HOW MANUFACTURED
In all that has been said about the manufacture of chipped implements the past thirty years, I have seen no paper that will compare in technique with that presented by Mr. George E. Sellars of Illinois in the Smithsonian Report, 1885, page 871. I have on several occasions quoted a few pages from Mr. Sellars’s narrative, and intend here, with the omission of some irrelevant paragraphs, to present his entire paper, with the illustrations. At the time he wrote it, he was about eighty years of age.
When, in 1885, Mr. Sellars called upon Dr. Rau of the Smithsonian Institution and gave an account of his experiments and studies in stone-chipping, he was asked by Dr. Rau to prepare the following paper. This is now out of print, and it certainly merits preservation, as nothing done in recent times by any observer can compare with the knowledge obtained of flint-flaking by this remarkable citizen of the Middle West.
As a boy Mr. Sellars was interested in mechanical arts. He enjoyed the friendship of George Catlin. His mother’s father had come from Maryland, bringing with him a large library of the best literature. Mr. Peale, Sellars’s grandfather, was in correspondence with distinguished men of England, and Sellars had access to letters from Thomas Jefferson and to the letters of Captain John Smith of the Virginia colony, all of which were family heirlooms.
Mr. Sellars devoted many years to study of stone implements found in the Ohio Valley. Except with reference to a few of his remarks concerning the use of levers in detaching flakes from implements, I am willing to accept all that he says in explanation of how all objects were manufactured. And even with reference to the use of levers, Sellars may be correct, as it would be impossible to make flint spades by means of a small flaking-tool held in the hand, although the first stage of the implement might possibly be produced by the use of the hand-hammer. Be that as it may, I am willing to accept Mr. Sellars’s observations, at least until some one proves them to be of no value.
After an account of how he came to be interested in this subject, he discourses upon Captain John Smith’s letters.
Fig. 41. (S. about 1–3.) Mandan bone chipping-tools. These were made use of in flaking flint implements, Mandan village-site, North Dakota. Collected for Phillips Academy by E. R. Steinbrueck. The Mandan collection, of which a score of figures are presented, was purchased and presented to Phillips Academy by Edward H. Williams, Jr.
“He [Smith] said in substance that the Indian carried with him a pouch filled with flakes of precious stones, and within his mantle, in a pocket made for the purpose, a small instrument made of bone or horn, that he valued above all price and would not part with, and with it he deftly shaped arrow-points and spear-heads from or out of the stone flakes. On calling my grandfather’s attention to this, he said that although there was much truth in what at the time was written from the colonies, some things were highly colored and had to be sifted out or taken with caution, and he supposed the cutting of hard stone with bone or horn was one of these, and might be set down as one of Smith’s yarns. I asked myself the question, what object could he have in inventing and telling it? There must be some foundation. At all events, it made an indelible impression on my mind.
“Most of the arrow-points found within my reach in Philadelphia, Delaware, and Chester Counties, Pennsylvania, were chipped from massive quartz, from the opaque white to semi-transparent and occasionally transparent. Once, in company with my early preceptors, Jacob Pearce and Isaiah Lukens, both well-known scientists, on a mineralogical excursion, we came to a place where (judging from the quantities of flakes and chips) arrow-points had been made. After most diligent search only one perfect point was found, which is still in my possession marked with ink ‘1818.’ There were many broken ones, showing the difficulty in working the material. Mr. Lukens collected a quantity of the best flakes to experiment with, and by the strokes of a light hammer roughed out one or two very rude imitations. No effort was made by pressure, which I cannot now understand, for at that time I was in the habit of breaking off points and trimming mineral specimens (likely to be injured by the jarring of a hammer-stroke) by pressure with the hickory handle of my mineral hammer.
“Major S. H. Long, afterwards colonel, who in the latter part of his life succeeded Colonel John J. Abert as head of the Topographical Department of the United States Army, whenever in Philadelphia, was a frequent visitor at my father’s house; and, when preparing for his expedition to the Rocky Mountains, in which my mother’s youngest brother, Titian R. Peale, went as assistant naturalist, I saw him almost daily. The subject of flaking and forming arrow- and spear-heads was one of frequent discussion. My grandfather, C. W. Peale, was at that time owner of the Philadelphia Museum, which had for that period a large collection of Indian curiosities, among them, many collected by Lewis and Clark on their northwestern expedition,—and to me the most interesting was a box of stone implements in various stages of manufacture, evidently collected with the view of illustrating the process. They were never put on exhibition other than in the original package, the lid of the box only having been removed. Major Long’s attention was called to these, and he expressed his belief that on his expedition he would learn the entire process, and on his return be able to explain everything in the Lewis and Clark collection.
