On the Occurrence of a Stone Mask in New Jersey, U.S.A.

Abstract

THE occurrence of stone “masks,” such as the specimen referred to, has been somewhat frequent, in and about the “mounds” of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, but not eastward of these localities. Somewhat more elaborate carvings of the human face have been found in Western New York, figures of which are given in the Thirteenth Annual Report of Regents of New York State University. These may or may not be of identical origin with the western mound specimens. The specimen here figured is, I believe, the only one ever found in New Jersey. It is a hard sandstone pebble, such as are common to the bed of the Delaware River, above tide water. It measures six inches in length by a fraction over four inches in greatest breadth. It. is concavoconvex, the concavity being shallow and artificial. The carving of the front or convex side is very rude, but shows distinctly that it has been done with stone tools only. The eyes are simply conical counter-sunk holes, rudely ridged, and just such depressions as the stone drills, so common among the surface relics of this neighbourhood, would produce. In the collection of stone implements from Central New Jersey, at the Peabody Academy of Salem, Mass., are several drills sufficiently large to bore as wide and deep depressions as the “eyes” of this mask. The nose is very flat and angular; the mouth merely a shallow groove. The ears are broken, but appear to have been formed with more care than any other of the features. The chin is slightly projecting.