The archaic banner-stone: a social category marker

Abstract

Over the past decades a great variety of' explanations has been offered to describe the function of' the banner-stone, one of' the articles traditionally included in the class or "problematic” stone artifacts from the Archaic period or the Eastern Woodlands area of North America. Rather than consider a single function explanation, this paper will consider both the utilitarian and non-utilitarian aspects of this artifact. Evidence indicates that in its utilitarian aspect, the banner-stone was employed as an atlatl weight. As a non-utilitarian object, I propose that the banner-stone functioned as the marker or symbol of a category of ranked status positions.