The stone age in North America, vol. 1 of 2

We have finished describing the chipped implements, and it is proper to offer some conclusions and deductions. If one will walk through the halls of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, or the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, or the Field Museum of Natural History at Chicago, one will observe that chipped objects are more numerous than any other class of artifacts on exhibition. Personally, I have examined sites in twenty states, and I saw but one section of the country where broken pottery exceeded chipped objects in quantity. That was the Chaco region in northern New Mexico and the San Juan Valley. Elsewhere spalls, flakes, discs, and broken chipped implements exceeded axes, pottery, or any other class of prehistoric artifacts. When we counted the specimens in the Andover Museum, November 10, 1906, we found that out of 55,928 objects, more than thirty-two thousand were of the chipped class. Our collection is general, representing most of the states in this country. The count indicated not only that chipped objects were more numerous than any other division, but that they were more numerous than all others combined.

The range in chipped objects is from the minute arrow-heads found on an island at Moccasin Bend, Tennessee (near Chattanooga) to large obsidian blades from California, or large unfinished chert implements on exhibition in the Peabody Museum, Cambridge. I have never measured these immense objects seen at Cambridge, but some of them appear to be fully thirty to thirty-five inches in length and the weight may be from ten to twenty pounds. One may suppose that when these large, roughly chipped, flint, oval-shaped objects were worked down, the completed form would be similar to those long, slender dagger- and sword-like objects on exhibition in the Missouri Historical Society and the Tennessee Historical Society collections.

What impresses me most is the skill of the ancient worker in flint—his ability to reduce the rough, unfinished objects of such size to the completed form.

Contrasted with these are the minute points, varying from one fourth to two thirds inches in length, which are found at Moccasin Bend, Tennessee. Colonel Young has made a large collection of these and there are numbers on exhibition in our Andover Museum. Why the aborigines left such numbers of delicate points, which in workmanship quite equal those of the Willamette Valley, Oregon, must remain a mystery. Possibly these were left on the island as “spirit offerings,” as in the case of the finely chipped objects found by Professor Holmes in the spring at Afton, Indian Territory.

The largest barbed or shouldered chipped specimen I have seen is in the possession of a lady near Bainbridge, Ohio. It is seventeen inches in length, and of pink and white quartz.

As has been remarked elsewhere in this book, such objects as the Tennessee “swords,” and the other unusual forms in obsidian from California and from the Hopewell altars, defy classification. In form, they may be included along with the rough turtleback, and crude knife, and highly finished knife, under “I. Type 1, without stem,” of the Nomenclature Committee’s classification.

Readers are requested to glance at all the illustrations presented and observe that the highly specialized barbed and notched implements may be arranged: (a) notches parallel to the base; (b) notches diagonal to the base; (c) notches on either side and in the base. Also that there is a distinct type with sides parallel or convex for half the length of the specimen, and that the point is sharply narrowed down, forming an appreciable angle to the sides of the specimen.

The harder materials, such as quartz, quartzite, and argillite, frequently reach a high state of perfection. But as a rule the less refractory the material, the finer the workmanship. Thus, it is natural that the points found throughout the eastern Alleghenies, in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania are not as highly finished as those of the central Mississippi basin. And again, the flint of the Mississippi basin, while beautifully worked, is not, on the whole, of as high average as that of the Columbia Valley. Yet the small points from Moccasin Bend, Tennessee, the “sun-fish spears” of Greene County, Ohio, the ceremonial “swords” of Tennessee, equal anything found on the Pacific Coast. While this is true, there are many crude implements in the Mississippi Valley for every finely worked object. But because of the predominance of obsidian, agate, carnelian, and agatized wood—all which materials are easily worked and of bright color—the Indians west of the Plains were able to chip exquisite projectile points and knives, that in the average are higher in workmanship than elsewhere. Had the Mississippi Valley tribes possessed as fine material as the natives from the Columbia Valley, I think that their specimens would have been just as well made. However, the Pacific Coast furnishes nothing better than those shown in Figs. 213 and 214.

