UNUSUAL FORMS IN CHIPPED OBJECTS
We have presented illustrations and brief descriptions of all forms
classified by the Nomenclature Committee. There remain numbers of forms
which do not fit in any of the divisions. Fig. 140 shows a long, pointed
object, half-size. There are two distinct projections at the top; the
base is concave. Such an implement would be classed as stemmed or not
stemmed according to one’s point of view. But the exaggerated shoulders
are the essential features, not the stem.
[Illustration:
FIG. 140. (S. 1–2.) Material: dark blue flint. W. P. Agee’s
collection. Found near Hope, Arkansas.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 141. (S. 1–1.) Drill-like object. There are really four barbs, or
shoulders. Collection of E. E. Baird, Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 142. (S. 1–1.) Collection of Mr. Kendall. This is of expanding
stemmed type, yet there is observed on the right side a projection
intentionally made. A few such objects have been found, and their
purpose must remain problematical.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 143. (S. 1–1.) This figure is probably a knife. It was found by
Mr. J. R. Smith in Rhode Island. It has a notch in the top, a large
one in the side, and the cutting edge is beveled, or rather made
sharply convex. Mr. Smith sent the specimen for examination. It
shows evidence of considerable use. Such an object defies
classification.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 144. (S. 1–2.) Unusual forms from Pennsylvania. H. K. Deisher’s
collection, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 145. (S. 1–2.) Very rare form of chipped implement from
California. H. K. Deisher’s collection, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 146. (S. 1–1.) Peculiar object from F. Delaney’s collection. Fig.
140 and also Fig. 146 are similar specimens, one from W. P. Agee’s
collection, Arkansas, and the other from the cabinet of F. Delaney,
Rhode Island. In both these the barbs are purposely exaggerated and
made the predominant feature of the specimen. It is easy to theorize
that these were worked over from broken forms, which may or may not
be the case. Fig. 140, Mr. Agee’s collection, has unusual, long,
rounded shoulders, the edges beveled, and the angles are very
marked. Both these specimens are interesting; similar ones are not
frequently found. The above specimen is of mottled flint and was
found in Pulaski County, Kentucky.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 147. (S. 1–1.) An object (knife) with sloping shoulder,
well-defined blade, or cutting edge. Collection of Langdon Gibson,
Schenectady, New York.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 148. (S. 1–2.) The curved knife shown above is from one of the
altars of the Hopewell group, and is shown half-size. A number of
these barbed knives, made of obsidian, were taken from the Hopewell
effigy mound. The material is from Yellowstone Park, and must have
been brought over twenty-five hundred miles (by canoe).
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 149. (S. 1–1.) This is from Wisconsin. Such specimens are
beautiful examples of high art in chipping. G. L. Collie’s
collection, Beloit, Wisconsin. A similar specimen to Fig. 149 is in
the collection of Mr. L. Simonton of Warren County, Ohio.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 150. (S. 1–1.) Black, opaque obsidian with double serration;
notched for handle. Very delicate workmanship. Found by James A.
Barr at the Stockton Channel mound.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 152. (S. 1–1.) Unknown form of chipped object. E. E. Baird
collection, Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 151. (S. 1–3.) “Stockton Curves.” Black obsidian, fine
workmanship. James A. Barr’s collection.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 153. (S. 1–1.) To the right a scraper or knife of finely grained
chocolate quartzite. At the left, the upper specimen is a knife of
white chalcedony; the lower specimen, gray jasper, assuredly a
handled knife, with tang so small that it must have been used on
something easy to cut. Possibly a knife for opening fish, as it was
found where trout are plentiful. Point broken, cutting edge
unusually sharp. Collection of Luther A. Norland, La Jara, Colorado.
]
In the neighborhood of Stockton, California, are many small mounds and
prehistoric sites. Professor James A. Barr and the late Rev. H. C.
Meredith spent considerable time in examination. As a result numerous
peculiar curved and angular obsidian artifacts were discovered. I
present a few views of these in Figs. 150 and 151. In “Prehistoric
Implements,” page 362, Professor Barr expresses his opinion that the
curves were used to scarify the flesh on ceremonial occasions. This was
a universal custom among Indians, particularly the tribes west of the
Mississippi and along the Pacific Coast.
[Illustration:
FIG. 154. (S. 1–2.) This cut presents peculiar serrated unknown forms
from the Fraser River, British Columbia. These were found by Harlan
I. Smith.
]
The peculiar thing is that these curves are confined to the locality of
Stockton and do not occur elsewhere. Therefore, my individual theory is
that certain skilled workers in obsidian developed or made a specialty
of this form. In other words, a peculiar art was developed by a certain
clan or group of families, as has been observed in Greene County, Ohio.
[Illustration:
FIG. 155. (S. 1–2.) This is a flint chipped in an imitation of a moose
antler, and was found by W. H. Davis in Lowell County, Ohio. It is a
remarkable specimen.
]
Regarding the amount of obsidian available for chipping, Professor Barr
states: “The great obsidian beds of Lake and Napa counties, which I have
examined several times, could furnish all the Indians of the United
States with material for generations. The hills are full of great blocks
of obsidian, too heavy for a man to handle, and it breaks as straight as
a shingle.”
[Illustration:
FIG. 156. (S. 1–1.) A fish, a crescent, and possibly a bird, together
with highly specialized points in carnelian and moss-agate, found
near Arlington, Oregon. The skilled worker was able to make effigies
of human beings, as well as of birds and animals, in agate, etc. F.
