Tag: bannerstone

The Largest Known Finished Concave Bannerstone

by C. J. O’Neill, Monroe, North Carolina

Concave humped bannerstone found near Bass Lake in Starke County, Indiana

The concave humped bannerstone found by Carl Vergin near Bass Lake in Starke County, Indiana, in 1884.

The year was 1884, and Carl Vergin was working the family gravel pit near Bass Lake in Starke County, Indiana, when he found another Indian relic. While he had gathered a good many from the pit and the surrounding area (Bass Lake, being a large, natural lake, had attracted a good many Indians over the centuries), Vergin had never seen anything like this. The smooth, green slate stone was nearly as long as his hand and was highly polished. It had a deep concavity running its length parallel to the hole that ran through it for more than six inches. There was a ridge running the length of the concavity, between the flutes.

Vergin put it with the other Indian relics, examining it from time to time but assigning it no particular worth over the other relics. Much later, when his young nephew would come over, Carl would let the boy, Karl “Bud” Master of nearby Monterey, play with it and the other relics. The boy showed a fascination for the piece.

Perhaps because of Bud Master’s interest, or perhaps for other reasons, when Vergin was invited to show his relics at the county fair in the 1930s, he put the piece back and brought over the rest the night before the fair opened. During the night, the collection was stolen. It was never recovered.

When Vergin died, his nine year old nephew inherited the bannerstone. He stored it in a box in a bedroom closet for 60 years, keeping quiet about what he calls the “family heirloom.”

Then, several months ago, he brought it to an Indian relic show and was astounded by the attention it brought. There were offers to buy, of course, but Master declined them. Finally, after months of thought, he decided to part with the piece to provide some security for his wife, Rose when he passes.

When someone sent me a picture of the piece, I realized the Masters had probably the largest, finished concave humped bannerstone known of the variety that shows parallel flutes the length of its base. Byron Knoblock, in his seminal work, “Banner-Stones of the North American Indian,” shows an unfinished example that is five and one half inches in length. Knoblock writes of his example (p. 244, No. 5) “this is the largest type specimen observed by the author.” Knoblock states that more than 50 percent of the specimens then known (his book was published in 1939) showed incomplete drilling. “These objects are exceedingly rare,” he wrote.

David Lutz, in his book “The Archaic Bannerstone,” shows examples made of limestone from Spencer County, Indiana. The largest is five inches.

The day after receiving pictures of the banner, I drove the more than 800 miles from my home in North Carolina to Monterey to purchase the piece. I’d like to express my thanks to Bud and Rose Master for allowing me to add this exemplary piece to my bannerstone collection.

Photos — Steven R. Cooper

Three views of a 6 1/4-inch concave humped bannerstone from Starke County, Indiana
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by C.J. O’Neill, Monroe, North Carolina

January 2014 Central States Archaeological Journal

Yellow and red quartzite bottle bannerstone, translucent Native American artifact found near St. Francis River Poinsett County Arkansas
Bottle bannerstone made from yellow/red quartzite found by Jay Herrera in a farm field near the St. Francis River in Marked Tree in Poinsett County, Arkansas.

A few weeks ago, after a day of work, my wife and I sat down to watch a movie I had taped when the telephone rang. A voice I didn’t recognize asked me if I was the fellow who had the Terry Mashburn bottle. He was referring to a 3 1/2 inch green bottle bannerstone I had purchased in 1990 that had been found by a fellow of that name. The caller introduced himself and said that he and Terry had been relic-hunting buddies for many years, and he wondered if I still had Terry’s bottle and if I still collected bottle bannerstones.

I think my heart skipped when I figured out where this conversation might be going.

I said yes to both questions, and the fellow, Mike Morse, went on to tell me that he had with him a fellow who had found another bottle, this one a yellow quartz example, and he wondered if I might be interested in it as the young man wanted to sell it and Morse did not buy relics.

The finder, Jay Herrera, got on the line and told me he had found the yellow bottle while looking for arrowheads in a farm field near the St. Francis River in Marked Tree in Poinsett County, Arkansas, two Wednesdays previous.

I told him I was interested and asked him to put Morse back on the line. I asked if he could send pictures over the internet and he said his wife would send some. He called back shortly and I ran upstairs to see the images. There were two images of a yellow bottle with a red streak across the middle. The piece had a slight crack running from the lip down one side for about an inch. It was very highly developed, probably the most highly developed bottle I had ever seen. It appeared to be genuine. It was obviously one of the photos that the piece was made of translucent quartz. The piece had the little nuances that the fakers haven’t yet copied, thank God.

I immediately called back, but the young man had already headed home with his find. I then asked Morse, a man I had never met, a personal question. Did he have a checking account? He said he did and I told him that while I knew this whole thing was a little crazy, I wondered if he might get up with Herrera and write him a check for the thousands of dollars he wanted for the banner. I told him I would take the banner with no strings attached, that I was relying on his judgment. Besides, I had seen the pictures and while they were certainly not fool-proof, the piece looked genuine.

Without hesitation he said he would pay the young man for me. I arranged to have my own check sent to Morse by overnight express and he then called Herrera and said he had his money and to bring the bottle back.

We exchanged calls the next day, and I mentioned that while I did not know the finder of the bottle or the fellow who was buying it for me, that I felt good about the whole thing and he said he did too, although his wife had wondered about buying the piece for someone they had never met. He said there was a fellowship among relic people that he had learned to trust over the years. The people he knows who collect relics are people of integrity, he said. And I agreed.

So I now own a beautiful, five thousand-year-old yellow quartz bottle purchased from a man I did not know, the deal facilitated by a couple whom I had not met, in a deal that spanned thousands of dollars, a thousand or more miles and only a few days. Quite remarkable, this age of technology. I went back and watched the rest of my movie.

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