ART IN STONE.
The objects of the Age of Stone were adapted to conditions of social life so widely different from our own that the antiquary is often puzzled to explain their uses. Sometimes lie must apply to them provisional names, awaiting a future identification. Hence the nomenclature of the subject is not definitely fixed. To avoid discussion, we shall generally adopt that carried out by Dr. Charles C. Abbott in his various writings, especially in his work entitled Primitive Industry, to which the reader is referred who may wish to prosecute the subject in greater detail.
and are by far the most abundant of all the stone relics found in the area of the United States. The bow and arrow and the spear or javelin, as instruments of war and the chase, must have been long and widely known. The large stone points are supposed to have been attached to spear-shafts, and the smaller to arrows.
Their material differs with the locality. Quartz and jasper were the favorite stones on the Atlantic seaboard, flint and hornstone in the Ohio Valley, obsidian in the volcanic regions of the Rocky Mountains.
The forms differ greatly, and are thought by sonic archceologists to be distinctive of particular tribes, localities, or epochs of time. Hence they have been subdivided and classified with perhaps unnecessary minuteness. The more important of these types are shown on Plate 6, as follows: 1. Triangular-shaped arrow-heads (fig. I); 2. Those with indented base (jig. 2); 3. Stemmed arrow-heads (jigs. 3, 7, 8); 4. Stemmed and barbed (figs. 4, 9); 5. Leaf-shaped (jig. 5); 6. Lozenge-shaped (fig. 6).
Others are " dirk-shaped," " twisted," " serrated," "awl-shaped," "bevelled," etc.—refinements which it is needless to enter upon.
The Grooved Stone Axe is a very common implement (figs. 12, 13), and presents many varieties of form and size, but none which are typical of particular localities. The groove was excavated so that the implement could be firmly fastened to a handle by a withe or bark rope. It is usually about one-third of the total length distant from the head.
One side of the axe is flat and not grooved; this, it is believed, was so arranged that a wedge could be driven beneath the withe to give greater firmness. The axes vary in size from twelve inches in length, weighing eight or nine pounds, clown to three or four inches. The material is sveuite, greenstone, or other firm and tenacious substance. Some have double grooves, and others have one or both ends pointed. It is believed that such grooved axes belong to the more recent generations of the Neo lithic Period, and were manufactured by the tribes found by the whites, and not by earlier peoples.
Grooved Stone the axes have one extremity ground to a cutting edge, many grooved implements of similar shape occur with out this edge. They are round or elongated pebbles with a groove about their centre. These are "hammers" or "club-head stones." Some were undoubtedly mauls or sledges, and such have been disinterred in great numbers from the ancient quarries of Lake Superior and North Carolina. Elsewhere they doubtless added efficacy to the native war-club.
Celts.—This term is derived from the late Latin call's, a chisel, and is applied to a hand implement (fi/. 6, jigs. i 1) with a broad sharpened extremity. This form is highly characteristic of the Neolithic Period. The uses of celts are not clear, but probably they were for working in wood, skin, and similar material. They are usually of hard stone, and vary much in size, some being more than a foot long, others but two or three inches. Some specimens are grooved, as if to fasten them to a handle; others have one surface deeply channelled through the whole length of the implement; in this case they are known as "gouges." Sendlunar flat pebble chipped and ground to a crescent shaped edge was one of the earliest cutting instruments. Fine examples of slate (fig. 22) and various hard stones are frequently found in the Ohio Valley and on the Atlantic slope. In some instances the fragment of flint is carefully dressed into a blade with sharp edges and a more or less acute point.