POLISHED STONE HATCHETS OR CELTS—THE CLASSIFICATION OF HATCHETS, ADZES, GOUGES, AND AXES
Under the general term “ground stone” fall all objects not chipped; as well as utensils, weapons, ornaments, and artifacts not of copper, bone, shell, mica, etc. The term “ground stone” would include axes, celts, pestles, mortars, and a score of other types.
But I confine this and the next three chapters to the celt-hatchet-axe-adze class of artifacts or tools, and have presented my own classification of these.
Polished stone hatchets or celts are supposed to have been made and used before man discovered that a grooved stone was more serviceable and could be securely fastened in the handle. These objects have been the subject of much study. My friend of many years standing, a distinguished archæologist, the late Dr. Thomas Wilson of the Smithsonian Institution, made axes and celts a study covering years. Excepting Professors Holmes and Putnam, there is nobody to-day professionally engaged in archæology in possession of Dr. Wilson’s technical knowledge of the use of stone implements in ancient times. Dr. Wilson knew little about modern tribes, and cared less. He was not an ethnologist, as was Professor Mason, but he had labored for many years in the field in France, Italy, and Spain, was familiar with archæological literature and in full sympathy with the point of view of stone-age man.
Men who live in the present rather than the past cannot appreciate this distinction. It is more than a fine distinction, as it is a broad and true distinction. Dr. Wilson, while trained in archæology abroad, was able to catch the correct point of view in American archæology. While his classifications of the celt, axe, chipped stone, and so forth have been enlarged and improved upon in recent years, yet to him belongs no little credit.
Dr. Wilson’s papers on the celt and the axe (see Bibliography), and Mr. Willoughby’s article in the Anthropologist, June, 1907, p. 296, on the “Adze and Ungrooved Axe of the New England Indians,” are suggested to students for reading.
Dr. Wilson treats almost exclusively of the axe and adze and celt in prehistoric times. Mr. Willoughby illustrates prehistoric forms, but cites all the early writers who have made reference to the celt. However, none of these writers are clear as to whether tools used are celts, adzes, hatchets, either grooved or ungrooved.
My classification of stone hatchets is as follows:—
Stone Hatchets
1. Ungrooved hatchets, or celts.
(a) Simple, oval pebble with a sharp edge. (Figs. 219–220.) (b) Triangular hatchets, narrow poll, broad blade. (Fig. 221.) (c) Face almost flat, sides nearly straight. (Fig. 222.) (d) One side or surface convex, the reverse flat. (Figs. 225, 238.) (e) As (d), except that one flat surface is sharply beveled towards the edge. (Figs. 224, 241.) (f) Blade flaring. (Figs. 233, 234.)
(a) Slightly hollowed, one side convex. (Fig. 239.) (b) Deeply hollowed. (Figs. 242–243.) (c) Slightly grooved, or with knobs. (Fig. 247.)
Grooved Axes
(a) Groove entirely encircling specimen. (Figs. 248, 252.) (b) Three fourths grooved; the back flat or hollowed. (Figs. 254, 257.) (c) Grooved and the poll pointed or rounded. (Figs. 263, 265.) (d) Double-edged, or double-bitted—grooved in the centre. (Figs. 274, 283, 284, 299, 300.) (e) Double-grooved. (Figs. 282; one in 286, one in 257.)
The polished stone hatchet or celt is an implement much in use entirely throughout the world, and we may doubt whether primitive man could have existed without it. Celts served a multitude of purposes; the ruder ones may be considered as general utility tools in use about the wigwams and cabins. The more skillful worker in stone made very artistic as well as serviceable celts and hatchets, usually paying particular attention to the edge, which was often keen and sharp. Sufficient time and labor were put on certain of the specimens to bring them to a high state of perfection; to work out fancy or specialized forms.
Fig. 218. (S. 1–3.) W. J. Martin collection, Leon, Kansas (p. [260]).
