BIRD STONE

abstract stone carving of a kind thought by many to be the most beautiful of all the artifacts left by the prehistoric Indian cultures inhabiting the area east of the Mississippi River in the United States and some parts of eastern Canada. They resemble birds and rarely exceed six inches (15 centimetres) in length. The great majority were carved from black, brown, or dark green slate, with a few beautiful examples carved from porphyry. The stone was evidently chipped away to a rough approximation of the finished form and then smoothed to a high polish with sand and other abrasives. A distinctive feature of all bird stones is a pair of conical holes running diagonally through the base. There have been many theories about the function of the bird stones, but none seems to have gained wide acceptance. Bird stones were probably not invested with ritual or ceremonial significance, for they are not typically found in burial mounds but dispersed in fields. The most credible theory is that the stone was either a weight or a handle for an atlatl, a short rod used to hurl spears or arrows, giving them more speed and power than would be possible if they were thrown by hand alone. Most bird stones have been found in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ontario but they have been discovered in places as far from the Northeast as Georgia, Mississippi, and South Dakota.