Fig. 42. 7232 flint discs from a mound of the Hopewell group. Largest cache of implements known to archæologists. (See page [218].)
“The expedition returned, and, as far as I know, without any positive information as to the process of making the flakes. Mr. Peale said he had seen squaws chipping flakes into small arrow-points, holding the flake in their left hand, grasped between a piece of bent leather, and chipping off small flakes by pressure, using a small pointed bone in the right hand for that purpose. From this it was evident that John Smith’s story was no myth. In my lifelong intimacy with Colonel Long the subject of the flaking operation has frequently been one of conversation, on my regretting that more attention had not been paid to it on either of his expeditions. Knowing his preëminence as a civil engineer and his high attainments as a mechanic, I thought more reliable information would have been obtained by him and his party, composed as it was of such prominent men of science. He said that flakes prepared for points and other implements seemed to be an object of trade or commerce among the Indian tribes that he came in contact with; that there were but few places where chert or quartzite was found of sufficient hardness and close and even grain to flake well, and at those places there were men very expert at flaking. He had understood that it was mostly done by pressure, and rarely by blows, but he had never witnessed the operation. He expressed his belief that it was an art fast being lost, for he had found among tribes who had never seen a white man since the advent of Lewis and Clark, wrought-iron arrow-points made in England by the Birmingham nailers, sent out as articles of trade by the fur companies, and that they were preferred to the stone points.
“My early acquaintance with Catlin, the artist, was in the shop of Catlin, musical instrument and model maker, of Philadelphia. There I knew him as a very expert and superior workman in wood and ivory. As a portrait painter he was not at that time successful. He painted strong likenesses, but they lacked lifelike coloring. A delegation of Indians on their way to Washington gave him an opportunity to paint the likeness of one of the chiefs. This was exhibited in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and from its novelty attracted much attention; in fact, it was so far a success as to bring him into notice. About this time, I met him very frequently; his conversation always drifted on to the great value and importance of preserving correct likenesses of the Indians, whom he believed to be fast passing away. We all know how well he lived up to this idea, devoting his life to the work of producing the collection of Indian portraits now in the National Museum.
“On Mr. Catlin’s return from his long sojourn among the Indians, believing that, as an observing practical mechanic, nothing in the way of art among them would escape him, I took the first opportunity to see him. On my inquiry as to the mode in practice of splitting the stone into flakes for arrow- and spear-points, his reply was by a question characteristic of the man. He asked if I had forgotten Dr. Jones’s axiom, ‘The least possible momentum is greater than the greatest possible pressure.’ This was in allusion to a lecture on mechanics we had together heard delivered by Dr. Thomas P. Jones (afterwards Commissioner of Patents). He then added, ‘That is well understood by the flake-makers among the Indians, but it will soon be among the lost arts, just as the nests of Birmingham brass battered-ware kettles, the Yankee tinware, and glass whiskey bottles have already almost totally destroyed their crude art of pottery-making. The rifle is taking the place of the bow and arrow. For boys’ practice and for small game the iron points got from the fur traders are preferred to stone. A common jack-knife is worth to them more than all the flint knives and saws ever made.’
Fig. 43. (S. 1–2.) Curved flake knife. Clement L. Webster collection. Found in New Mexico.
“After expressing himself in this manner he went on to explain what he had seen. He considered making flakes much more of an art than the shaping them into arrow- or spear-points, for a thorough knowledge of the nature of the stone to be flaked was essential, as a slight difference in its quality necessitated a totally different mode of treatment. The principal source of supply for what he termed home-made flakes was the coarse gravel bars of the rivers, where large pebbles are found; those most easily worked into flakes for small arrow-points were chalcedony, jasper, and agate. Most of the tribes had men who were expert at flaking, and who could decide at sight the best mode of working. Some of these pebbles would split into tolerably good flakes by quick and sharp blows striking on the same point; others would break by a cross-fracture into two or more pieces; these were preferred, as good flakes could be split from their clean fractured surface by what Mr. Catlin called impulsive pressure, the tool used being a shaft or stick of between two and three inches diameter, varying in length from thirty inches to four feet, according to the manner of using them. These shafts were pointed with bone or buck-horn, inserted in the working end bound with sinews, or rawhide thongs, to prevent splitting. (See Fig. 15.) For some kinds of work the bone or horn tips were scraped to a rather blunt point, others with a slightly rounded end of about one half inch in diameter. He described various ways of holding the stone while the pressure was being applied. A water-worn pebble broken transversely was commonly held by being sufficiently embedded in hard earth to prevent its slipping when held by the foot as the pressure was applied. Large blocks of obsidian or any easily flaked stones were held between the feet of the operator while sitting on the ground, the impulsive pressure being given to the tool grasped in both hands, a cross-piece on the upper end resting against his chest, the bone end against the stone in a slight indentation, previously prepared, to give the proper angle and to prevent slipping.
