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
I quote at some length from Professor Holmes, taking the liberty of
changing his numbers to suit the numerical order of figures in this
book:—
[Illustration:
FIG. 58. (S. 1–2.) A beautiful knife from a grave near Sebago, Maine.
Material: porphyry, finely chipped. A. E. Marks’s collection.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 59. (S. 2–3.) A beautiful knife of quartzite from near Albany,
Georgia. H. F. McIntosh’s collection.
]
“In most cases the shaping operations carried on in the quarry can be
followed out with reasonable certainty. On all sites where the raw
material was extensively worked, series of forms can be secured
illustrating every stage of the morphology. These series begin with the
amorphous mass or natural shape, and pass through a succession of
modifications, ending in the rude blade or blank. The making and
collecting of flakes and fragments to be carried away in an unshaped
condition, although undoubtedly carried on in all quarries and upon
sites of other sources of raw material, leave little or no refuse that
can be studied to advantage.
“Large masses in quarries or on simple shop-sites were reduced by means
of rude hammers with or without halting. Fire was often employed as an
auxiliary in this work. Approximate masses were reduced to more definite
shapes by a succession of free-hand blows. The first step in the shaping
of an implement from a boulder is illustrated in Fig. 14. In this work
the free-hand blow is employed for the reason that no other method would
be efficacious. Fig. 23 illustrates the position in which the partially
shaped mass must be held after its margins have become too sharp to be
split by a blow directly upon the edge.
“When the incipient implement became too attenuated or fragile to
withstand the blows necessary to flaking without imminent danger of
breaking, other methods had to be employed. The statement has been made
by some writers that arrow-points are produced by simple percussion, the
hammers being reduced in size to correspond with the increasing
fragility of the object worked. This process, however, must be
exceptional.
“Instances are recorded in which indirect percussion—that is, the use of
a mallet and punch—was employed in removing flakes intended to be shaped
by pressure. Two varieties of indirect percussion are illustrated in
Figs. 28 and 29. The first is practiced by the Wintuns of California and
other tribes. The drawing is made from a very careful description by B.
B. Redding. The second is derived from the observations of George
Catlin. According to Catlin, the point is sometimes carried to a finish
by the indirect stroke, two persons being employed in the operation, as
shown in Fig. 29. As a rule, however, the method of manipulation was
changed at the proper stage from percussion to pressure.
[Illustration:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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