Ontological Concerns Example 4, AMNH 20.0/8285
Shield bannerstone; Virginia, slate, h. 9.6, w. 7.5 cm.
Examples 1-3 are all of bannerstones that have been modified for various reasons by the Archaic period people who invented and developed bannerstones as lithics unique to their place and time. Photographs that record the various ways bannerstones were handled and reused by people during the Archaic period will further help to reveal their meaning.
The following examples are of bannerstones that have been written on or carved into since the 19th century by private collectors or museum staff. AMNH 20.0/8285 is a monochromatic, finely-polished Shield bannerstone carved out of slate with several trace fossil elements. On the front of the stone to the left of the spine someone incised an iconic a horizontal image of a person with a hat facing down to what appears to be a bird with a prominent beak and a long curling tail. Below the figure and bird a capital “D” with a small “s” inside are carved on the stone. To the right of the spine they incised an image of a fish. All of these markings on the front of the stone were made with a fine sharp tool and appear to have been made by the same person. On the back of the stone, using a more broad and dull tool, someone has carved a roughly rendered anchor. This anchor appears to be carved by a different hand and tool.
This Shield bannerstone was found in Henrico County, Virginia and given to the AMNH by Charles M. Wallace in 1915. That most bannerstones were first collected in the mid-19th century, this stone was most likely found and incised and carved onto sometime between 1850 and 1915 when it came into the AMNH collection. Why anyone would carve these elements onto the surface of a bannerstone is a mystery. Initials of collectors such as the “D” and “s” are not uncommon marks of ownership. Iconic drawings of a person, a bird, a fish, and or an anchor are uncommon. Did the late-19th collector/carver think bannerstones were fishing devices, or was the smooth gray surface of the stone evocative of the cool reflective surface of water in a lake or pond? Was this 19th century Virginian looking for a way to connect via stone to the ancient Indigenous past nearly obliterated from daily life except in the form of randomly found lithics in the landscape? Whatever the explanation or motivation, this carving was intentionally done onto the surface of what would have been recognized as an ancient Native American artifact by a descendant of European colonial settlers. What the bannerstone meant to the Archaic sculptor who chose the monochromatic soft slate for this Shield type has now shifted and been added to by the enigmatic incisions of a 19th century collector five or six thousand years later. It is important to note and photograph these kinds of markings as the meaning and purpose of bannerstones shift from Archaic period aesthetic carvings to collector’s items or museum inventory. One purpose does not negate the other; both are important to record and reflect upon.