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Title: North American Stone Implements
Author: Charles Rau
Release Date: May 13, 2012 [EBook #39686]
Language: English
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NORTH AMERICAN STONE IMPLEMENTS.
BY
CHARLES RAU.
REPRINTED FROM THE REPORT OF THE SMITHSONIAN
INSTITUTION FOR 1872.
WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1873.
NORTH AMERICAN STONE IMPLEMENTS.
BY CHARLES RAU.
The division of the European stone age into a period of chipped stone,
and a succeeding one of ground or polished stone, or, into the
palaeolithic and neolithic periods, seems to be fully borne out by
facts, and is likely to remain an uncontroverted basis for future
investigation in Europe. In North America chipped as well as ground
implements are abundant; yet they occur promiscuously, and thus far
cannot be referred respectively to certain epochs in the development
of the aborigines of the country. Archæological investigation in North
America, however, is but of recent date, and a careful examination of
our caves and drift-beds possibly may lead to results similar to those
obtained in Europe. When in the latter part of the world man lived
contemporaneously with the now extinct large pachydermatous and
carnivorous animals, he used unground flint tools of rude workmanship,
which were superseded in the later stages of the European stone age,
comprising the neolithic period, by more finished articles of flint
and other stone, many of which were brought into final shape by the
processes of grinding and polishing. In North America stone implements
likewise have been found associated with the osseous remains of
extinct animals; yet these implements, it appears, differed in no wise
from those in use among the aborigines at the period of their first
intercourse with the whites.
In the year 1839, the late Dr. Albert C. Koch discovered in the bottom
of the Bourbeuse River, in Gasconade County, Missouri, the remains of
a _Mastodon giganteus_ under very peculiar circumstances. The greater
portion of the bones appeared more or less burned, and there was
sufficient evidence that the fire had been kindled by human agency,
and with the design of killing the huge creature, which had been found
mired in the mud, and in an entirely helpless condition. The animal's
fore and hind legs, untouched by the fire, were in a perpendicular
position, with the toes attached to the feet, showing that the ground
in which the animal had sunk, now a grayish-colored clay, was in a
plastic condition when the occurrence took place. Those portions of
the skeleton, however, which had been exposed above the surface of the
clay, were partially consumed by the fire, and a layer of wood-ashes
and charred bones, varying in thickness from two to six inches,
indicated that the burning had been continued for some length of time.
The fire appeared to have been most destructive around the head of the
animal. Mingled with the ashes and bones was a large number of broken
pieces of rock, which evidently had been carried to the spot from the
bank of the Bourbeuse River to be hurled at the animal. But the
burning and hurling of stones, it seems, did not satisfy the
assailants of the mastodon; for Dr. Koch found among the ashes, bones,
and rocks _several stone arrow-heads, a spear-head, and some stone
axes_, which were taken out in the presence of a number of witnesses,
consisting of the people of the neighborhood, who had been attracted
by the novelty of the excavation. The layer of ashes and bones was
covered by strata of alluvial deposits, consisting of clay, sand, and
soil, from eight to nine feet thick, which form the bottom of the
Bourbeuse River in general.
About one year after this excavation, Dr. Koch found at another place,
in Benton County, Missouri, in the bottom of the Pomme de Terre River,
about ten miles above its junction with the Osage, _several stone
arrow-heads_ mingled with the bones of a nearly entire skeleton of the
Missourium. The two arrow-heads found with the bones "were in such a
position as to furnish evidence still more conclusive, perhaps, than
in the other case, of their being of equal, if not older date, than
the bones themselves; for, besides that they were found in a layer of
vegetable mold which was covered by twenty feet in thickness of
alternate layers of sand, clay, and gravel, one of the arrow-heads lay
underneath the thigh-bone of the skeleton, the bone actually resting
in contact upon it, so that it could not have been brought thither
after the deposit of the bone; a fact which I was careful thoroughly
to investigate."[1]
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
It affords me particular satisfaction to present in Fig. 1 a full-size
drawing of the last-named arrow-head, which is still in the possession
of Mrs. Elizabeth Koch, of Saint Louis, the widow of the discoverer.
