What the Heck is a Boatstone?
There are many problematic Indian artifacts from the aspect that we simply do not know their purpose for the prehistoric Americans. Even objects that seem obvious as to usage, such as spear points and stone axes, may in fact have had strange and unique intentions to the aboriginals, one to ten thousand years ago. One of these oddities is an artifact called a boatstone. But these two words simply do not belong together. A boat is something that sits on top of the water and a stone or rock sinks. So just what the heck is a boatstone?
These artifacts are named boatstones because they have a fundamental resemblance to a boat or canoe and most are made of stone. They were given this name perhaps a hundred years ago by early archaeologists and collectors. The basic shape of the boatstone, when viewed from the side is somewhat of an elongated semi-circle though this shape varies. If the circular edge is rotated to the bottom, the little artifact does resemble a boat with its usually hollowed flat side being the interior of the boat and the rounded edge being the bottom of the hull. Of the varied shapes of the exterior curved “bottom”, when viewed from the side, the stretched half circle seems to be the most prevalent. Some, though, will exhibit a knob or hump at the apex of the radius, as in the keel of a sailboat, and some of the curves will be almost pointed in shape. Many of the boatstones will have a small groove at the centerline of the curved boat hull and most will have two drilled holes, one on each end. When viewed from the top looking down into the “interior of the boat”, the basic shape is usually a long and narrow oval but many are rectangular in shape. The interior portion of the boatstone may be flat but is normally hollowed either slightly or deeply and a very few examples of artifact are symbolic effigies of animals or birds. Boatstones have been found throughout the eastern half of the USA, though rarely, and the area of the largest concentration seems to be near the Ohio River in the central part of our country. They are normally about two to four inches in length and one to two inches tall when viewed from the side. The aboriginals used several materials to make these rare objects including stone, ceramics, copper and probably wood. The most common material was various types of stone including slate, limestone, shale, claystone, quartz, granite, chlorite, chalcedony and quartzite, though in the Southeastern Piedmont steatite seems to have been the preferred mineral for boatstones. Since very few of these unique artifacts have been found in any dateable archaeological context, we can only speculate at their age. The basic assumption is that boatstones were originally made during the Middle Archaic Period, or 6,000 to 4,000 BC, and continued to be made into the Woodland and Mississippian Periods, ending around AD 1500. Indian artifacts developed during the archaic times probably had utilitarian uses since it is the accepted belief that the making of purely ornamental/ceremonial objects did not occur until the Woodland Period. Based on this timeline and the few examples that have been found in situ with the remains of wooden spear throwers, the current theory is that they were used as spear thrower (also called an atl-atl) counterweights. However since it is believed that the making of boatstones continued into the Mississippian Period (AD 1,000-1500), their usage could have changed. The bow and arrow came into use in the eastern half of our country about 1500 years ago. That does not mean that the natives stopped using the atl-atl, but only that the boatstones made during this later time, could have had other uses such as strictly for ornamentation.
Few boatstones have been found in North Carolina. The one pictured here was a surface find in Davie County, NC near the South Yadkin River on a multi-component site. The term multi-component site means that it was a probable camp site that was used and reused by ancient people for many hundreds or thousands of years from the Archaic to the Woodland Periods or even later. This boatstone is 2 7/8 inches in length by 1 7/16 inches high by 1 3/16 inches wide. It is made of well polished dark grey steatite and was probably held and handled by many prehistoric hands until the color darkened to its present hue. The top is dished out between the two drilled holes and the curved base has a groove incised into the center. The site on which it was found also yielded spear and arrow points from the Early Archaic Period (8,000 BC) to the Woodland Period (AD 1000), so it could have been made and used any time during this period and may have been a spear thrower weight or some later type of talisman or religious/ceremonial object. But whatever its usage was to the prehistoric Americans, it will always be a peculiar little artifact and will always beg for an answer to the question – what the heck is a boatstone?
REFERENCES:
Converse, Robert N.
OHIO SLATE TYPES
1978
Dragoo, Don. W.
MOUNDS OF THE DEAD
1963
Gelbach, D. R.
“The Boatstone, A Curious Artform form Prehistory”,
PREHISTORIC ANTIQUITIES
2002
Maus, James E.
“A Rare North Carolina Boatstone”,
CENTRAL STATES ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL, Vol. 52, No. 2
2005
Richie, William A.
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF NEW YORK STATE
1965