The stone age in North America, vol. 1 of 2Moorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
History
The stone age in North America, vol. 1 of 2
Moorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
Indians of North America -- Antiquities; Stone age -- North America
In Fig. 224 there are shown eight celts from the collection of Phillips
Academy, Andover. They come from various portions of the United States.
In the upper row at either side are typical oval celts, with this
difference, that the one to the right has a broad cutting edge, and the
one to the left is quite convex, with poll and edge of equal width. This
approaches the chisel type. In the centre of the top row is a roughly
pecked, unpolished celt, the poll of which is narrowed for the purpose
of fitting it into a handle.
[Illustration:
FIG. 231. (S. about 1–3.) Reproduced from Baron G. Nordenskiöld’s
“Cliff-Dwellers of the Mesa Verde,” pl. 36.
]
In the central row are three celts. (Class D.) The surfaces presented in
the figure are flat, and beveled off toward the edge; the other surface
being convex. In the lower row is a small chisel-like celt with wide
poll or top, and narrow cutting edge.
Such specimens as are shown in Fig. 225 are not only celts, but stone
tools which are pointed at either end. If space permitted, I should be
glad to present more of these implements, for they range from long,
slender, pointed tools to celts, and include many objects which other
observers might place in the problematical class.
Aside from three of them shown in Fig. 225, there are illustrated two in
Figs. 237, 238. There is also a large specimen about a foot in length in
the Andover collection. Dr. Beauchamp says of Fig. 225:—
“The figure to the left is reduced in size to about one half, as are
also the nine other specimens in the illustration. This left-hand figure
is of a rare and peculiar celt, several of which have been found. They
are very slender, usually nearly cylindric, and more or less pointed at
each end. Sometimes the material seems too frail for use. It is angular
and four-sided, but the angles are rounded, and the points likewise. It
tapers to each end, and shows no signs of use. The material is a
polished dark gritty slate, from Seneca River.
[Illustration:
FIG. 232. (S. 1–3.) A stone celt mounted in a wooden handle. From the
collection of the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. This was
found on the Northwest Coast, and was in use among natives many
years ago, and was brought to the Salem institution by a “whaler,”
as were many other specimens in the Salem collections.
]
“The figure to the right might be classed as an adze. One surface is
nearly a plane, and the other curves to each sharp end. It is of
sandstone, from Brewerton, N. Y., and a rare form for the size.”
All through the Cliff-Dweller country the celts almost approach knives
in character. In Fig. 231 we observe three fine stone celt-like knives
from ruins in southwestern Colorado. They all have broad cutting-blades
and narrow polls.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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