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. 122, from Dr. Barnard’s collection, Seneca, Missouri, illustrates
the best of the small Missouri points. Dr. Barnard’s collection is from
the outskirts of the Ozarks, where the art is superior to the cave art
of the Ozarks proper. The points found throughout the buffalo country do
not vary greatly, although it is possible to distinguish such points as
these from those of Texas. Fig. 105 represents Pennsylvania specimens
from Mr. Deisher’s collection, and Fig. 132, more of the interesting
Mississippi Valley spear-heads from Mr. Reeder’s exhibit. Figs. 125 and
147, Mr. L. Gibson’s collection, Schenectady, New York, give two
abnormal points, such as are occasionally found. I do not think that
such were arrow- or spear-heads, but must have been knives. It would be
impossible to shoot them with much accuracy. They are always
interesting, and I shall have more to say regarding them later. Figs.
116 and 117 present two plates from the collection of Phillips Academy,
Andover, Massachusetts. These were found generally throughout the Ohio
Valley. Careful study of them will acquaint readers with several points.
First, they are of the best workmanship. Second, they are almost
entirely of flint ridge or Tennessee nodular flint. Third, a large
proportion are rotary. Fourth, the barbs are unusually chipped and fine.
Fifth, the bases are straight, concave, and convex. Sixth, what is more
important than either stems or bases, the striking feature in these is
the barbing and notching. The tangs and shoulders are the prominent
points in these three plates—not the stems—which are of secondary
consideration. For example, in Fig. 116 the shoulders and tangs are
everything, and this will be found to be true of many flint implements.
Consider Figs. 97, 110, and 133 from the Columbia River Valley. In some
of these the stem is of importance, in others the stem is secondary to
the barbing. Fig. 114 presents typical Pennsylvania specimens from Mr.
Deisher’s collection. The central one has expanded shoulders and
represents a type more common in Pennsylvania than elsewhere. Fig. 115
is a plate of spear- and arrow-points from George Charters’s collection,
Greene County, Ohio. I wish to call attention to those seven specimens
on this plate which are marked “S,” and to refer to them in considerable
detail.
[Illustration:
FIG. 115. (S. 1–3.) Projectile points. George Charters’s collection.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 116. (S. 1–3.) Beveled spear-heads, chipped in the form known as
“rotary” points. These are selected from the collection at Andover.
They come from various portions of the Mississippi Valley, and are
all splendid examples of the skill of the master worker in stone.
Note particularly the differences in the notches and tangs. The
central one to the right has notches expanded. To make these is
extremely difficult, and although white men are able to make flint
implements, the working of the expanded notches is a lost art.
]
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