Typology Example 2, AMNH DM/1714
Crescent bannerstone; Ohio, banded slate, h. 4.1, w. 10.1 cm.
Archaic sculptors often made bannerstones of recognizable types within the bannerstone canon. With some stones, however, the final shape of the carving varies in noticeably idiosyncratic ways. Only when laid on its side and turned into the raking light can the photograph reveal the complex varied angles and planes the sculptor worked into the stone surface of this banded slate Crescent (AMNH DM/1714). The stone is sculpted into a symmetrical Crescent shape, but the sculptor took care to accentuate and engage with the naturally formed concentric markings of the slate that radiate out from the right side of the stone. Moving down halfway from the spine, the sculptor creates an additional arched ridge that runs exactly through the center of the concentric bands. If only photographed from the front and back this extraordinary sculpted element could easily be overlooked.