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
My boyhood days were spent in Greene County, Ohio, and from 1876 to
1886, and during short intervals afterwards, I diligently searched the
fields and village-sites of the Little Miami River, Cæsar’s Creek,
Massey’s Creek, Oldtown Run, and Shawnee Creek. The observations made by
a boy are of no scientific value, save in this respect—that these
hundreds of excursions, in which my mind was concentrated on flint
implements and flint workings exclusively, gave me a knowledge of a
distribution of flint implements in Greene County, Ohio, which has been
of value to me in after years. And it is fortunate that a gentleman
living in my home town, Mr. George Charters, has since collected from
farmers and boys Greene County specimens to the number of three or four
thousand. As his collection contains no objects of consequence outside
of Greene County, one may obtain from that exhibit the proof of my
contention that in Greene County, within a radius of ten miles of Xenia,
Ohio, in any direction, there were, perhaps, three or four men who were
exceedingly skillful in the manufacture of large spear-heads or
lance-points of Flint Ridge material. These are somewhat different from
other spear-heads and may be easily recognized. They are of white
chalcedony, and are mottled and veined with pink or red or grey. They
are usually made of the most beautiful stone to be found in the Flint
Ridge quarries. They are not only oval, but if turned on edge one will
observe that they are exceedingly symmetrical, being a fourth to as much
as one third inch in thickness in the centre and yet tapering to an edge
almost as thin as a knife-blade entirely around. The notches are evenly
and deeply cut, the shoulders and tangs in sharp relief. No large flakes
were detached from these implements during the final stages of
manufacture; on the contrary, small minute scales or flakes were thrown
off, and the finished specimen is as delicately worked as the average
obsidian point from the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
[Illustration:
FIG. 129. (S. 1–1 and 3–4.) The large white spear-head is a little
over nine inches long and was found near Marion, Grant County,
Indiana. It is composed of white flint, slightly mottled. The small
arrow-head was found near Laramie, Wyoming. The picture shows the
exact size. This arrow-head presents wonderful workmanship. The
point is almost as fine as a needle and the chipping is regular,
clear to the point. It is of a dark amber color and the spots on it
are moss-agate. The arrow-head is translucent. Collection of H. F.
Burket, Findlay, Ohio.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 130. (S. 1–2.) Two spear-heads from near Orange, New Jersey.
Stephen Van Rensselaer’s collection, Newark, New Jersey.
]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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