The drawing was made after a photograph, for which I am indebted to
Mrs. Koch. It will be noticed that the point, one of the barbs, and a
corner of the stem of this arrow-head--if it really was an arrow-head,
and not the armature of a javelin or spear--are broken off; but there
remains enough of it to make out its original shape, which is exactly
that of similar weapons used by the aborigines in historical times.
The specimen in question, which, as I presume, was found by Dr. Koch
in its present mutilated shape, consists of a light-brown, somewhat
mottled flint.[2]
In referring to these discoveries of Dr. Koch, and some other
indications of the high antiquity of man in America, Sir John Lubbock
concludes that "there does not as yet appear to be any satisfactory
proof that man co-existed in America with the Mammoth and
Mastodon."[3] Yet, it may be expected, almost with certainty, that the
results of future investigations in North America will fully
corroborate Dr. Koch's discoveries, and vindicate the truthfulness of
his statements. Indeed, some facts have come to light during the late
geological survey of Illinois, which confirm, in a general way, the
conclusions arrived at by the above-named explorer. According to this
survey, the blue clays at the base of the drift contain fragments of
wood and trunks of trees, but no fossil remains of animals; but the
brown clays above, underlying the Loess, contain remains of the
Mammoth, the Mastodon, and the Peccary; and bones of the Mastodon were
found in a bed of "local drift," near Alton, underlying the Loess _in
situ_ above, and also _in the same horizon, stone axes and flint
spear-heads_, indicating the co-existence of the human race with the
extinct mammalia of the Quaternary period.[4]
It must not be overlooked that both Dr. Koch and the Illinois survey
mention flint arrow and spear-heads as well as stone axes as being
associated, directly or indirectly, with the remains of extinct animals.
These stone axes undoubtedly were _ground_ implements; for, had they
differed in any way from the ordinary Indian manufactures of the same
class, the fact certainly would have been noticed by the observers. Thus
far, then, we are not entitled to speak of a North American palaeolithic
and neolithic period. In the new world, therefore, the human
contemporary of the Mastodon and the Mammoth, it would seem, was more
advanced in the manufacture of stone weapons than his savage brother of
the European drift period, a circumstance which favors the view that the
extinct large mammalia ceased to exist at a later epoch in America than
in Europe. The remarks of Lieutenant-Colonel C. H. Smith on this point
are of interest. "Over a considerable part of the eastern side of the
great (American) mountain ridge," he says, "more particularly where
ancient lakes have been converted into morasses, or have been filled by
alluvials, organic remains of above thirty species of mammals, of the
same orders and genera, in some cases of the same species, (as in
Europe,) have been discovered, demonstrating their existence in a
contemporary era with those of the old continent, and under similar
circumstances. But their period of duration in the new world may have
been prolonged to dates of a subsequent time, since the Pachyderms of
the United States, as well as those of the Pampas of Brazil, are much
more perfect; and, in many cases, possess characters ascribed to bones
in a recent state. Alligators and crocodiles, moreover, continue to
exist in latitudes where they endure a winter state of torpidity beneath
ice, as an evidence that the great Saurians in that region have not yet
entirely worked out their mission; whereas, on the old continent they
had ceased to exist in high latitudes long before the extinction of the
great Ungulata."[5]
Flint implements of the European "drift type," however, are by no
means scarce in North America, although they cannot (thus far) be
referred to any particular period, but must be classed with the other
chipped and ground implements in use among the North American
aborigines during historical times.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
In the first place I will mention certain leaf-shaped flint implements
which have been found in mounds and on the surface, as well as in
deposits below it. They are comparatively thin, of regular outline,
and exhibit well-chipped edges all around the circumferences. On the
whole, they are among the best North American flint articles which
have fallen under my notice. The specimens found by Messrs. Squier and
Davis in a mound of the inclosure called Mound City, on the Scioto
River, some miles north of Chillicothe, Ohio, belong to this class.