Although chipped implements have been placed in a class by themselves, a few of them could be fitted into other divisions. A small polished stone celt may have been used in hide-dressing even as was a chipped flint scraper. Occasionally, as in the Ozark region, axes or hatchets were made of flint, and notched and hafted somewhat after the fashion of Eastern grooved axes, yet it was not thought best to place chipped axes in the same class with grooved and polished axes.

The range in form and material, in size and general character, is remarkable. I have said more than once in this book that chipped implements of a given locality exhibit a certain individuality. I repeat this observation purposely because I have heard it stated, by those who should know better, that chipped implements are more or less alike the world over. It would be as accurate for one to say that because leaves grow on trees and serve the same purpose, therefore, all leaves are of the same form.

To one who has examined chipped implements in a perfunctory manner they will appear more or less alike, just as to him who is not a botanist, leaves convey no more information than that they are leaves. Yet he who is interested in the technology of flint implements will become proficient after a few years of work, and may distinguish the arrow-points of one section from those of elsewhere. Such a student will observe that there are at least thirty already known and localized types. It is probable that this number will be expanded, as we study localities more carefully.

In the following pages I refer to materials of which implements are made and to certain illustrations in my text. If readers will examine the figures cited and compare the variations and form between one part of the country and another, the distribution of these types will be made clear.

The New Hampshire form of chipped implements is seen in quartz, quartzite, chert, porphyry, slate, and other materials. In quartz, the difference is not great between New England and the South. But there are forms of slate spears or lance-heads found in New England that do not occur elsewhere, whether the same materials are in use or not. Note Figs. 88 and 100 which present typical New England forms. Passing west from New England there is little change in character until one crosses the Hudson, and then we have the Delaware and New Jersey, long slender forms chiefly in jasper, chert, argillite, and a few in quartz. North, in New York and Canada, in the Iroquois country, there is much black chert, some white quartz and jasper, and a multitude of the triangular or war arrow-heads. Illustrations of New Jersey types are in Figs. 64, 90, and 201. About Lake Champlain there was much travel and trade in ancient times, and not only New England but also the western New York forms are present. Types are shown in Fig. 194.

In the American Anthropologist for October-December, 1909 (vol. 2, no. 4, p. 607), Professor G. H. Perkins, of the University of Vermont, describes the Lake Champlain types.

Although resembling the chipped points or knives in their general form, certain smooth objects are found which he observes are quite different in material from the average; being ground and not chipped. Professor Perkins states: “These represent a class of implements which are found on both sides of Lake Champlain. They are all made from slate, red, purple, or drab, such as occurs abundantly in this region. The use of these objects is rather problematical. They are almost always well made, the surface is smooth and almost polished, the edges are sharp and do not indicate that the tool had been severely treated. And yet the material is not very hard and is very brittle, and some of the specimens (knives?) are slender. One is nine inches long and an inch and a half at the widest part; it would easily break, and there are other specimens nearly as fragile.... The greater number are three or four inches long and of varying width. All are stemmed, and usually the stem is notched on each side. In the collection at Burlington there are more than thirty of these objects, and a smaller number in the state collection at Montpelier.”

Leaving New York, passing south into the great Chesapeake region, the slate points of New England and the jasper of New Jersey have disappeared. Instead we have chert, quartzite, argillite, rhyolite, calcareous quartzite, and the peculiar modeled white and pink quartzite. Specimens from this region are illustrated in Figs. 40, 86, and 92. It is quite easy to recognize them, as reference to the plates will prove.

The number of flint implements in the State of Pennsylvania is surprising. The range is greater than that found in any other section of the country. Pennsylvania types are shown in Figs. 82, 83, 94, and 114.

Professor E. H. Williams, Jr., has called my attention to the broad distribution of quartzite and argillite and to the fact that many shades in color and variation of texture are to be observed in these two materials.

I regret that it is not possible to present a series of colored plates illustrating the various color shades of the same material. By that means I would emphasize what I wish to convey to readers of “The Stone Age.”

