Indians of North America -- Implements; Stone implements -- United States; United States -- Antiquities
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,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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