Most of them were broken, but a few were found entire, one of which is
represented in half-size by Fig. 100 on page 211 of the "Ancient
Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." This specimen measures four
inches in length and about three inches across the broad rounded end.
I have a still larger one, consisting of a reddish mottled flint,
which was found on the surface in Jefferson County, Missouri. The
annexed full-size drawing, Fig. 2, shows its outline. The edge on the
right side is a little damaged by subsequent fractures, but for the
sake of greater distinctness I have represented it as perfect. The
finest leaf-shaped implements which I have had occasion to examine,
are in the possession of Mr. M. Cowing, of Seneca Falls, New York. The
owner told me he had more than a hundred of them, which were all
derived from a locality in the State of New York, where they were
accidentally discovered, forming a deposit under the surface. Mr.
Cowing, who is constantly engaged in collecting and buying up Indian
relics, refused to give me any information concerning the place and
precise character of the deposit, basing his refusal on the ground
that a few of these implements were still in the hands of individuals
in the neighborhood, and that he would reveal nothing in relation to
the deposit until he had obtained every specimen originally belonging
to it. I am, therefore, unable to give any particulars, and must
confine myself to the statement that the specimens shown to me present
in general the outline of the original of Fig. 2, though they are a
little smaller; and that they are thin, sharp-edged, and exquisitely
wrought, and consist of a beautiful, variously-colored flint, which
bears some resemblance to chalcedony.
Concerning the use or uses of North American leaf-shaped articles, I
am hardly prepared to give a definite opinion, though I think it
probable that they served for purposes of cutting. They were certainly
not intended for spear-heads, their shape being ill-adapted for that
end; nor do I think that they were used as scrapers, as other more
massive implements of a kindred character probably were, of which I
shall speak hereafter.
The aborigines were in the habit of burying articles of flint in the
ground, and such deposits, sometimes quite large, have been discovered
in various parts of the United States. These deposits consist of
articles representing various types, among which I will mention the
leaf-shaped implements in the possession of Mr. Cowing; the
agricultural tools found at East Saint Louis, Illinois, of which I
have given an account in the Smithsonian report for 1868; and the rude
flint articles of an elongated oval shape, which were found about 1860
on the bank of the Mississippi, between Carondelet and Saint Louis,
Missouri, and doubtless belonged to a deposit. I have described them
in the above-named Smithsonian report, (p. 405,) and have also given
there a drawing of one of the specimens in my possession. This drawing
has been reproduced by Mr. E. T. Stevens, on page 441 of his valuable
work entitled "Flint Chips," (London, 1870,) with remarks tending to
show that the specimen does not represent an unfinished implement, as
I am inclined to believe, but a complete one. I must admit that my
drawing is not a very good one. It gives the object a more definite
character than it really possesses, the chipping appearing in the
representation far less superficial than it is in the original, which,
indeed, has such a shape that it could easily be reduced to a smaller
size by blows aimed at its circumference. I have myself scaled off
large flat flakes from similarly-shaped pieces of flint, using a small
iron hammer and directing my blows against the edge, and have thus
become convinced that the further working of objects like that in
question could offer no serious difficulties to a practised
flint-chipper. My collection, moreover, contains several smaller flint
objects of similar shape, which are undoubtedly the rudiments of arrow
and spear-heads, and I may add that I obtained a few from places where
the manufacture of such weapons was carried on.