“In some cases the stone operated on was secured between two pieces or strips of wood like the jaws of a vise, bound together by cords or thongs of rawhide; on these strips the operator would stand as he applied the pressure of his weight by impulse. The best flakes, outside of the home-made, were a subject of commerce, and came from certain localities where the chert of the best quality was quarried in sheets or blocks, as it occurs in almost continuous seams in the intercalated limestones of the Coal Measures. These seams are mostly cracked or broken into blocks, that show the nature of the cross-fracture, which is taken advantage of by the operators, who seem to have reduced the art of flaking to almost an absolute science, with division of labor; one set of men being expert in quarrying and selecting the stone, others in preparing the blocks for the flaker. This was done when the blocks were nearly right-angled at the corners, by striking off the corner where the flaking was to commence, and, with a properly directed blow with a hard pebble stone, knock off of the upper edge a small flake, making a seat for the point of the flaking-tool. Sometimes these blows were carried entirely across the front upper edge of the block, making a groove entirely across the edge, when the first row of flakes have been thrown off. It is the work of this operator to prepare seats for a second row, and so on. What was meant by almost absolute science was a knowledge and skill that would give the proper direction to the pressure to throw off the kind of flake required.... The staffs of these flaking-tools were selected from young hard-wood saplings of vigorous growth. A lower branch was utilized to form the crotch in which the blow was struck. (See Fig. 16.) Another branch on the opposite side was used to secure a heavy stone to give weight and increase the pressure. When the stone to be flaked was firmly held, the point adjusted to give the pressure in the required direction, the staff firmly grasped, the upper end against the chest of the operator, he would throw his weight on it in successive thrusts, and if the flake did not fly off, a man standing opposite would simultaneously with the thrust give a sharp blow with a heavy club, it being so shaped that its force is downward close in the crotch. It has been represented to me that a single blow rarely failed to throw off the flake, frequently the entire depth of the block of stone, sometimes as much as ten or twelve inches. The tooth or tusk of the walrus was highly prized for tips of the flakers.
Fig. 44. (S. 1–2.) Crude knives. Material: jasper and chert. D. N. Kern collection, Allentown, Pennsylvania.
“What I have thus far written is at second hand, being merely recollections of conversations at various times with the parties I have referred to, and more recently with a man who for over thirty years had been connected with a fur company, and who had lived most of that time among the Indians, and much of it, as a trapper.
“What I now propose is to give some of my experimental practice in flaking and working flint (chert), and (from a purely mechanical standpoint) some conclusions drawn from a pretty extensive examination of the waste and refuse as well as finished and partly finished work left in the aboriginal flint workshops.
Fig. 45. (S. about 1–2.) Turtlebacks almost ready for the flaking process. Collection of E. T. Wing, South Portland, Maine.
“There are many places along the banks of the Ohio River and its tributaries that are not subject to the annual overflow, but are still below the occasional great floods, where the flaking process has been extensively carried on, and where cores and waste chips are abundant. At one of these places, on the Kentucky side of the river, I found a number of chert blocks, as when first brought from the quarry, from which no regular flakes had been split; some had a single corner broken off as a starting-point. On the sharp, right-angled edge of several, I found the indentations left by small flakes, having been knocked off evidently by blows, as described by Catlin, as a preparation for seating the flaking-tool. Most of the localities referred to are now under cultivation, but before being cleared of timber and subjected to the plow, no surface relics were found; but on the caving and wearing away of the riverbanks, as the light earth washed away, many spear- and arrow-heads and other stone relics were left on shore. After the land had been cleared and the plow had loosened the soil, one of the great floods that occur at intervals of some fifteen or twenty years would wash away the loose soil, leaving the great flint workshops exposed. It is from the stores of material left, the cores or nuclei thrown aside, caches of finished and unfinished implements and flakes, the tools and wastage, vast accumulations of splints, etc., that we can, on critical examination, draw tolerably correct ideas of the mode of working pursued.
Fig. 46. (S. 4–5.) Knife made from a large flake from a long block of flint. Material: yellow chert. Dr. A. G. Clyne, Paragould, Arkansas.
“Experience has taught the operator the best shape of edge to apply the pressure to accomplish his object, and it has also taught him how to reach it in the simplest possible way. A spoon-shaped hollow on the top of a flattened log, or even a gutter or groove cut in it, furnishes the means of holding the flake firmly, the raised or high side placed in the hollow, the flat side up; with the ends of the fingers of his left hand pressed on it he holds it firmly, while with his right hand a downward pressure is given by the flaking-tool which breaks off chips with a fracture of about forty-five degrees from the flat surface, leaving the edge in the best possible shape for future work, and that is the condition of these cache flakes as they are found.
