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
“Fluted celts. A few examples of celts so ornamented have been found.
The finest specimen is in the State Historical Museum. Another is in the
Logan Museum, at Beloit. A specimen has been found in Michigan, and one
in Canada.
“Long narrow chisel-shaped celts occur in many Wisconsin collections.
They are square, oval, or circular in section. Some are nine or more
inches in length.”
CHAPTER XVI
GROUND STONE
THE ADZE AND THE GOUGE
The adze and the gouge are peculiar to New England and northeastern
Canada. The adze is also found in British Columbia and in the Northwest.
[Illustration:
FIG. 235. (S. 1–6.) To the right is a beautiful celt with straight
sides, one surface convex, the other flat—Class D under celts. The
next specimen is a celt very slightly grooved, and marks the
beginning of the gouge (Class II, A). The next specimen to the left
is a broader gouge, while the one to the extreme left is ridged and
slightly hollowed on the reverse side. All from Maine, except the
one to the left. From A. E. Mark’s collection, Yarmouth, Maine.
]
The New England specimens seem to be more properly hafted celts than
plain celts. Of course there are multitudes of grooved axes found in New
England, but as a rule they may be distinguished from the axes west of
the Allegheny Mountains. The New England celt is like the Western celt,
but there are few New England celts, and the native in New England not
only made use of axes, but he put on his celt a knob, or a ridge, or two
ridges, or two knobs, thereby distinguishing it from the average celt.
In the Ohio Valley there are none of the gouges or ridged celts, and
aboriginal man was content with simple forms. Yet he worked his simple
forms into high-grade tools, as we shall see. This emphasizes the
development of given types in certain localities rather than that man
first employed an oval pebble which he edged and then developed the
gouge, the specialized celt, or a grooved axe. Were this not true,
should we not find gouges and ridged celts in the Ohio Valley? Certain
art forms were developed in certain localities if not elsewhere. The
progress was not along the same lines, or, I am persuaded, of the same
time period in all places.
As to the above specimens, I quote from Henry A. Crosby, who wrote about
the triangular stone adze in the _Wisconsin Archeologist_, vol. II, no.
4, July, 1903:—
“Among the several interesting and well established classes of
aboriginal pecked stone implements which it may be claimed with more or
less truth are especially characteristic of Wisconsin archæological
districts, may be mentioned the so-called triangular stone adzes.
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