We cross the Alleghenies, passing through West Virginia into Ohio, where quartz has disappeared (save an occasional stray), and we find yellow and brown chert along the Ohio River, where Eastern and Southern tribes often traveled. Rude implements are more numerous along the Ohio River, on both sides, than in the interior in the states bordering that stream. (See Fig. 50.) But the presence of Flint Ridge enabled the natives to employ as fine material for their implements as is to be found in America. The rude types of the East and the South, save as stated above, have disappeared and the beautiful handiwork of the most skillful manipulators of flint and chalcedony are to be found everywhere. (See Figs. 101, 115, 116, 129, and 200.)

On crossing the Ohio River and passing through Kentucky and Tennessee, one encounters yet another section wherein the implements may be separated from those of elsewhere. Less quarry flint is in use, and more of nodular flint, both brown and gray, black and blue, was made use of by the prehistoric tribes. (See Figs. 74, 137, and 179.) In this region large problematical forms, commonly called “swords” and “daggers,” also flint effigies and remarkable leaf-shaped implements, slightly notched, are to be found. (See Figs. 159, 160, and 161, 162.) A few of the latter have strayed into Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan, but they are, as a rule, Tennessee-Kentucky types. Such forms are no more a resemblance to New England types than is the leaf of the pawpaw tree like that of the maple.

South of Tennessee the chipped implements of Georgia, Louisiana (see Figs. 59, 87, 112, and 140), Arkansas, and western Mississippi are jasper, yellow chert, quartz, and peculiar milk-colored quartzite, often variegated with blood-red veins; also ferruginous chert. Most of these types are small. East, along the Gulf, in Florida and South Carolina, the implements are ruder, of larger size, and usually of a rough chert. The finer spears and knives are made of a beautiful translucent yellow flint. Where this is found I am unable to state. Stone of suitable kind is rare in Florida. The Florida, the lower Mississippi, and Tennessee regions are separate and distinct as to their chipped implements. Of course, there are duplications of types, as in any section of the country, but speaking broadly each section is to be differentiated from the others, and any man who maintains the contrary has not studied the subject in all its details, which, by the way, are multitudinous.

In the far North, in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan (see Figs. 72, 96, and 131), there is a quarry of peculiar granulated quartzite commonly known as “sugar quartz,” of which many implements are made. There is also a beautiful milk-colored variation of quartzite. The implements are of all sizes and types, the spear-heads being broad and of delicate finish.

Mr. Charles E. Brown, chief of the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum, says of the types in the Superior-Michigan country:—

“The flint implements of this region embrace nearly all of the numerous forms common to the Ohio Valley and the Upper Mississippi Valley States. In beauty of material and workmanship they are the equal of any produced elsewhere. Many thousands of arrow- and spear-points, knives, perforators, and scrapers have been collected from the fields, workshop- and village-sites of the state. A small number of hammer-stones, saws, spades, hoes, celts, and objects of unknown use have also been obtained. Flint blanks, discs, and unfinished, broken, and rejected articles may be collected from every local workshop-site. Caches or hoards of blanks, or of finished implements, or of a mixture of both, have been unearthed in many localities. These contain from a few to several hundred specimens. They have been recovered from peat-bogs, the margins of springs, the banks of streams and lakes, beneath the roots of trees, beneath rocks, and in other places. Large numbers of flint implements have occasionally been found with burials in mounds or graves.

“Chert of a suitable quality occurs in many localities in Wisconsin in strata or in nodules and also in the glacial drift. Of this local material the greater number of our flint implements are manufactured. Quartzite is quite widely distributed in Wisconsin, and this stone was also much utilized in implement making. It occurs in a variety of beautiful colors, from white to bluish or greenish gray, and from light brown through various shades of brown to a rich orange, and from a flesh color to a bright carmine. Implements made of light brownish quartzite are the most common and most widely distributed. Like other stone implements, Wisconsin quartzites present all grades of workmanship and finish. The majority are of ordinary workmanship, while others are finely or beautifully chipped. What agate and obsidian artifacts are to the West, quartzites are to Wisconsin. Quartzite quarries of small extent have been found at several points in the state. Mr. William H. Ellsworth of Milwaukee is the owner of an especially choice collection of quartzite implements.

