The stone age in North America, vol. 2 of 2Moorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
History
The stone age in North America, vol. 2 of 2
Moorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
Indians of North America -- Antiquities; Stone age -- North America
The next culture-group is that of central and western Pennsylvania,
wherein many New Jersey and New York State types occur. The
problematical forms, the black chert, arrow-points, the jasper knives,
and the notched hoes or axes may be said to enable one to distinguish
this region from other culture-groups of the East, even if they are more
or less related. West Virginia may be said to lie on the border-line
between Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Ohio. Hematite appears in the
valleys of the Kanawha and other streams in West Virginia. The monitor
pipes also appear, together with certain forms of axes, spear-heads, and
knives which are found in greater numbers in Kentucky and Ohio.
Ohio and Kentucky stand as two separate cultures separated by the Ohio
River. Yet the Ohio River was made use of by prehistoric man from above
Pittsburg to its mouth at Cairo. Along the stream itself one may
discern, on both north and south bank sites, all kinds of cultures, thus
proving that the Ohio River was not only a thoroughfare but _the_
thoroughfare in prehistoric times. It is only when one proceeds up the
streams from the Ohio back fifty or a hundred miles in Illinois,
Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio that one observes how the local cultures
have developed. The culture of the Muskingum and Scioto in Ohio are
practically the same; the Miami is different. The Wabash in Indiana is
yet another culture and the Illinois yet a third. In Kentucky the
Cumberland and Tennessee are in a class by themselves, separate from the
others mentioned. These two latter rivers are so long, and as each is
navigable far into the State of Tennessee, I feel certain that five or
six cultures may be clearly differentiated within their valleys. I have
referred to the stone-grave culture of this region elsewhere. It merits
further detailed study on the part of archæologists.
In the State of Illinois are long yellow chert spear-heads and
lance-heads and knives, some of which have slightly turned points. Many
of these are not unlike the Scandinavian daggers. In Michigan and
Wisconsin there is a wealth of copper, many of the sugar quartz spears
and knives, large numbers of peculiar winged problematical forms which
have been quite fully illustrated in this work. The Illinois and
Wisconsin cultures are separate and distinct.
Northern Illinois contains types of Wisconsin and Michigan as well as
numbers of central Illinois forms. At Sandwich in DeKalb County there is
a large collection owned by Mr. Henry W. Franck, who sent me numerous
photographs of his exhibit. This collection illustrates the mingling of
types of three cultures and is of great archæological importance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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