Yet the most important deposit of flint implements resembling certain
types of the European drift, is that discovered by Messrs. Squier and
Davis during their researches in Ohio. They have described this
interesting find in the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,"
and a _résumé_ of their account was given by me in the Smithsonian
report for 1868, (p. 404.) The implements in question, I stated,
occurred in one of the so-called sacrificial mounds of Clark's Work,
on North Fork of Paint Creek, Ross County, Ohio. This flat, but very
broad mound contained, instead of the hearth usually found in this
class of earth-structures, an enormous number of flint discs, standing
on their edges and arranged in two layers, one above the other, at the
bottom of the mound. The whole extent of these layers has not been
ascertained, but an excavation six feet long and four broad disclosed
upward of six hundred of those discs, rudely blocked out of a superior
kind of dark flint. I had occasion to examine the specimens from this
mound, which were formerly in the collection of Dr. Davis, and have
now in my collection a number that belonged to the same deposit. They
are either roundish, oval, or heart-shaped, and of various sizes, but
on an average six inches long, four inches wide, and from
three-quarters to an inch in thickness. These flint discs are believed
to have been buried as a religious offering, and the peculiar
structure of the mound which inclosed them rather favors this opinion,
while their enormous number, on the other hand, affords some
probability to the view that they constituted a depot or magazine.
Many of them are clumsy, and roughly chipped around their edges; and
hence it has been suggested that they are no finished implements, but
merely rudimentary forms, destined to receive more symmetry of outline
by subsequent labor. Many of the discs under notice bear a striking
resemblance to the flint "hatchets" discovered by Boucher de Perthes
and Dr. Rigollot in the diluvial gravels of the valley of the Somme,
in Northern France. The similarity in form, however, is the only
analogy that can be claimed for the rude flint articles of both
continents, considering that they occurred under totally different
circumstances. The drift implements of Europe represent the most
primitive attempts of man in the art of working stone, while the Ohio
discs, if finished at all, are certainly very rough samples of the
handicraft of a race that constructed earthworks of astonishing
regularity and magnitude, and was already highly skilled in the art of
chipping flint into various shapes.
On page 214 of the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," a
group of the flint articles from Clark's Work is represented. The
drawing exhibits pretty correctly the irregular outline and general
rudeness of these specimens; yet Mr. Stevens states (Flint Chips, p.
440) that "the representations are not at all satisfactory." The only
fault, I think, that can be found with these drawings is their small
scale, a fault which is very excusable, considering that at the period
when Messrs. Squier and Davis published their work, (1848,) flint
articles of such shape were no objects of particular attention; for
just then the results of the researches of Boucher de Perthes were
first laid before the scientific world, which, it is well known,
ignored for a long time the significance of the rude flint tools
discovered by the indefatigable and enthusiastic French savant in the
diluvial gravel-beds of the Somme. It is true, however, that some of
the flint discs of Clark's Work are wrought with more care than those
represented in the "Ancient Monuments." This fact may be ascribed to a
whim of the worker or workers, who gave some of the articles a greater
degree of regularity by some additional blows. Mr. Stevens has only
seen specimens of this better class, for such were those which Dr.
Davis sold to the Blackmore Museum among his collection of Indian
relics, and hence the author of "Flint Chips" seems to attribute to
them a better general character than they really possess. I learn,
however, that Mr. Blackmore, during a recent visit to Ohio, has
succeeded in recovering a considerable number of the implements of
Clark's Work, and thus an opportunity will be afforded again to
investigate the true nature of these relics of a bygone people.