“In old times, before the invention and introduction of planing and shaping machines to work metals, the first and most important lesson taught to the machinist’s apprentice was the use of the hand-hammer and cold-chisel. When an outer shell was to be removed from a metal casting and its surface left in condition to be finished by file or scraper, the smoothness and regularity of that surface was essential, not only for economy in working, but accuracy of the file finish. The apprentice was taught to hold his cold-chisel and so direct the strokes of his hammer that when a chip was started the chisel should hold to it, and not be allowed to cut too deep or slip and fly out, leaving a shape that is difficult to start a fresh cut without leaving ridges or cutting deeper, in either case causing additional labor for the finisher.
“To a practical mechanic the examination of such a flint workshop as I have described—its waste chips to the partly worked flakes, the roughed-out blocks, and the finished implements—reveals a line of workmanship so clear that it can be followed to the production of the same results.
Fig. 47. (S. 1–3.) Group of knives. From the collection of D. H. Kern, Allentown, Pennsylvania. Material: argillite and jasper. As to the use of flint knives, an interesting description is given by Pedro De Castaneda, who accompanied Coronado in 1541 to Quivira (Kansas); he states: “They cut the hide open at the back and pulled it off at the joints, using a flint as large as a finger, tied in a little stick, with as much ease as if working with a good iron tool. They gave it an edge with their own teeth. The quickness with which they do this is something worth seeing and noting.”
“The handling of the tool and flake to form an arrow-point is as much an act requiring exactness and precision as the handling of the cold-chisel and hammer is to the machinist. The first chip thrown off is analogous to the first starting-work of the cold-chisel; it is the text that must be adhered to the end of the chapter. Holding the flake in such position that, commencing at what is intended for the point of the intended work, the pressure with the flaking-point is brought to bear close to the edge of the forty-five degrees angle and at right angles to it; the result is a flake thrown off inclining towards the stem end of the arrow-point. The seat left by this chip when thrown off is concave on the edge of the flake, the advance corner of which is the seating-point for the tool to throw off the next chip, which does not entirely obliterate the concave of the first, and the following chip leaves a serrated edge, the chips or flakes being generally parallel, which is the object of a good workman to make them. When the flat side by chipping has been reduced to nearly the required form, its edges are in the best possible shape for chipping the opposite or high side, then by alternate working from side to side the point is finished, either leaving it with serrated edges or by after delicate work throwing off the points, leaving a smooth, sharp edge. The indentations at the base either for barbs or for thongs to secure the point to its shaft are made by direct down pressure of a sharp point working alternately from side to side, the arrow-point being held firmly on its flat face. From the narrowness of the cuts in some of the specimens, and the thickness of the stone where they terminate, I have inclined to the belief that at the period they were made, the aborigines had something stronger than bone to operate with, as I have never been able to imitate some of their deep, heavy cuts with it; but I have succeeded by using a copper point, which possesses all the properties of the bone, in holding to its work without slipping and has the strength for direct thrust required. A soft iron or a thoroughly annealed steel point answers even a better purpose. As yet no copper has been found on this flaking-ground, though a few copper beads and remnants of what appear to have been ornaments have been taken from the mounds on the ridges of the Saline, which I think is evidence that they had that metal at the earliest time work was done on this flaking-bank.
Fig. 48. (S. a little over 1–2.) Knives with curved blades. Materials: black flint, slate, and jasper. Dr. T. B. Stewart, Lockhaven, Pennsylvania.
Fig. 49. (S. 2–5.) Three flake knives; four ordinary ovate knives; one peculiar knife. S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.
“Bryce Wright in his description of the Scandinavian knives or daggers refers to them as being most beautifully dentilled with parallel flaking and serrated edges. He says: ‘These knives or lances are true marvels of prehistoric art, and show an amount of skill and workmanship which cannot be imitated in the present age, the art of fashioning them having been entirely lost.’ Sir John Lubbock, on page 104 of ‘Prehistoric Times,’ says: ‘The crimping along the edge of the handle is very curious.’ As to parallel flakings with serrated edge, I have endeavored to show (from a mechanical standpoint) that the refuse of the great flint quarries points to a mode of working that must leave the dentilled markings parallel, and the edges worked from, serrated. What Lubbock speaks of as curious crimping on the edge of the handles is but the natural result of the mode of working. I have examined these Scandinavian dagger-handles, and find the same appearance on the blades of large-size broken piercers, numbers of which I have found among the rubbish, picked up, examined, and thrown away as imperfect specimens. Some of them have a spread, flat end or handle of over one and a half inches, with nearly square blades, evidently having been worked by down pressure from the edges corresponding to the spread end, these forty-five degrees flakes meeting form angles and produce the square. The interlocking of the flakes at their meeting causes the crimped appearance, in some cases not unlike a row of beads, very beautiful, but not made with any such view, but simply the natural result of the mode of working.
