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
This type and its varieties are too well and widely known to require
much of a description. They are frequently symmetrically and beautifully
wrought, indicating a degree of skill on the part of their aboriginal
makers that is unsurpassed. The blade varies considerably in length and
breadth. The stem is provided with flanges which are bent straight
upward or inward, thus forming an angular socket for the reception of
the wooden shaft. Some points having fragments of this shaft still in
place have been found. This form is rarely if ever provided with a
rivet-hole. In most examples there is a dip or shoulder in the socket at
the connection of the stem and blade, against which the head of the
wooden shaft abutted. A distinctive feature of these points is the
pronounced central ridge which traverses the back of the implement from
end to end. It is this feature which has gained for this style of point
the local name of “bayonet-backed spear-point.” The tip of the stem is
also usually angularly pointed. A small number of these points have the
upper surface of their blades ornamented with indentations variously
arranged in double rows or lines. This type of copper point has been
found as far to the south as the Gulf, as far east as New England,
westward to the Missouri, and northward into Canada.
The largest example known to have been found in Wisconsin measures
thirteen inches in length. It is in the E. C. Perkins collection. The
average size is between three and five inches.
[Illustration:
FIG. 609. (S. 3–5.) Large copper plate covered with shell beads, Seip
Mound, Ohio. W. C. Mills’s collection.
]
6 a. Rolled socketed points. (Fig. 601.) This form is almost if not
quite as common as the preceding, from which it is distinguished mainly
by the fact that the back of the blade and stem are not usually upon the
same plane. The central ridge also is absent. Many examples are provided
with a rivet-hole (very rarely with two, one above the other) within the
socket near the base of the stem. Specimens with a small copper rivet or
nail still in place in the socket are of not infrequent occurrence in
Wisconsin collections.
At least two well-defined varieties of these points may be recognized:—
1. The first of these is provided with a short, broad, oval, or
almond-shaped blade. The stem and socket in this form is usually
broadest at the base, tapering or narrowing toward the blade. The
average length of these specimens is about four inches. A large specimen
found at Ripon, Fond du Lac County, measures seven inches in length, and
two inches in breadth near the base of the blade. Specimens of this type
may be seen in the Hamilton, State Historical Museum, Logan Museum, and
other collections.
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