Edged (Tanning?) Stones from South Central Montana and North Central Wyoming. Their Possible Use and Distribution

Extract

In June of 1937 my attention was called to a very stylized artifact found in the vicinity of the Indian Caves by Mr. John Nelson of Billings, Montana. Mr. Nelson had some very fine specimens of this artifact.

The location and description of these artifacts are described by Mr. Nelson as follows:

Beveled edged stones were found along the Yellowstone and Clarks Fork Rivers drainage to a point 60 miles northeast of Billings, Montana. The first one of these beveled stones to be collected by me in 1933–Fig. 28, No. 1, green diorite–was on the head of the Middle Fork of Canyon Creek 20 miles west of Billings, beneath a sandstone escarpment in a deep dry wash near the immediate vicinity of a large camp site. At this particular camp site as well as most of the sites where these beveled stones are found, they are found in association with the oval manos and metate.