“Here also are found massive flakes or chips of fine-grained quartzite, that teach another lesson to a seeking practical mechanic, nosing about among the accumulated refuse. These flakes are often rough on one face, showing them to be an outside scale from the stone; occasionally, fragments of large flat implements that have been classed as agricultural (hoes or spades). These fragments have not been broken by want of skill in the workman, but from undiscovered seams in the stone that did not show until the outer surface was thrown off. None of these fragments shows any sign of use; in fact, some of them have not been wrought to an edge. I have several specimens of hoes from the same ridge beyond the settlement where it would naturally be cultivated, that from their highly polished working ends show long use. The lesson is that they are not made from great flakes, but rather represent the core from which flakes have been thrown off. Finished hoes and spades frequently have portions of natural stone partings that have not been worked off, and show them to have been worked from thin slabs. These slabs are a metamorphic thin bedded sandstone, belonging to what our state geologist, Professor A. H. Worthen, calls the Chester group. They occur near the Saline, about eight miles above the flaking-ground, in an upheaval that has brought them to the surface with the upturned edges of the carboniferous limestone through which the salt springs flow. This is probably the source whence this quartzite was obtained, as slabs from one inch to two inches thick are found there; but there are many other locations stretching across Southern Illinois to the Mississippi River where they also occur.
Fig. 50. (S. 1–2.) War or triangular points; straight and concave bases. Material: quartz, chert, obsidian, argillite, jasper, and porphyry. Phillips Academy collection. (See page [86].)
“It is the large agricultural implements that I refer to as having been made from quartzite slabs, some of which are as much as sixteen inches long by six inches and seven inches wide at the spadeblade end. There are many smaller specimens of the same form and character that have been regularly flaked from chert, white waxy quartz, yellow and brown jasper, that do not exceed six or seven inches in length, their working ends highly polished by long use in digging. It is the large hoes and spades flaked from quartzite slabs that to me are evidence of a much higher degree of intelligence and skill than the most highly-finished spear- and arrow-points evince. Take an edge view of one of these large spades, and observe how accurately straight and free from wind the edge has been carried entirely around the implement, the flattening of one side and rounding the other; then observe that the long, flat, very slightly depressed, flakes have been thrown off at right angles to the edge, even to those curving around its digging or cutting end, which appear to have radiated from a common centre. If these flakes have been thrown off by blows so struck and directed as to preserve the cleanly lined edges, as the operator had carried them in his mind, a skill must have been acquired that we cannot approach.
“In all the experiments that I have tried with a hammer, whether of stone, steel, soft iron, or copper, they have failed to produce the desired result; the seat of the flake is more conchoidal, shorter and deeper depressed, whereas the direct percussive pressure throws off the shape of flake that we find has been done in making these spades. If this mode has been resorted to, it necessarily required considerable ingenuity in devices for holding the stone slab firmly, while the pressure was being applied in the right direction. The wooden clamp described by Catlin may have been used. The simplest device that occurs to me that will answer the purpose is a block of wood planted in the ground, with its end grain up, cut on top into steps, the lower step having grooves parallel with the rise of the upper step; in one of these grooves the edge of the implement is placed, its back resting against the edge of the higher step as represented by the dotted lines showing the form of a spade. (See Fig. 18.) When in this position, presenting the proper angle to the operator, a man holds it firmly while another applies the pressure. A lower step and the back edge of the top are hollowed out to receive the work, while its lower end rests in an indentation in the lower step. In this manner a spade can be firmly held while its cutting end is being flaked. I do not present this as a mode that was practiced, but as a device that answers the purpose, and I judge to be within the capacity of the ancient flint-workers, of whom there is nothing left but their chips and finished work.
“Let any one experiment with a bone point in chipping flint; he will soon discover the value of a dry bone, a bone free from grease that will hold to its work without slipping, a bone with sufficient hardness to resist abrasion, a bone of strength to bear the pressure, and he will value such a pointed bone, and will understand why, with such a bone, John Smith’s ancient arrow-point maker ‘valued his above price, and would not part with it.’ I have been informed that the modern Indians free their flaking-bones from grease by burying them in moistened clay and wood ashes, not unlike the common practice of our housewives to remove grease-spots from their kitchen floors.
