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 bows and arrows of the Indians are numerous in our larger museums.
Yet, with here and there an exception, these are of the past sixty
years, a few are one hundred and fifty or more years old, though now and
then one may observe a bow in a European museum dating back two or three
centuries. I have not presented figures of the bows and have given but
one of the arrows. Dr. Pepper found a bundle of ancient arrows in Pueblo
Bonito, a prehistoric ruin in northern New Mexico. It lay at
considerable depth in one of the lower rooms, rubbish-filled at the time
of his exploration. There can be no question as to the prehistoric
origin of these arrows. They were all tipped with obsidian points, well
gummed and sinewed to the shafts.
[Illustration:
FIG. 80. (S. 1–5.) Buffalo skull with long, slender arrow penetrating
the left frontal bone. Found on the Great Plains in Iowa. Collection
of the Historical Department of the State of Iowa.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 81. (S. 1–2.) Human skull from California, with an arrow-point
embedded in the frontal bone causing the death of the subject. H. K.
Deisher, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
]
Any reader may be able to obtain a good idea of the types prevailing
among tribes the past sixty years if he will inspect the museum
collections in his nearest city, for there are now public museums in
upwards of seventy cities in the United States.
Professor Mason, Dr. Hough, and other gentlemen made a study of bows and
arrows in the Smithsonian Institution. After many years of observation,
Professor Mason prepared an article for the “Handbook of American
Indians” and portions of it are herewith presented.
ARROWS, BOWS, AND QUIVERS
“The bow and arrow was the most useful and universal weapon and
implement of the chase possessed by the Indians north of Mexico for
striking or piercing distant objects.
[Illustration:
FIG. 82. (S. 1–1.) Two without barbs and shoulders. The central one
but for the notches would be of “expanding from the base” type.
Material: dark chert (to right), argillite (left). Dr. T. B. Stewart
collection, Lockhaven, Pennsylvania.
]
“_Arrows._ A complete Indian arrow is made up of six parts: Head, shaft,
foreshaft, shaftment, feathering, and nock. These differ in material,
form, measurement, decoration, and assemblage, according to individuals,
locality, and tribe.... In the Southwest a sharpened foreshaft of hard
wood serves for the head. Arctic and Northwest coast arrows have heads
of ivory, bone, wood, or copper, as well as of stone; elsewhere they are
more generally of stone, chipped or polished. Many of the arrow-heads
from those two areas are either two-pronged, three-pronged, or
harpoon-shaped. The head is attached to the shaft or foreshaft by
lashing with sinew, by riveting, or with gum....
[Illustration:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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