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
The distribution of axes in the United States is not equal to that of
chipped implements. Axes occur in certain sections of the country where
other types of prehistoric objects are wanting, are most numerous where
the problematical forms occur frequently, and are more or less
individualistic, and one can frequently differentiate the Eastern from
the Southern or the Northern from the Western type. There are
practically no stone axes in Florida, and few along the seaboard from
Florida to Texas. Almost none are found in Texas, and northward from
Texas until southern Iowa is reached axes are almost wanting. On the
Great Plains of Kansas and Nebraska, where chipped implements are to be
found, axes are rare. In the cave region of the Ozarks, which, by the
way, is an anomaly in archæology, there are no stone axes, only two
having been found in the entire region; whereas, according to
percentages elsewhere, there should be several hundred, if not nearly
one thousand. On some village-sites in this country numbers of axes have
been found; whereas, on other village-sites there are no axes. This is
significant, and along with other similar facts of interest should be
noted.
In addition to the places already cited where axes are rare, it is
strange that a dearth of them exists on the head waters of the Columbia,
Missouri, and Colorado. They are very rare on the Pacific Coast, and
axes from California, Oregon, and Washington should be considered as
strays.
[Illustration:
FIG. 284. (S. 2–3.) H. M. Braun’s collection.
]
Thus our distribution of axes narrows to the whole Mississippi Valley,
the Delaware and Susquehanna, the eastern South, New England, eastern
and central Canada, and the Cliff-Dweller country. We have already seen
where adzes and gouges occur. The chisel-like form of celt is limited to
the central Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley, with a few in the
Hudson, Susquehanna, and St. Lawrence regions.
Many of these types are more or less alike, and yet one may suggest that
they represent different tribes if not different cultures.
A statement was made that axes occur most numerously where the
problematical forms are to be found. This statement is true and
significant.
Again, axes do not occur where there is an abundance of material
suitable for the making of axes, such as in the Ozarks, California, and
throughout the Rocky Mountains. I have commented elsewhere on the lack
of axes in graves and mounds, although they are frequently found in
cliff-houses. But this does not necessarily mean that the Cliff-Dwellers
place them with their dead. They are found in cliff-houses along with
other objects for the simple reason that the Cliff-Dwellers lived in
these places.
[Illustration:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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