Fig. 51. (S. 2–5.) Triangular, or war points and knives. Implements with straight, concave, and convex bases. S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.
“The hunter or trapper described to me a mode still in practice among the remote Indians of making flakes by lever pressure combined with percussion, that is more philosophical and a better mechanical arrangement than by the use of the flaking-staff, as described by Catlin. Fig. 22 shows the manner of utilizing a standing tree with spreading roots for this purpose; a flattened root makes a firm seat for the stone, a notch cut into the body of a tree the fulcrum for the lever; either a pointed stick is placed on the point of the stone where the flake is to be split from it, its upper end resting against the under side of the lever, or a bone or horn point let into and secured to the lever takes the place of this stick. When the pressure is brought to bear, by the weight of the operation, on the long end of the lever, a second man with a stone, mall, or heavy club strikes a blow on the upper side of the lever, directly over the pointed stick or horn point, and the flake is thrown off.
Fig. 52. (S. 1–1.) Knife with curved sides or edges. This form seems more specialized than other types under Class I, sub-type A′. Dr. T. B. Stewart, Lockhaven, Pennsylvania.
“Lubbock, in ‘Prehistoric Times,’ illustrated the Eskimo scraper as used at the present time in preparing skins. When we consider the close proximity of the flint workshop to the great salt licks on the Saline River, the flowing salt springs, the deeply worn buffalo paths still to be seen after having been subject to the destructive work of cultivation by the plow for more than a generation, where skins by the thousands must have been dressed, it is not surprising that the many chert flakes, that have been split off with too great a curvature of their flat sides in their length to admit of being chipped into arrow-points, should have been utilized for scrapers, many of which are the exact facsimile of what Lubbock has illustrated as the Eskimo and others of the European type, of which he says: ‘It is curious, that while these spoon-shaped scrapers are so common in Europe, they are very rare, if indeed they occur at all, in North America south of the Eskimo region.’
Fig. 53. (S. 1–2.) Translucent scraper made of chalcedony. Length, 9 inches; greatest width, 5 inches. Found near Lake St. John, Quebec. In Toronto University collection, collected by H. Montgomery.
“I think it most probable, from their close resemblance to refuse flakes and chips, they were overlooked by early collectors. In the great game districts of the West, both in flint workshops and among the waste of Indian settlements, they are much more abundant than arrow-heads, or any other implements, with the exception of the small flint knives.
“It is also in these game districts that what is known as the ‘bevel-edge arrow-points’ are found, that have been a subject of much discussion as to their use. (See Fig. 21.) Foster says of the one he has illustrated: ‘The specimen represented is from Professor Cox’s collection, and the two edges are symmetrically beveled, as if to give it a rotary motion.’ I have met many others that accept this idea, unmindful of the fact that a ship is not steered at its stem, but by the rudder at its stern, and an arrow is not directed or held to its course by its point, but by the feather at the butt end of its shaft; and if a rotary motion was required, it would naturally be given by placing the feathers spirally around the shaft. The broad flat sides of these beveled points would neutralize any effect from the short bevels in passing through the air.
“I have heard it urged that they were reamers, and that the uniform bevel being in one direction, to cut as reamers they would have to be turned to the left, or, as our workmen say, ‘against the sun.’ From this it has been argued that the people who used them belonged to a left-handed race. The direction and uniformity in the bevels is to me evidence of exactly the reverse. Among all the points we find they are the simplest and easiest to form by chipping when laid on their flat. Nothing but the down pressure of the flaker is required to separate a chip from a flat at a forty-five-degree angle. Suppose a flake that had been roughly shaped held flat on a block of wood by the fingers of the left hand, the tool in the right hand chipping from the point to the broad end by direct down pressure; then by turning the flake over and working the other edge in the same manner, we have in a centre cross-section a form resembling a long-stretched rhomboid with sharp cutting serrated edges at the acute angles.
“With the wooden bow and arrow arose the necessity for an arrow-point harder than wood. If bone was used, the pebble scraper was essential. The river drift or gravel bars, when subjected to the grinding and crushing action of drift-logs or rolling boulders, would furnish many suggestive forms and shapes that a little ingenuity would apply, and out of which would naturally grow the art of flaking.
Fig. 54. (S. 1–1.) Long implement, convex base, sides almost straight. E. E. Baird, Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
Fig. 55. (S. about 1–5.) A group of knives typical of central Ohio. J. A. Rayner collection, Piqua, Ohio.
“The streets of Paducah, Kentucky, are paved with partly rounded, angular, silicious gravel, mostly of jasper. Seeing heaps of this ready for spreading, I was struck by the many forms, mostly highly water-polished, that if found on a flaking-ground would pass for refuse flakes and rubbish left by the workmen.
