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Tool-Making at the Westfield Steatite Quarry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

S. William Fowler
S. William Fowler*
Affiliation:
Holyoke, Massachusetts, December
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Extract

During the past several years, a steatite quarry in Westfield, Massachusetts, was excavated by the Connecticut Valley Chapter of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society under the writer's direction. This quarry is one of two known steatite deposits in this part of the Connecticut Valley worked by the aborigines, the other one being located at North Wilbraham. The Westfield steatite is finely grained with a high percentage of talc, a firm but soft stone, easily shaped into eating utensils and other articles. Only a small part of the original quarry has escaped damage from recent serpentine-marble quarrying. Enough has been left to provide factual evidence of the kind of steatite products and quarry tools that were made at this site.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , October 1945 , pp. 95 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1945

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References

Bullen, Ripley P. 1940. “The Dolly Bond Steatite Quarry.” Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 4, No. 1. Boston.Google Scholar
Holmes, W. H. 1897. “Stone Implements of the Potomac Chesapeake Tidewater Province.” Bureau of American Ethnology, 15th Annual Report.Google Scholar
Merrill, George P. 1889. “The Collection of Building and Ornamental Stones in the U. S. National Museum: a Hand-Book and Catalogue.” Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian-Institution for the Year Ending June 30, 1886, Part II, pp. 277–648.Google Scholar