Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Anthropology/A Perforated Tablet of Stone from New York
A PERFORATED TABLET OF STONE FROM NEW YORK.
By William Wallace Tooker, Sag Harbor, N. Y.
In every considerable collection of aboriginal antiquities can be seen those thin, perforated tablets of stone, commonly called gorgets, twine-twisters, pendants, or whatever else the theory or fancy of different writers or collectors have bestowed upon them.[1]
These fanciful titles are mostly conjectures, for it is a recognized fact that no one yet knows the aboriginal use of these tablets with any degree of certain.[2] Those with one to five perforations are all given the same name or put into the same class, without regard to the fact that those with more than two perforations of a recognized form were used for a different purpose and should be classed differently.
We do not call drills arrow-points, nor grooved axes celts, because they have the same kind of points or blades.
So it ought to be with the different forms of these perforated tablets. To those with one perforation perhaps belong the name of pendant, having been used for personal adornment, but as the greater number of those with two perforations bear no marks of having been worn suspended by a string, may be called twine-twisters or anything else that theory may invent but cannot prove. As the writer of this brief article does not care at present to theorize in regard to the uses of the tablets with one or two perforations we will leave those out of the subject and proceed to explain the object of this essay.
The tablets with four perforations similar to one already figured and described as a gorget by a well-known writer on this subject,[3] (who does not say whether the specimen bears any cord marks or not, probably not,) belong to another class, and were no doubt used for an entirely different purpose.
It is one of these tablets in my possession that I intend to describe and to prove, as I have already done to the satisfaction of all who have seen it, that it is neither a gorget, twine-twister, totem, or pendant, but something that I have never seen mentioned in any work bearing on the subject that has been accessible to me.
That something is nothing more nor less than a puzzle, a plaything made to amuse some young savage, or perhaps an older one, as we know they are easily amused.
This tablet, of which figures 1 and 2 show the obverse and reverse, is made of slate with the usual countersunk perforations common to all perforated tablets, and is marked on its edge with twenty-four tally or record marks. These have become nearly obliterated by time and weather. This tablet was found on Montauk Point, New York, and must have been
in use for a long time to have caused the wear near the perforations, consequently have been the cherished property of its aboriginal owner.
One can easily see the marks of where the cords have worn slight grooves or abrasions between the different perforations. This is where it differs from all the tablets with two perforations only that have come under my observation, as they as a rule never bear any marks of cords.[4]
This tablet, it will be noticed, bears on its upper margin a slight notch or groove, worn smooth as by the wearing of a cord. The abrasions on this tablet having been made by cords or sinews passing through the various perforations, the question naturally arises how were the cords put on to have caused the wear in those particular places, and why were they put on in that way? If it was a gorget or a pendant, why the necessity of so much cord traveling through the different perforations, which evidently belonged to it when in use; why so many perforations, when one loop and one perforation would have answered? This I consider as a proof it was not a gorget, nor was it worn as an ornament.
Let me proceed and illustrate as simply as I can how this tablet was used and strung during the aboriginal era. Take a piece of cord thirty six inches long or thereabouts, tie the two ends together, place it on
the tablet, beginning at the top, forming a slip noose through the two top perforations, then following the direction of the abrasions with the tied end, we find the cord placed on the stone as in Figs. 3 and 4, which shows it better than any description could give. One slight abrasion above the third hole on Fig. 3 has not been covered by the cord; that place has been made no doubt by hanging up the tablet when not in use or by reversing the cord. This was evidently the way the string was placed on the stone originally, for in no other way could those abraded places in the tablet have been made.
The puzzle part of this tablet is to get the string off, with some one holding fast the knotted end, then to put it on again with the end still fast.
The puzzle is solved by following the cords with the loop over the top down through the two lower perforations with plenty of slack; after getting through the perforations slip the loop over and clear around the tablet, then the loop will be found separated from the two strands, then the cord can be drawn from the tablet quite easily. In putting the cord on again the process is reversed, and consequently more difficult.
Fig. 5 represents an ivory heart-shape puzzle from China. The reader will see that the cord is put on in the same way, and that the perforations bear the same relation to each other as they do in the former illustrations.
In offering the above to the scrutiny of those who have made these objects of stone almost their life study, I wish to say that I know I am invading their domain to assert that these tablets with four perforations are puzzles. But I think I have made out a good case in favor of this tablet of mine, and hope the subject may be investigated still further, and that others of the same form and number of perforations may be extant that will show the cord marks as perfectly as mine does, and thus corroborate my assertion that this tablet of stone is a puzzle.
To the many contributions in regard to the problematic uses of these tablets I offer the above mite, trusting that it will solve partly the problem that has puzzled so many.