“On inquiry I was informed that this coarse gravel was from banks on the Tennessee River above the ordinary overflows. I selected many forms that any archæologist would pronounce to be the work of man.
Fig. 56. (S. 1–2.) Concave base, but shoulders so pronounced as to be almost barbs. E. E. Baird collection, Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
“A heavy wagon, loaded with hogsheads of tobacco, drawn by five or six yoke of oxen, passed over the fresh-spread gravel with a sharp, crushing, grinding sound. On examining the wheel tracks I was surprised to find the slight impression the iron tire had made on the surface stones. They had been pressed aside from the wheels, leaving a slight rut, those under the wheels compressed together, but very little broken; not sufficient to account for the sharp, crackling noise made as the wagon wheels passed over them. On examining the effect from the tread of the wheels to the old road-bed, a depth of about six inches, I found most of the larger gravel stones under the top layer split, some into flakes, the fractures in various directions, some crossing others. This spread from the width of the wheel-tires to about three times as wide on the old road-bed. Many of the fresh fractures presented the forms and appearance of genuine cores, and would be mistaken for the work of man. It was a beautiful illustration of the effect of pressure on small points of contact. Our lady friends, often inveterate iced-tea drinkers, when they find a lump of ice too large for their glass, will, with a common toilet-pin between thumb and finger, press its point into the ice, tap its head with the handle of a case-knife, or give it a click with a thimble. The cohesion is destroyed and the ice splits with just such a fracture as is made by impulsive point pressure on the more tenacious and refractory chert.
“These Paducah observations led to considerable investigation as to the action of lodged drift-logs on gravel bars, and finally to an experiment that I should recommend the Smithsonian Institution to try on more extensive scale than I was able to.
“I filled a metal cylinder with pebbles of various sizes and shapes, brought a pressure by a screw on them through a plunger; immediately a crepitating sound was heard, which as the pressure increased became sharper and louder, at times almost explosive, as the interstices became filled with broken fragments, producing side pressure and cross fractures. The sound became more confused and died away. On emptying the cylinder, the result was many representations of the rude implements found in the drift.”
So much for Sellars’s observations. I consider them remarkable.
A series of papers entitled, “Arrows and Arrow-makers,” appeared in the American Anthropologist, vol. IV, 1891. Professor Holmes’s paper (p. 49) particularly refers to the manufacture of arrow-points, although Drs. Wilson, Hoffman, and Hough, Captain Bourke, Professor Mason, and Mr. Flint contributed papers relating to various phases of the arrow and its use.
Fig. 57. (S. 1–3.) Long, slender lance-heads. Material: fine yellow chert. H. M. Braun’s collection, East St. Louis, Illinois.
I quote at some length from Professor Holmes, taking the liberty of changing his numbers to suit the numerical order of figures in this book:—
Fig. 58. (S. 1–2.) A beautiful knife from a grave near Sebago, Maine. Material: porphyry, finely chipped. A. E. Marks’s collection.
Fig. 59. (S. 2–3.) A beautiful knife of quartzite from near Albany, Georgia. H. F. McIntosh’s collection.
“In most cases the shaping operations carried on in the quarry can be followed out with reasonable certainty. On all sites where the raw material was extensively worked, series of forms can be secured illustrating every stage of the morphology. These series begin with the amorphous mass or natural shape, and pass through a succession of modifications, ending in the rude blade or blank. The making and collecting of flakes and fragments to be carried away in an unshaped condition, although undoubtedly carried on in all quarries and upon sites of other sources of raw material, leave little or no refuse that can be studied to advantage.
“Large masses in quarries or on simple shop-sites were reduced by means of rude hammers with or without halting. Fire was often employed as an auxiliary in this work. Approximate masses were reduced to more definite shapes by a succession of free-hand blows. The first step in the shaping of an implement from a boulder is illustrated in Fig. 14. In this work the free-hand blow is employed for the reason that no other method would be efficacious. Fig. 23 illustrates the position in which the partially shaped mass must be held after its margins have become too sharp to be split by a blow directly upon the edge.
“When the incipient implement became too attenuated or fragile to withstand the blows necessary to flaking without imminent danger of breaking, other methods had to be employed. The statement has been made by some writers that arrow-points are produced by simple percussion, the hammers being reduced in size to correspond with the increasing fragility of the object worked. This process, however, must be exceptional.