The objects in question consist of the compact silicious stone of
"Flint Ridge," in Ohio, a locality described on page 214 of the
"Ancient Monuments."[6] A careful comparison has established this fact
beyond any doubt. The flint or hornstone which occurs in that region,
is a beautiful material of a dark color, resembling somewhat the real
flint found in nodules in the cretaceous formations of Europe. It is
occasionally marked with darker or lighter concentric stripes or
bands, the centre of which is formed by a small nucleus of blue
chalcedony; and this internal structure appears particularly distinct
in specimens which, by exposure, have undergone a superficial change
of color. The stone, in general, possesses peculiarities by which it
can be recognized at once, even when met in a wrought state far from
its original site. According to Mr. Squier, arrow-heads made of this
hornstone have been found in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and
Michigan. That they occur in Illinois, I can attest from personal
experience.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
A few years ago, when treating of the flint implements of Clark's
Work, I was not prepared to express a definite opinion concerning the
manner in which they were used. In the mean time, however, I have
obtained additional information in relation to the class of implements
under notice, which enables me, as I think, to point out the purposes
for which those of Clark's Work, as well as similar ones from other
localities, were designed. In the summer of 1869, some children, who
were amusing themselves near the barn on the farm of Oliver H. Mullen,
in the neighborhood of Fayetteville, Saint Clair County, Illinois, dug
into the ground and discovered a deposit of fifty-two disc-shaped
flint implements, which lay closely heaped together. Several of them
came into my possession through the assistance of Dr. Patrick, of
Belleville, in the same county. They consist, like those of Clark's
Work, of the peculiar stone of Flint Ridge. This I noticed at first
sight, and so did Messrs. Squier and Davis, to whom I showed them.
They resemble, in general shape, the objects of Clark's Work, but are
somewhat smaller and of perfectly symmetrical outline, having a
well-chipped, though strong edge; in one word, they are highly
finished implements, far superior to those of Clark's Work. In Fig. 3
I give a full-size drawing of one of my specimens from Fayetteville,
which is twenty millimeters thick in the middle. The slight
irregularities observable in the circumference are owing to later
accidental fractures. In this specimen, as in the others from the same
find, the edge is produced by small, carefully-measured blows. The
edges of my specimens from Fayetteville, moreover, exhibit traces of
wear, being rubbed off to a small degree, and this circumstance, in
connection with their shape, induces me to believe that they were used
as _scraping_ or _smoothing implements_. The aborigines, it is well
known, hollowed their canoes and wooden mortars with the assistance of
fire, and the implements just described, were, as I presume, employed
for removing the charred portions of the wood. They are well adapted
to the grasp of the hand, and, indeed, of the most convenient form and
size to serve in that operation. Probably they were likewise used in
cleaning hides, and for other purposes. The tools of Fayetteville,
however, are much more handy than those of Clark's Work.
The fact that implements made of the hornstone of Flint Ridge are
found in Illinois--a distance of about four hundred miles
intervening--is of particular interest, as it shows that the material
was quarried for exportation to remote parts of the country. It
doubtless formed an article of traffic among the natives, like copper,
sea-shells, and other natural productions which they applied to the
exigencies of common life or used for personal adornment.
Concerning North American flint implements of the European drift type
in general, Mr. Stevens expresses himself thus: "The legitimate
conclusion at which we may at present arrive, is that implements, in
form resembling some of the European palaeolithic types, were made by
the aborigines of America at a comparatively late period, and that the
people usually termed the 'mound-builders,' were, probably, the makers
of these implements." (p. 443.)
There is no sufficient ground, I think, for attributing these
implements exclusively to the mound-builders, considering that they
occur on the surface, and in deposits below it, in regions where the
people designated as the mound-builders are not supposed to have left
their traces. In the States of New York and New Jersey, for instance,
such articles repeatedly have been met. I will only refer to the
leaf-shaped implements in possession of Mr. Cowing, which were found
in New York, and are the finest specimens of that kind ever brought to
my notice. That the people who erected the mounds made and used tools
resembling the palaeolithic types of Europe, is proved by the
occurrence of those tools in the mounds; but it follows by no means
that they are to be considered as the sole makers of that class of
implements. Supposing that the mound-builders really were a people
superior in their attainments to the aborigines found in possession of
the country by the whites, it is certainly very difficult to draw a
line of demarcation between the manufactures of the ancient and those
of the more recent indigenous inhabitants of North America. The
mound-builders--to preserve the adopted term--certainly did not stow
away all their articles of use and ornament in the mounds, but
necessarily left a great many of them scattered over the surface,
which became mingled with those of the succeeding occupants of the
soil. Both the mound-builders and the later Indians lived in an age of
stone, and as their wants were the same, they resorted to the same
means to satisfy them. Their manufactures, therefore, must exhibit a
considerable degree of similarity, and hence the great difficulty of
separating them.
Yet Mr. Stevens goes in this respect farther than any one before him.
He is particularly orthodox in the matter of pipes. Those who have
paid some attention to the antiquities of North America, are aware of
the fact that Messrs. Squier and Davis found in the mounds of Ohio,
especially in one mound near Chillicothe, a number of stone pipes of
peculiar shape, which they have described in the "Ancient Monuments of
the Mississippi Valley." In these pipes the bowl rises from the middle
of a flat and somewhat curved base, one side of which communicates by
means of a narrow perforation, usually one-sixth of an inch (about
four millimeters) in diameter, with the hollow of the bowl, and
represents the tube, or rather the mouth-piece of the pipe, while the
other unperforated end forms the handle by which the smoker held the
implement and approached it to his mouth. In the more elaborate
specimens the bowl is formed, in some instances, in imitation of the
human head, but generally of the body of an animal--mammal, bird, or
reptile. These pipes, then, were smoked either without any stem, which
seems probable, or by means of a very diminutive tube of some kind,
the narrow bore of the base not allowing the insertion of anything
like a massive stem. The authors of the "Ancient Monuments" called
these pipes "mound-pipes," merely to designate that particular class
of smoking utensils; it was not their intention to convey the idea
that the mound-builders had been unacquainted with pipes into which
stems were inserted. On the contrary, they distinctly assign a
beautiful pipe of the latter kind, representing the body of a bird
with a human head,[7] to the mound-builders, though this specimen was
not found in a mound, but within an ancient inclosure twelve miles
below the city of Chillicothe. Referring to this pipe, Mr. Stevens
says: "Squier and Davis consider that this object is a relic of the
mound-builders; but it does not appear that any pipe of similar form,
or indeed _any_ pipe intended to be smoked by means of an inserted
stem, has been found in any of the Ohio mounds." Upon inquiry I
learned from Dr. Davis that mounds had been leveled by the plough
within the inclosure where the pipe in question was found, which, he
is convinced, belonged to the original contents of one of those
obliterated mounds. In the Smithsonian report for 1868, I published
(on page 399) the drawing of a pipe then in possession of Dr. Davis.
Its shape is that of a barrel somewhat narrowing at the bottom, and
its material an almost transparent rock-crystal. The two hollows, one
for the reception of the smoking material, and the other for
inserting a stem, meet under an obtuse angle. This pipe was taken from
a mound near Bainbridge, Ross County, Ohio. Mr. Stevens suggests it
had been associated with a secondary interment, (p. 524.) Dr. Davis,
however, who is acquainted with the circumstances of its discovery,
told me that it belonged, with various other objects, to the _primary_
deposit of the mound. Thus it would seem that the mound-builders
confined themselves by no means to the use of one particular class of
pipes.