A. Thomas’s collection, California.
]
I call attention to Fig. 160, from Mr. Reeder’s collection, Michigan. In
this plate are seven large flint objects. The spear-head does not differ
from other similar kinds of spears, but the flint celt, to the right, is
unusually well-shaped and so highly polished that the flake depressions
are scarcely visible. To obliterate all traces of chipping must have
required a great deal of labor. The round, flat disc at the bottom is
very carefully worked, and cannot be classed as unfinished. It is
purposely worked in this form. What was the object of the natives in
making this, I leave to others.
[Illustration:
FIG. 157. (S. 1–9.) In addition to other specimens, this represents
four Indian heads, showing both the features and the method of
hair-dressing. These are from the collection of J. T. Reeder,
Houghton, Michigan, and were collected by him in Tennessee and
Kentucky.
]
The human head shaped out of flint is such as is occasionally found in
Tennessee in the stone graves. Some similar heads are shown on a smaller
scale, in Fig. 157, of Mr. Reeder’s collection. At the top to the left,
in Fig. 160, are two of those problematical forms in flint which have so
puzzled archæologists. These, together with the slender dagger-shaped
objects of prodigious length, have for many years been listed under that
opprobrious name, “ceremonial swords.”
[Illustration:
FIG. 158. (S. 2–3.) This illustration represents three animals and
four birds, all chipped out of flint, and in the possession of H. M.
Braun, East St. Louis, Illinois.
]
The remarkable problematical forms in flint which have been called
“stone swords,” shown in Figs. 161 and 162, deserve special mention.
These are part of a series of forty-six flint implements which were
found in Tennessee. I surrender the pen to Mr. W. J. Seever, former
curator of the Missouri Historical Society Museum, who furnished the
following description:—
“On the banks of the beautiful Duck River, Humphreys County, Tennessee,
near Painted Rock, on the farm of Mr. Banks Links, are the remains of an
extensive, ancient, stone-grave cemetery, which at one time contained
hundreds upon hundreds of stone cists. The land having been in
cultivation for many years, wagon-loads of flat rocks used in building
the graves have been carted off and the human remains scattered;
innumerable objects of prehistoric art have been turned up by the plow
and are now among the collections of the Ohio Valley.
[Illustration:
FIG. 159. (S. about 1–4.) Effigies in flint, from the collection of J.
T. Reeder, Houghton, Michigan; from stone graves near Waverly,
Tennessee.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 160. (S. about 1–3.) From John T. Reeder’s collection, Houghton,
Michigan. I know of few more remarkable finds in American archæology
than this series of flint implements which were collected in
Tennessee by Mr. Reeder.
]
“In December, 1894, an employé of Mr. Links, while plowing in this
field, turned up several implements. Their form and size being unusual,
time was taken to dig, and the objects as shown in the accompanying
illustration were found. According to the words of the finder, they were
simply ‘in a bunch’; nothing unusual in the manner of the deposit was
noted. The find was talked of and commented upon for several months. The
precise spot having been carefully noted, further digging was done in
the following March. At a depth of a foot or two below where the flint
objects had been deposited, two images or idols were found. Whether the
deposits had been associated with human remains, it was impossible to
determine. From appearances and accounts of the discovery, the images
were placed in the ground side by side, in an upright position, the
flints in a compact ‘bunch’ immediately above. On all sides were remains
of graves, but so many of these graves having been disturbed and the
stones removed in cultivation, that with certainty it cannot be said
that the find was a deposit with the dead, although the writer inclines
to the opinion that they were and that the stone cist lay immediately
above the cache of objects.”
General Thruston says of such forms:—
“The symmetry and beauty of the handle, the exact projections on
opposite sides, the tapering forms and the evidently important place
these rare objects must have held in the religious and social life of
the old Tennesseeans, all invest them with peculiar interest.
“Here we have, in all probability, the sceptres or royal maces once used
by the magnates of the race that built the mounds and fortifications of
middle Tennessee. They may have been the insignia of chieftainship or of
the priesthood.”
I feel confident in asserting that nowhere in the world has the equal of
these magnificent flint implements been found. The maker of such forms
was a Stone-Age artist of remarkable skill.
Fig. 137 exhibits 39 remarkable chipped objects from Colonel B. H.
Young’s collection, Louisville, Kentucky. There are, perhaps, more
specialized flint artifacts found in Kentucky and Tennessee than
elsewhere in North America. Some of these can be classified, but most of
the 39 objects represent individual fancy. The master workman exerted
himself to produce unusual types, and being a master at flint-flaking he
rounded out his work skillfully and artistically. Readers are requested
to examine Fig. 137 with some care.
[Illustration:
FIG. 161. (_S. about 1–3._)
_Chipped problematical forms, from a grave in Tennessee. Missouri
Historical Society collection._ (_See page 164._)
]
_Figures 161 and 162 illustrate problematical forms in flint from a
grave in Tennessee. See pages 164–166. Missouri Historical Society
collection, St. Louis, Missouri._
_These specimens are part of a deposit of forty-six and vary from eight
to twenty-two inches in length. The longest one in Fig. 161 is twenty
inches. All of them exhibit unusual skill in their manufacture._
[Illustration:
FIG. 162.
_The same as Fig. 161._
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 163. (_S. about 1–3._)
_Chipped axes and hoes. F. P. Graves’s collection, Doe Run, Missouri._
]