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
Fig. 380, Mr. William H. Foster’s collection, Andover, presents an
interesting stone plummet, one third size, and also a flat, grooved
slate object, in which distinct notches have been cut. Fig. 378, seven
plummets of varying dimensions and form, from northeastern Ohio, and
West Virginia, in the Andover collection. Fig. 382, a beautiful black
granite plummet from Dr. Charles F. Noe’s collection. This represents
the height of stone-age art in plummet-making. Fig. 383, ninety-five
plummets from the collection of the late Mr. J. B. Lewis, Petaluma,
California. Some of those hung on the lower row are perforated, some are
grooved and also perforated. Those on the six upper rows are not only
oval, but also slender, and yet
[Illustration:
FIG. 382. (S. 1–1.) From Section 21, Monroe Township, Johnson County,
Iowa. C. F. Noe’s collection, Amana, Iowa.
]
Regarding these numerous plummets and kindred shaped stones so common on
the Pacific Coast, not a little has been written, as reference to the
Bibliography will prove. Rev. H. C. Meredith[43] once wrote for me a
page concerning these strange objects. As it is concise and to the point
and as good as anything I have seen in print, I reproduce it here:
“The evidence seems to point to a variety of uses and not to one only.
The view most commonly held now, I believe, is that these objects are
‘medicine-stones’ or ‘charms,’ supposed to bring good luck and success
to their owners. Mr. J. G. Henderson, in an article published in the
_American Naturalist_, in 1872, appears to be the first to suggest this
use of the stones. Mr. H. W. Henshaw followed, in the American _Journal
of Archæology_, with an elaboration of this theory. Others have followed
with additional evidence in support of it. When a final conclusion is
reached, however, I think it will be to the effect that while these
stones were used as ‘charms,’ such use was not original and primary, but
secondary, perhaps only occasional and incidental.
[Illustration:
FIG. 383. (S. about 1–6.) California plummets and small mortars. J. B.
Lewis collection, Petaluma, Cal.
]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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