Hemisphere

A hemisphere is a small solid object of polished stone shaped like half a ball or a low dome, with a flat base that varies from a circle to a narrow ellipse. In profile it may be a little more or a little less than a true half-circle. Whole spheres of the same group are rare (Hodge 1907; Fowke 1896).

Almost all are hematite. Many were ground down from a hematite nodule and polished, and Fowke (1896) suspected they began as paint stones, since rubbing hematite yields red pigment; one he described was pecked into shape and left unpolished. The base is flat, rarely slightly hollowed (Hodge 1907). Barite examples occur in Ohio Valley mounds (Applegate 2008).

Their use is unknown. Hodge (1907) suggested game pieces, charms or shamans' objects; some show red staining or roughened faces that suggest use as a paint muller (Fowke 1896). Hematite and barite cones or hemispheres were placed with burials at Adena and Hopewell mounds in Kentucky (Applegate 2008). The key trait is a small solid dome of polished hematite with a flat base and no hole or groove.

Small; like cones they rarely exceed a few ounces (Hodge 1907). No published measured series was found in the open sources.

Most plentiful in the middle Ohio Valley, especially the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia and both banks of the Ohio River from Parkersburg to Cincinnati; also Kentucky (Fowke 1902; Hodge 1907; Fowke 1896).

A hemisphere is a dome, not a point (cone), and has no groove (plummet) and no hollow or holes (boatstone). Hammerstones and round club-heads can be spherical but are rough and larger; hemispheres are small and well finished (Hodge 1907). Fowke (1896) described a yellow quartz piece from a Kanawha Valley mound intermediate between cone and hemisphere, with polished sides and roughened top and base. The name describes the shape only; older works list hemispheres among "problematical objects" (Hodge 1907).