“In the Fox River Valley are obtained numbers of arrow-points and other implements made of the rhyolite which occurs there. Implements made of quartz are found in the same region and in smaller numbers elsewhere. Implements made of chalcedony, agate, jasper, slate, sandstone, limestone, and other stone are also found in Wisconsin.

“There is evidence to show that a considerable traffic in the finer qualities of flint and other materials desired for the manufacture of arrow- and spear-points, knives, etc., was carried on in prehistoric times with tribes in outlying and distant regions. Excursions may also have been made to points for the purpose of quarrying such stone. Thus blue and brownish hornstone appears to have found its way to Wisconsin over the trails from the quarries or deposits in Ohio and Indiana in the form of blanks, discs, and nodules. Some finished implements were probably also imported. Thousands of implements made of this hornstone are widely distributed throughout Wisconsin. The choice ivory white and pinkish flint appears to have come from Illinois or regions farther to the south. Black flints entered from the same direction. Some of the beautiful tortoiseshell-colored chalcedony so frequently employed here may have been imported from localities in Minnesota or North Dakota. A small number of obsidian implements have been recovered from mounds in southwestern Wisconsin and from fields and sites elsewhere in the state. Mr. Publius V. Lawson has published a list of some of these.

“There is much yet to be learned concerning the materials, extent and direction and causes of this early inter-tribal commerce of the Upper Mississippi Valley. The present lack of a greater knowledge is largely due to the lack of state organization and intelligent coöperation on the part of archæologists and students in the outlying states of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota.

“Owing to the time and toil required to carefully examine the great number of both public and private collections now existing and being developed in Wisconsin, studies of the distribution of the numerous local forms of flint implements have but been begun. It is, however, possible to venture a few general statements concerning them. Thus certain forms of arrow- and spear-points are found commonly in most districts of the state, some are of much more common occurrence in certain areas than in others, some appear to be limited in their distribution to only certain restricted areas, and others are of infrequent or rare occurrence everywhere. About Aztalan, in Jefferson County, and in the region of the Madison lakes, there are obtained specimens of a small notched triangular point which is also occasionally provided with a deeply notched base. But very few examples of these delicate and beautiful flint implements appear to have been found elsewhere. In the latter region is found a small barbed point of choice workmanship, with truncated barbs, and frequently with serrated edges. It is wholly unknown or of very rare occurrence in most parts of Wisconsin. Blue hornstone knives of the peculiar diamond shape have been found sparingly by single examples or in caches, in many localities in southern Wisconsin.

“A lack of space forbids the description of other forms of unusual interest. In the Logan Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, State Historical Museum, the H. P. Hamilton, J. P. Schumacher, and several other collections are to be seen specimens of a rare and beautiful form of large flint ceremonial knife, which appears not yet to have been described from other states. These implements are somewhat elliptical in form, with a narrow square or slightly rounded base. All are finely chipped of selected material, and are graceful and beautiful implements. They range from nine to thirteen and a half inches in length and from three to three and a half inches in width across the widest portion of their blades. Most of the specimens, whose history it has been possible to fully trace, have accompanied burials in graves, in some instances associated with other implements.”

Illinois and Missouri were favorite camping- and hunting-grounds of prehistoric man (see Figs. 54, 57, 181), and chipped implements are as numerous in Illinois as in any state in the Union. The material is yellow chert, white flint, nodular flint; hoes and spades abound. Many flint celts occur and the flint art is high. Illinois and eastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas types are characterized by light colors, broad thin blades, etc.

Iowa and western Missouri present implements of white flint which when seen cannot be confused with those of other sections of the country, for the form is peculiar (see Figs. 118 and 122). On the Plains, from the Black Hills to the Arkansas River, large rough implements abound (see Figs. 153 and 174) on certain sites, but generally the projectile points are small and slender. The notched objects of flint, probably used as axes, are common in certain sections. Scrapers are to be found everywhere in this region.

The implements of the Rocky Mountains themselves might be separated into three or four localities. There are so few collections from the Rocky Mountains, south of the headwaters of the Columbia and the Missouri, that I have not sufficient data on which to base accurate observations. This will be secured, however, at some future time. Typical Mandan spears and arrows are shown in Fig. 138. Colorado types and those from elsewhere in the mountains are seen in Figs. 123, 134, and 153.

It appears that many of the scrapers, knives, and projectile points of the Great Plains were made of material brought down from the mountains. Naturally, the natives went to the nearest quarry sites, obsidian ledges, or where chert and agatized wood and other flakable materials were to be found.

Central and western Texas furnish slender points of yellow chert and scrapers of the same material. But there are also projectile points of white and red flint quite different from those of Kansas and Nebraska. (See Figs. 119 and 189.) Arizona and New Mexico types are chiefly of obsidian, yet there is chalcedony and agatized wood. (See Fig. 128.) While Arizona and New Mexico chipped objects are of the same general character as those from the Columbia River and its tributaries, yet, usually, they can be distinguished. (See Figs. 97, 104, 110.) But there are obsidian points in both regions identical in character.

The Pacific Coast furnishes more large implements than are to be found between California and Tennessee. Illustrations of California types are in Figs. 78, 136, and 151. There are also California forms which are rare in the Columbia Valley. Obsidian was used almost exclusively in California.

The sugar quartz of Wisconsin, and the pink quartz of Arkansas are almost agates. The range in texture of the stone and color of all these implements is considerable. Although mineralogists name many of them as of one kind of stone, yet these implements can be distinguished, because of peculiar color or markings or texture, by the naked eye. There is nothing visionary about such differentiation. It is real and apparent. The people of a given village-site, or of a given territory, obtained their material from a certain ledge or quarry or river drift, and neighboring tribes, two or three hundred miles away, went elsewhere for their material.

I have referred on previous pages to the long flint objects from the Middle South. Readers will do well to compare them with the best flint abroad or elsewhere. It was necessary for the master workman who made these objects to secure unusually long, clear blocks of flint, in which were no imperfections. Where the material was obtained for these specimens (some of which are twenty to twenty-two inches in length) is a mystery. It was a simple task for the ancient workman to block out the implement, leaving it spade-like in character, fairly thick, and exhibiting a surface from which flakes an inch or more in size had been chipped. The next step required, one may imagine, the combined efforts of two or three skillful workmen.

Possibly they made use of simple levers and heavy bone tools, as Sellars has stated, in order to detach the flakes. Pressure wrongly directed would result in breaking the implement. The final chipping must have been the work of one man, and doubtless it was performed by means of a single bone flaking-tool. We can imagine with what care the master workman proceeded. How many of these long thin blades he broke no man may know.

Formerly, it was thought that native Americans could not have produced, in flint, the equal of the slender flint daggers found in Scandinavia. We now know—and have the specimens to prove it—that prehistoric man in America was at least the equal, and possibly the superior, in point of skill of Neolithic man in Europe.

Regarding the value that Indians attached to large flint or obsidian objects, Mr. H. N. Rust of California, for many years interested in archæology, presents a paper in the American Anthropologist, vol. VII, no. 4, p. 688, which sheds some light on the matter. I quote a few paragraphs:—

“During a canoe voyage on the Klamath and Trinity rivers in the northern part of California, in 1898, the author had occasion to visit many Indian villages, and took the opportunity to make special inquiry for obsidian spears, knives, or swords, as they are commonly called. Ten in all were seen and five procured. They measure from seven to fifteen inches in length and from two to four inches in width, and are beautifully chipped to the edge from end to end. In color the obsidian is black, red, or gray.

“In almost every instance the owners were reluctant to show these blades. All were carefully wrapped in redwood bark and carefully hidden away, sometimes under the floor of the lodge, oftener outside beyond the knowledge of any one except the owner. In one instance the owner could not be induced to get his blade until nightfall, in order that no one should learn of its hiding-place. This habit of secreting valuable articles for safety no doubt accounts for such objects having been found at times in isolated places remote from dwellings or burial-places....

“These obsidian blades pass from father to son, with hereditary rank, and are retained with pride as heirlooms; consequently it was only by much persuasion and considerable expenditure that they could be obtained. In several instances the Indians regarded the blades as tribal property, and in one case I found it impossible to persuade the holder to part with the one in his possession at any price.”

Dr. A. L. Kroeber commented in the same number of the Anthropologist at considerable length on Mr. Rust’s paper. I advise readers to read both articles, and regret that I have not space to reproduce them in full.

It would seem to me, however, that although these Indians still venerate the large brown and red obsidian blades, it is because their traditions tell them that such were considered very valuable as charms, or tribal possessions of their ancestors. It would appear that these objects are not regarded to-day in the same light as formerly, and that the original office or meaning is lost sight of by the modern Indians.

Dr. Kroeber concludes his paper with these words:—

“These obsidian blades of the Indians of northwestern California have been called, and in a measure are, sacred. Nevertheless the term can be applied to them only qualifiedly. They are primarily objects of wealth. Their display in important ceremonies, their preciousness, and the general disposition of these Indians to connect exhibitions of wealth and ceremonies, give to these objects certain associations of a religious nature. They do not, however, appear to be sacred in the same sense in which a small class of other objects, such as certain pipes, fire-sticks, and similar ceremonial paraphernalia, which are used in a purely ritualistic way and whose value lies entirely in this ritualistic and traditionary use, are sacred. Like the white deerskins and woodpecker scalp-ornaments, the obsidian blades are not used directly in connection with any of the sacred formulas around which the deeper religious life of these Indians clusters. There seems also to be very little and probably no sense of their being charms or objects with a fetish or medicine or animistic power. They are thus sacred in a very different sense from the objects belonging to an altar of the Pueblo Indians, or from the objects contained in a sacred bundle of the Plains Indians. Their general position in the ceremonies and social life of the Indians of northwestern California resembles more nearly that of the coppers of the Indians of the North Pacific Coast.”

A study of chipped implements of the varieties presented in the foregoing pages opens up a field of research of great possibilities. A comparison of types, an examination of material—in other words, the same technical work that classical scholars spend in research into certain phases of Greek and Roman archæology—will lead to important results. For instance, chips of a certain stone, which appear to have come from Labrador, are said to be found occasionally in Maine or Massachusetts. If this statement is true, it leads us to question whether the Eskimo and the New England natives bartered, or whether there was a migration in earliest times from Labrador to New England, or vice versa. Or, whether the stone is found in New England as well as in Labrador.

The Ozark Mountain region, a strange country about sixty miles in extent, where Dr. Peabody and myself found evidence of culture different from any other existing in this country, contains two kinds of chipped material: that found on the surface generally, and that which occurs in the caves and caverns occupied by man. The one can be differentiated from the other. Both might be called “flint,” or “chert,” and yet each came from a different site and represents a different culture.

Entirely too much has been made of the fact that chipped implements of various kinds have been seen in the possession of modern Indians the past two hundred years. As an illustration of how the modern Indian has drifted away from the past, and in support of my contention that his present condition, while entertaining and interesting, is of little value to archæology, I desire to call attention to one who is more competent to pass upon this subject than many white persons who have written regarding it. Dr. Charles A. Eastman, a full-blooded Sioux Indian, himself a scholar who has given many years to a careful study of the traditions of his own people, informs me that his grandfather repeatedly stated that all the Sioux record-keepers were insistent in their statements that the arrow- and spear-points found by them on the Plains were made and used by earlier tribes, and that they always considered them as “mystery stones” and had no tradition with regard to their use.

I predict that the day is coming when our museums will be filled with specimens; when most of the sites shall have been explored. Men will then turn their attention to a detailed study of the chipped objects on exhibition. They will make tables of these, they will measure them, they will subdivide the materials, giving each a different name. At present we call by the general term “chert” a dozen different colors and textures which to the practiced eye represent different sites. The precise meaning of all these forms and the reason for the selection of colors or varieties, will some day, I am persuaded, become clear.