Ontological Concerns

Lastly, since bannerstones are lithics, they have lasted and will continue to last for centuries. Millions of years ago the raw rock formed through various lithification processes. Their relative hardness, color, composition, and visual appearance are what initially attracted Indigenous communities and individuals to choose them for bannerstone construction. Seen from this deep time perspective, bannerstones, ontologically speaking, began millions of years ago as the material for each stone was initially formed by natural processes.

Over the course of time, from the Archaic period when these bannerstones were first made to the present, they have been intentionally and unintentionally altered. Within the Archaic period, some bannerstones were left unfinished as preforms, while others were intentionally broken before burial. Some have been drilled with small holes and repurposed as weights, ornaments, or for other possible unknown purposes. A specific subset of stones was marked with grooves or notches along their edges (often called tally marks). And, some bannerstones were incised with lines over their surface. These grooves and lines appear to be Archaic in origin and may have been added to the surface of the stone when they were first made or added after still within the Archaic period. In the post-Archaic period, when bannerstones where no longer made, there is a noticeable absence of evidence of their use or reuse by subsequent Native North Americans. This sharp demarcation in time, around 1000 BCE when bannerstones were no longer made, raises further questions about their use and meaning within the Archaic period.

In the early 19th century, three factors lead to a heightened awareness of and interest in bannerstones. The first of these, and by far the most widespread, was the rapid increase in large-scale agriculture by colonial settlers in Eastern North America. The tilling of the land led to hundreds of bannerstones inadvertently turning up in the soil. This inadvertent bringing to the surface of bannerstones led to a great interest in collecting, trading, and selling of them. This in turn led to greater interest in random digging through middens and other Archaic sites in hopes of finding these unique lithics. Museums’ collections of bannerstones, including the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institute, were often the result of purchases from private collectors who had limited provenience information. In the late 19th century, North American archaeological study of Archaic sites led to the excavation of hundreds of bannerstones with more precise provenience.

The physical status of bannerstones is often impacted by the conditions under which they were found or preserved. Once bannerstones were found or dug out of the ground, they were often written on or inscribed into with numerical or alphabetic notations. At times, random images were also carved into their surface. 19th century collectors established specific norms of labeling stones with micro script to identify location of the find and or collector. Standard practice in museum collections has been to write onto the surface of the bannerstone the ascension or catalog number as well as location where the stone was found. These markings, some of which are removable, have become part of the composition and life of each bannerstone.

Recommendations: Carefully observe each stone and photograph evidence of the way each bannerstone has been intentionally altered or repurposed within the Archaic period. Also, take images that record post-Archaic inadvertent or intentional gashes, markings, or labeling.