on one side and a surface well smoothed on the other. It is not a potsherd. Another piece shows the imprint of a finger apparently curled around the clay—a very small finger—probably that of a child at play. One piece looks as if it could have been a pottery trowel, but is a questionable specimen.