“Instances are recorded in which indirect percussion—that is, the use of a mallet and punch—was employed in removing flakes intended to be shaped by pressure. Two varieties of indirect percussion are illustrated in Figs. 28 and 29. The first is practiced by the Wintuns of California and other tribes. The drawing is made from a very careful description by B. B. Redding. The second is derived from the observations of George Catlin. According to Catlin, the point is sometimes carried to a finish by the indirect stroke, two persons being employed in the operation, as shown in Fig. 29. As a rule, however, the method of manipulation was changed at the proper stage from percussion to pressure.
Fig. 60. (S. 1–2.) A ceremonial flint knife in original handle from the northwest coast. Material: reddish flint. Found by “a whaler” many years ago and now in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.
“The blanks from the quarries—the roughed-out blades and selected flakes, as well as similar products from all varieties of sites—had acquired such outline, attenuation, sharpness of edge, and bevel when the change from percussion to pressure took place that the gentler method would be operative. It is probable that in many cases the work was transferred from operatives skilled in the blocking-out to others especially skilled in shaping by pressure; but it is also pretty certain that nearly every hunter was able, in case of necessity, to shape his own arrow-points, howsoever roughly, from the raw material.
“The flaking of stone, and especially that part of it relating to the making of arrow-points, has very generally been regarded as a great mystery and is often spoken of as a lost art; but the art is still practiced by many of our aboriginal tribes, and it appears that almost any one who desires can by a little systematic practice do the work. Of course to acquire great skill much practice is necessary, but the methods are for the most part so well known and so simple that the mantle of mystery no longer enshrouds them.
“When pressure is first suggested as an adequate means of flaking hard stones, doubt is usually felt as to its competency, and when it is stated that the tool used is not of metal or of stone, but of bone or ivory, incredulity is usually expressed; but the test is easily made.
“A blank form, or a flake having the approximate shape, is held firmly between the fingers and thumb of the left hand. A firm piece of bone, having a rather thin edge or angle like that of a three-cornered file, is taken in the right hand and set upon the sharp edge of the stone and at right angles to it, so firmly that a slight cut or notch is made in the bone, then with a quick, firm movement of the right hand, met by a similar movement of the left, the bone is made to move across the edge of the stone (Fig. 30), in doing which it takes with it a flake, varying in length, width, and depth with the skill and power of the workman, the nature of the stone, etc. A rapid repetition of this operation, accompanied by a proper resetting of the tool, quickly reduces the piece, if it works readily, to almost any desired outline. The position and manner of holding may be changed, as shown in Fig. 32. In both cases the hand holding the stone must be protected against cutting by the sharp flakes by a piece of buckskin or leather. This is true of some of the other cases illustrated.
Fig. 61. (S. 1–2.) Irregular knives. Material: sugar quartz. S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.
“The same result may be obtained in various other ways, but always by means of suddenly applied or spasmodic pressure. Numerous methods of applying this pressure are known. The blank may be held down by the fingers upon the edge of a table or board, as shown in Fig. 31, and the point of the bone or of a bit of metal as well, held in the other hand, may be set so as to catch the edge of the stone to a width corresponding to that caught by the notched bone in the other position, when a quick downward pressure upon the flaking-tool will remove the flake. Again, in larger work, where greater force is required to remove the flakes, a tool long enough to place against the arm or chest of the operator may be used. In this way much additional force is thrown into the spasmodic movement. Another device consists of a notched or forked bone or pincers, which is set upon the sharp edge of the blank and given a sudden twist, thus removing the flake. (Fig. 33.)”
There is a feature in the reduction of boulders to finished implements in which it seems to me that Professor Holmes may be in error. Figs. 2, 3, and 5 to 23, and 28 to 41 show all the more important stages of manufacture. Other figures present sufficient specimens to cover each form of the implement, making every step from the rough boulder to completed objects.
It is natural that the finished knife or spear-head should be less in length and width than the ordinary boulder. But in following Professor Holmes’s series to its logical conclusion I am impressed with the fact that the finest specimens are much smaller and the blades are very much smaller than the boulder. A certain amount of reduction in size must be admitted. But on the other hand the worker in flint was very skillful. He knew his material, he knew how to work it, and he was saving. He was so skillful that he was able to reduce large, common, rough blades to large finished knives or spear-heads, chipping from the sides and throwing off flakes rather than reducing the length or breadth. While he would to some extent reduce the two diameters, yet I do not believe that small implements are the result of work upon large boulders. If in chipping a large boulder, he discovered flaws, he would either discard the whole object, or strike off that part available for use and make of it a small implement. A large boulder worked into a large blade represented a large implement when finished; and the small finished implements were obtained from small boulders or blades, I firmly believe.
Fig. 62. (S. 1–3.) Knives with double edges and curved edges. Phillips Academy collection. Localities, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois.