Chipped Stone Articles.
Materials and Manufacture.
The chipped implements in the Bureau collection, are nearly always made of some form of flint or similar chalcedonic rock, as it is easily chipped and can be brought to a keen edge or point. Sometimes quartz, quartzite, argillite, or even a more granular rock is used; but this is infrequent, and is due to the scarcity of the more desirable material.
In the spades and hoes first to be considered the flaking seems to have been by percussion mainly, if not entirely; the same method appears to have been employed in obtaining flakes from blocks, to work into the smaller implements. Some of the processes used in making them will be hereinafter described.
Spades.
It must be admitted that most Indians depended largely on agriculture for subsistence; some historical works that represent them as barbarous hunters, depending entirely on the chase, will, on the same page perhaps, relate how Virginia and New England pioneers were saved from starvation by supplies of corn, beans, and pumpkins obtained from the Indians. This being the case, some method of cultivation was necessary.
It is not to be inferred that “cultivation” implies all that is now meant by the term; the Indian seems merely to have worked the hill in which his corn was planted and not the whole surface of the field, a shallow hole being scooped out in which the grain was dropped, and as the stalk became larger the dirt was heaped up around it. The remains of many “Indian old fields” in various parts of the country show this, there being no long ridges as in cornfields of the present day, but only a great number of these detached hills. The great scarcity of implements suitable for such work argues nothing, for in most parts of the country stone easily worked and adapted to the purpose is unobtainable.
There are a few flint deposits found in southern Illinois in which the material occurs in nodules that can be made with even less work than a piece of wood into suitable implements; and in the country which may be considered as belonging to this archeologic district the flint hoes and spades are tolerably abundant. In other portions of the country, wood, the shoulder blades of large animals, and musselshells perforated for attachment to a handle, were formerly used; the shells are frequently found, but the other materials have long since disappeared.
Early observations on the industries of the aborigines are significant. Thus, according to De Forest, the Connecticut Indians used spades rudely constructed of wood, or of a large shell fastened to a wooden handle;[122] and Palmer[123] figures a hoe made of horn, 14 by 5 by one-fourth inches, in a wooden handle 5 feet long, which is split and slipped over the smaller end; such, with others of wood and stone, were used among the Utah Indians before iron was introduced. Dawson holds that they were probably prepared in large numbers for the planting time, when the whole tribe mustered to till the fields, and that when the work was over they were gathered and hidden in some safe place until the next season.[124] This may have been the case to some extent, but the specimens found in these hiding places seldom have marks of use, and it is more probable that they were the property either of persons living at a distance or of an individual manufacturer in some particular village, being thus concealed for safe-keeping until there was a demand for them or, perhaps, to await a convenient time for transportation. A sedentary tribe would have no more reason for hiding this than any other kind of property.
Fig. 169.—Chipped spade with pointed ends.
Fig. 170.—Chipped spade with rounded ends.
The chipped implements known as spades are frequently found buried in large numbers. Two caches were disclosed by high water in 1884, near Caseyville, Kentucky, containing, respectively, 57 and 75 specimens from 6 to 13 inches long.
The most common form is that having an oval or elliptical outline, with the ends either coming to a point or rounded. Long use of those having pointed ends would wear them off until they approached the others in form; but so many of both patterns show no evidence of use that this distinction must be considered intentional. The principal varieties are as follows:
A. Those with pointed ends. [Figure 169] represents a typical specimen of yellow flint, from Union county, Illinois.
| District. | A | B |
|---|---|---|
| Southwestern Illinois | 2 | 2 |
| Southeastern Arkansas | 2 | |
| Cheatham county, Tennessee | 1 | |
| Union county, Mississippi | 1 | |
| KEY: A = Yellow flint. B = Grey flint. | ||
B. Those with the ends rounded. Represented by [figure 170] (yellow flint, from Union county, Illinois).
| District. | A | B | C | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwestern Illinois | 2 | 2 | ||
| Cheatham county, Tennessee | 1 | |||
| Lauderdale county, Tennessee | 1 | |||
| Polk county, Tennessee | ||||
| Lauderdale county, Alabama | 4 | |||
| Craighead county, Arkansas | 1 | |||
| A = Yellow flint. B = Grey flint. C = Brown flint. D = Argillite. | ||||
A specimen from Jackson county, Illinois, has had a portion of the edge broken squarely. The polish over this fractured surface shows that it was long used after breaking without being rechipped to a sharp edge. This indicates usage only in loose ground, as it evidently would be quite difficult to force the square, broken part into a hard soil or tough sod.
The specimens from Polk county, Tennessee, are pecked or chipped, or both, and are quite roughly made. They are neither scratched nor polished, and may be unfinished implements of some other class, though agreeing closely with the flint spades in shape and size.
C. A modification of the last form has the upper portion chipped away along the sides until it is ovoid, with a blunt point, leaving the lower part a regular curve. An example, shown in [figure 171], is of grayish brown flint, from Scott county, Missouri. There are also one each from Mississippi county, Missouri, and Hopkins county, Kentucky, of the same material.
D. Like the above, but much shorter in ratio to the width, and with a flatter curve. The type, [figure 172], is of yellow flint, from a mound in Obion county, Tennessee. There are also three from Union county, Illinois, one of them with almost the same dimensions.
E. Semicircular outline, with sides notched for securing the handle, as in arrowpoints and spearheads. Represented by [figure 173], showing a specimen of gray flint from a mound in Mississippi county, Arkansas. There are four additional specimens, all from Union county, Illinois.
F. A related form, also notched for attachment of handle. [Figure 174] represents an example of yellow flint, from Poinsett county, Arkansas, the only one of this shape in the collection.
From Jackson county, Illinois, there is a series beginning with a small scraper and a small scraper-like celt, and passing gradually into the large spades or digging-tools, there being a number of intermediate forms and sizes. Two specimens, only 6 inches long, have the glazed surface so characteristic of these implements, which could have been produced only by long-continued use in digging.
From a workshop at Mill creek, Union county, Illinois, there are a large number of pieces in every stage of work. Among them can be made series of all the different types here given, from the nodule in its natural state to the completed implement. Near by is a flint deposit showing extensive aboriginal quarrying.
Fig. 171.—Chipped spade, ovoid.
Dawson,[125] in speaking of these implements, says: “The rudest of all rude implements, similar to the paleoliths of Europe, were used by the more settled and civilized agricultural nations.” While the majority of them are rude, simply because there was no necessity for elaborate work or fine finish in tools of this class, yet there are many specimens (as, for example, the one shown in [figure 171]) which in symmetry and workmanship will compare favorably with the larger specimens of other types, due regard being had to the fact that the coarse flint of which they are usually made does not admit of the most delicate execution.
Turtlebacks.
The singular name “turtleback” is suggested instantly on seeing a specimen of the class so designated by Abbott and others. As commonly used, it refers to rude or unfinished leaf-shape implements of any size, which may be found in great abundance almost anywhere. It is used here, however, to denote more especially the disks or almond-shaped pieces of flint or chert sometimes found cached in considerable numbers.
Perkins[126] records the discovery of such caches in Vermont; an exceptional case, as they are seldom found outside of the Mississippi valley. The southern portion of Illinois has furnished more than any other section; those found there are almost invariably made from nodules of bluish gray hornstone, the concentric lines being strongly marked.[127]
Fig. 172.—Chipped spade.
The Bureau has secured a large number from southern Illinois, ranging from 3½ to 7½ inches in length, some nearly circular, others having a length nearly twice the breadth. All have secondary chipping around the edges. Many of the larger ones and most of the smaller have the edges more or less worn or polished in such manner as would result from use as knives or scrapers. A typical specimen is shown in [figure 175].
Fig. 173.—Chipped spade, showing handle notches.
Fig. 174.—Chipped spade.
Fig. 175.—Chipped disk, or “turtleback.”
Stevens[128] denies in strongest terms that these relics are unfinished implements, saying it is the worst possible form into which flint could be chipped for carrying or for future work. On the other hand, Cheever[129] says the Indians of California usually carry a pouch of treasures, consisting of unfinished arrowheads or unworked stones, to be slowly wrought out when they are industriously inclined. Catlin, too, observed that the Apache sometimes carry bowlders of hornstone a long distance to obtain material for arrowheads;[130] and according to im Thurn, the various Indian tribes of Guiana have each their special manufacture and exchange with other tribes.[131] Tylor says:
Till lately the Patagonians, when they came on their journeys to a place where suitable flint or obsidian was to be found, would load themselves with a supply of lumps to chip into these primitive currier’s scrapers.[132]
Both Jewitt[133] and Evans[134] say that stones of this character were used as sling-stones; but there is no evidence that North American Indians ever used slings. Speaking of similar stones, Tylor remarks:
They were used either as knives or scrapers; with the curved side upward (or out) there would be no danger of cutting a hide in skinning game, and they could be used to cut up the flesh; while by putting the pointed end in the handle they could be used as scrapers.[135]
The smoothed edge in so many specimens substantiates the last statement, while the theory that they are unfinished implements finds support in the fact that nearly all the nodules from which they are made have an ellipsoid form, and the present shape of the implement would result from chipping away the useless weathered surface to lessen the weight.