It is of diorite, and at the first glance might be taken for a stone
arrow-head. But it is worn perfectly smooth along its two edges,
especially towards the point, evidently from continuous use in the
perforation of some hard substance, such as might result in the
hollowing out of the bowl of a stone pipe: though such an instrument
would be called into use in many operations of the old flint-workers.
Knives and razors of diverse forms, and some of them finished with great
care, at times in very fantastic shapes, are also of frequent
occurrence. Their unusual shapes are probably in part due to the chance
fracture of the flint-flakes, specimens of which abound in the pits on
Flint Ridge, frequently requiring little manipulation to convert them
into cutting implements. Fig. 14 is a small knife of this class,
selected from several in the collection of Dr. Hill. It is made of
yellow chert, and has a keen cutting edge. But there is another class of
flint-knives not unfamiliar to European archæologists, of which
interesting examples occur. A good American specimen of the flint-core,
such as has been found in Kent’s Cavern, and elsewhere on British sites,
and is common among the neolithic relics of Denmark, is now in my
possession. It was picked up in the Granville valley, Licking county,
Ohio, not far from the famous Alligator Mound; and shows the facets from
which long curved flakes have been struck off. The curved form which the
flake naturally assumes is frequently retained in the finished
implements, along with three facets, forming an acute triangular blade,
coming to a sharp edge.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.—Flint Razor, Kentucky.]
The Mexican obsidian is characterised by the same fracture; and some of
the early Spanish writers enlarge on the keenness of the edge of the
obsidian razors, as scarcely inferior to those of steel, though they
speedily lose their edge. A good example of the flint razor is shown in
Fig. 15, from the collection of Mr. James Pierce of Mayville, Kentucky.
It is one of the outer flakes of the core, coming to a good edge on the
one side, and chipped to a broad back. Fitted with a wooden haft, it
would form a convenient cutting implement for many purposes. It is shown
here nearly 5-6ths of the original size. The natural cleavage of the
flint, thus controlling the forms which the fractured nodules assume,
has tended to beget certain classes of implements common to all the
stone periods of which we have any trace, from the palæolithic era of
the drift and cave-men to that of the flint-workers among savage tribes
of our own day. Horse-shoe, pear-shaped, oval, discoidal, and other
scrapers abound among the more familiar implements of the old American
flint-workers, reproducing all the forms common to the early stone
periods of Europe, and which have been minutely illustrated by Mr.
Evans.[38] But there is another type of scraper, of a more finished
character,
[Illustration: FIG. 16-17.—Flint Scrapers, Ohio.]
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