Those who advocate a strict classification of North American relics
according to earlier or later periods, should bear in mind that
mound-building was still in use--if not in Ohio, at least in other
parts of the present United States--when the first Europeans arrived,
though the practice seems to have been abandoned soon after the
colonization of the country by the whites. Yet, even in comparatively
modern times, isolated cases of mound-building have been recorded,[8]
which fact would indicate, perhaps, a lingering inclination to
perpetuate an ancient, almost forgotten custom. Many of the earthworks
in the Southern States doubtless were built by the race of Indians
inhabiting the country when the Spaniards under De Soto made a vain
attempt to take possession of that vast territory, then comprised
under the name of Florida. For this we have Garcilasso de la Vega's
often-quoted statement relating to the earth-structures of the
Indians. The Floridians, we also know, erected at the same period
mounds to mark the resting-places of their defunct chieftains. Le
Moyne de Morgues has left in the "Brevis Narratio" a representation
and description of a funeral of this kind. When the mound was heaped
up, the mourners stuck arrows in the ground around its base, and
placed the drinking vessel of the deceased, made of a large sea-shell,
on the apex of the pile.[9] But even without such historical
testimony, the continuance of mound-building might be deduced from the
fact that articles of European origin are met, though rarely, among
the primary deposits of mounds. The following interesting
communication, for which I am indebted to Colonel Charles C. Jones,
will serve to illustrate one case of mound-burial that can be referred
with certainty to a period posterior to the European occupation of the
country:
[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
"I have found in several mounds," says my informant, "glass beads and
silver ornaments, and, in one instance, a part of a rifle-barrel,
which were evidently buried with the dead. These, however, were
secondary interments, the graves being upon the top, or sides, or near
the base of the mound, and only a few feet deep. Never but in one case
have I discovered any article of European manufacture interred with
the dead in whose honor the mound was clearly erected. Upon opening a
small earth-mound on the Georgia coast, a few miles below Savannah, I
found a clay vessel, several flint arrow-heads, a hand-axe of stone,
_and a portion of an old-fashioned sword_ deposited with the decayed
bones of the skeleton. This tumulus was conical in shape, about seven
feet high, and possessed a base diameter of some twenty feet. It
contained only one skeleton, and that lay, with the articles I have
enumerated, at the bottom of the mound, and on a level with the plain.
The oaken hilt, most of the guard, and about seven inches of the blade
of the sword still remained. The rest of the blade had perished from
rust. Strange to say, the oak had best resisted the 'gnawing tooth of
time.' This mound had never been opened or in any way disturbed,
except by the winds and rains of the changing seasons. I have no doubt
but that the interment was primary, and that all the articles
enumerated were deposited with the dead before this mound-tomb was
heaped above him. This, within the range of my observation, is an
interesting and exceptional case. I am persuaded that mound-building,
at least upon the Georgia coast, was abandoned by the natives very
shortly after their primal contact with the whites."
[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
From mound-building I turn again to North American flint implements.
Mr. Stevens refers in his work to the absence of flint scrapers in the
series from the United States exhibited in the Blackmore Museum.
Scrapers of the European spoon-shaped type, however, are not as scarce
in the United States as Mr. Stevens seems to suppose. The collection
of the Smithsonian Institution contains a number of them; and I found
myself two characteristic specimens in the Kjökkenmödding at Keyport,
New Jersey, described by me in the Smithsonian report for 1864. They
lay upon the shell-covered ground, a short distance from each other,
and were perhaps made by the same hand. In Fig. 4 I give a full-size
drawing of one of my specimens, both of which consist of a brown kind
of flint, such as probably would be called jasper by mineralogists.
The figured specimen, it will be seen, possesses all the
characteristics of a European scraper. Its lower surface is formed by
a single curved fracture. The rounded head is somewhat turned toward
the right, a feature likewise exhibited in the other specimen, which
is a little larger, but not quite as typical as the original of Fig.
4. As the peculiar curve of the broad part is observable in both
specimens, it must be considered as having been produced
intentionally. Indeed, I have among my flint scrapers from the
pilework at Robenhausen one which is curved in the same direction. In
fashioning their implements in this particular manner, the Indian and
the ancient lake-man possibly had the same object in view.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.]
There is, however, another somewhat different class of North American
flint articles, which, as I believe, were employed by the aborigines
for scraping and smoothing wood, horn, and other materials in which
they worked, or perhaps, also, in the preparation of skins. They
resemble stemmed arrow-heads, which, instead of being pointed,
terminate in a semi-lunar, regularly chipped edge. It is probable that
they were partly made from arrow-heads which had lost their points.
