Bannerstone Collections
All information is used with permission from Dr. Anna Blume. American Museum of Natural History In the collection are 61 bannerstones selected from the 462 stones in the American Museum of Natural History. These 61 bannerstones represent the range of types, materials, and conditions of the stones. There are 580 photographs taken at various angles, […]
Bannerstones of the North American Indian
Used with permission from Dr. Anna Blume Attached below is a downloadable PDF of the entire text of Byron Knoblock’s 1939 Banner-stones of the North American Indian. This 595-page tome, now out of print and difficult to find, was the first rigorous, comprehensive study of bannerstones. In it, Knoblock includes hundreds of images of bannerstones in […]
Bannerstone Metrics
These metrics were established to further standardize the quantitative information we can gather regarding bannerstones (established by A. Blume, 2017).
Recommendation for the Photographing of Bannerstones
by Dr. Anna Blume Professor of the History of Art Fashion Institute of Technology State University of New York November 2019. Photographing bannerstones can reveal their shapes, surfaces, and conditions and can also engage both photographer and viewer in a meaningful relationship to these complex carved stones. In the fall of 2016 and spring of […]
Bannerstone Typology
What is Bannerstone Typology? Article and photos provided by Dr. Anna Blume, https://bannerstone.fitnyc.edu/typology The Archaic Bannerstone Project (ABP) distinguishes 24 bannerstone types based on terms established by Byron Knoblock in his 1939 text Banner-stones of the North American Indian. Below, bannerstones can be browsed by these types and sub-types. As more collections are photographed and added […]
A Beginner’s Guide to Bannerstones and Their History
Bannerstones are mysterious artifacts from the Archaic period in North America, which date back to as far as 8,000 years ago. These artifacts have been found all over the continent, but their meaning and purpose remains a mystery. In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at the history of bannerstones and their unique design […]
A Salute To David L. Lutz
by Richard Michael Gramly, PhD THE ARCHAIC BANNERSTONE: ITS CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY AND PURPOSE FROM 6000 B.C. TO 1000 B.C. by DAVID L. LUTZ Bannerstones exist both in art and anthropology. David L. Lutz, who has both a collector’s sensitivity and formal training in anthropology, knows this fact. Other longtime students of the subject also appreciate the fact […]
Terry McGuire And Ed Harvey Bannerstone Collections
(Terry McGuire photo) Hardstone banners from upper left: horned with shaft flute, 2.8″, Illinois. green quartz horned 2.75″ Southern Illinois. granite horned 3.25″, Mercer Co., OH. Wisconsin winged 4″, St. Clair Co., IL. ferruginous quartz hourglass 2.4″, Holmes Co., OH. conglomerate granite shuttle 3.5″ Slate banners from the upper left: black glacial slate double-notched butterfly […]
Native American Hunting Technique
THE ATLATL HOOK AND WEIGHT David Lutz Collection, Newburgh, Indiana The atlatl hook and weight combination is not only a fascinating insight into the hunting technique that Native Americans used in the spear thrower, but also acts as a temporal maker. Webb (1939) first surmised from finds at Chiggerville, that the combination of hook and […]
A Chronology Of Bannerstones
Our understanding of banner types of the late Archaic Period is much better than the previous period due to the larger number of sites excavated in Northern Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. My interest in this project began with an incredible find made by my father on a river bank near the town of Rockport in […]