Schoolcraft gives in Fig. 3, of Plate 18, in the first volume of his
large work, the drawing of an object of this class, calling it "the
blunt arrow or _Beekwuk_, (Algonkin,) which was fired at a mark." It
is likely enough that these articles served in part the purpose
assigned to them by Mr. Schoolcraft. Yet, I have in my collection
several in which the rounded edge is worn and polished, while the
remaining part retains its original sharpness of fracture, a
circumstance that can only be ascribed to continued use, and therefore
leads me to believe that they were employed in the manner already
indicated. These implements hardly could be used without handles. Fig.
5 represents, in natural size, one of my specimens, which was found on
the surface near West Belleville, Saint Clair County, Illinois. The
material is a yellowish-brown flint. The edge, it will be seen, is
perfectly scraper-like. Inserted into a stout handle, this object
would make an excellent scraper. The edge of this specimen is not
polished, but it seems as if small particles of the edge had been
scaled off by the pressure exerted in the use of the implement. In the
original of the above full-size representation, Fig. 6, on the
contrary, the curved edge is rubbed off to a considerable extent and
perfectly polished, while the portion opposite the edge bears not the
slightest trace of friction. This specimen, which consists of a
whitish flint, was found in Saint Clair County, Illinois. In Fig. 7,
lastly, I represent, in natural size, a fine large specimen, which I
class among the implements under notice. I formerly supposed it to be
a tool destined for cutting purposes, but the condition of the edge,
which is rather blunt and hardly fit for cutting, afterward induced me
to change my opinion. Originally, perhaps, one of those unusually
large spear-heads, which are occasionally found, it may have been
reduced subsequently, after having lost the point, to its present
shape. Yet, it may never have possessed a form different from that
which it now exhibits. This specimen is chipped from a fine reddish
flint which contains encrinites. I obtained it from quarrymen near
West Belleville, who found it in the earth while they were engaged in
baring the rock for extending the quarry. In conclusion, I will state
that, since writing the preceding pages, I received a number of stone
implements from Muncy, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, among which
there are some large scrapers of the European type. Their material,
however, is not flint, but either graywacke or a kind of tough slate.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Koch, in Transactions of the Academy of Science of Saint Louis,
vol. i, (1860,) p. 61, &c.
[2] I am well aware that the reality of Dr. Koch's discovery has been
doubted by some, although it is difficult to perceive why he should
have made those statements, if not true, at a time when the antiquity
of man was not yet discussed, either in Europe or here, and he,
therefore, could expect nothing but contradiction, public opinion
being totally unprepared for such revelations. Not being a scientific
palaeontologist, he certainly made some mistakes in putting together
the bones of the animals exhumed by him; but these failings, in my
opinion, have no bearing on his observations relative to the
co-existence of man with extinct animals in North America. Only a
short time ago some remarks tending to depreciate Dr. Koch's account
were made by Dr. Schmidt, in an article on the antiquity of man in
America, published in vol. v, of the _Archiv für Anthropologie_. I may
state here that I was personally acquainted with Dr. Koch, whom I saw
repeatedly at the meetings of the Academy of Science of Saint Louis.
[3] Prehistoric Times, 1st ed., p. 236.
[4] Geological Survey of Illinois, by A. H. Worthen, vol. i, (1866,)
p. 38; quoted in Transactions of the Academy of Science of Saint
Louis, vol. ii, (1868,) p. 567.
[5] The Natural History of the Human Species, London, 1852, p. 89. The
comparative freshness of the bones of extinct North American animals
was noticed by Cuvier.
[6] More particularly in Squier's "Aboriginal Monuments of New York,"
Buffalo, 1851, p. 126.
[7] Fig. 147 on p. 247 of the "Ancient Monuments;" Fig. 106 on p. 509
of "Flint Chips."
[8] Squier, Aboriginal Monuments of New York, p. 112, &c.
[9] Le Moyne, in De Bry, vol. ii, Francoforti ad Moenum, 1591, pl. XL.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographical errors repaired.
Illustrations have been moved to paragraph breaks.
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