Most archæologists suppose that primitive man made his first celts by selecting water-worn pebbles of near the desired shape and grinding them until sharp edges were obtained. Within the gravelly bed of any stream were multitudinous stones, and as primitive man traveled about, his attention was attracted to these, and it was but a natural conclusion that he should make edged tools or weapons of them.
Fig. 219. (S. about 1–6.) This represents six celts of hard, reddish slate partly chipped, partly ground, from A. E. Kilbourne’s cabinet, Connecticut. It may be said to mark the beginning of the ground objects, for these celts might be placed under the classification of chipped objects, although I have included them with the ground stone.
The illustrations of the more simple forms of celts presented in this chapter are of types from several portions of the country. The oval celt was the most common of all, and occurred pretty much everywhere in the United States except on the Pacific Coast and on the Great Plains. It is not frequent in that part of New England lying east of Lake Champlain, yet specimens are not wanting. But it is absent in the Ozark Mountains, and quite rare in Texas. In the Mississippi Valley and the area drained by Southern rivers, in the central East and valleys of the Hudson, the Susquehanna, and Delaware, it occurs in great numbers. As one approaches the East, celts diminish in the Connecticut Valley, and are less frequent in the Merrimac, in the Penobscot, and the Kennebec regions.
Fig. 220. (S. 1–3.) A group of celts from the Tidewater region, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia and Maryland. Reproduced from the 15th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Most of these, especially the three at the lower right-hand corner, are oval forms of polished stone hatchets. Such are the most common, and with these my classification begins. All are typical specimens from the Smithsonian collection. The edges are broad; the upper portions of several show the work of hand-hammers.
Fig. 221. (S. 1–1.) This celt belongs in Class “B.” It is a typical specimen from the collection of J. J. Snyder, Frederick, Maryland. Such a celt would serve as a convenient hand-hatchet or tomahawk. It is sharp, small, and could be conveniently carried on the war-path, as the weight of the object and the handle, together, would not exceed two or two and a half pounds. The small, sharp, triangular hatchets I have always believed were weapons.
Fig. 222. (S. 1–3.) A plate of celts from the University of Vermont collection, Burlington. All of these were found near Lake Champlain. Several peculiarities are to be noted. The light-colored one in the lower row was first chipped and then ground and polished. The celt to the left, in the centre, is slightly indented on either side, and, as will be shown elsewhere in this book, such forms are not rare in New England. Five of these celts have straight sides. It is not necessary that the sides should be equidistant from each other, or that the poll should be exactly as wide as the blade, in order that celts may be classified as having straight sides. By straight sides, I mean sides which may be either sloping or straight, yet not curved. A tapering celt, a celt with a flaring edge and other forms may or may not have straight sides.
Fig. 224. (S. 1–3.)
It will be observed by the illustrations that celts, gouges, and stone hatchets are all closely related. Yet celts may be subdivided into six divisions, all of which are different. In adzes and gouges there are three divisions; in axes, five. But some other observer might place in two or three divisions what I have classed under C; for there are broad adzes, broad celts, alike in character, which may or may not have a knob on the back. There are also adzes slightly grooved, but not broad and thin. Some celts are thick, and others chisel-like, or pick-shaped. Yet in certain New England forms the distinguishing knob appears on the back. An adze may be almost triangular in cross-section. It may have no knobs on the back. Mr. Willoughby’s classification of these is presented in three plates,—the first, celts; the second, adze-blades or gouges; the third, adze-blades with grooves or knobs.
Fig. 225. (S. 1–2.) Celts and unknown objects from the New York State collection, Albany.
Fig. 218, from W. J. Martin’s collection, Leon, Kansas, exhibits pieces of sandstone and limestone almost celt-like in form, yet which were used for grinding and polishing. This illustrates how an ordinary stone could be worked into a celt and that almost any series can be arranged beginning with one type and ending with another.
It is easy for any archæologist to select a series of celts, beginning with the oval form and ending with the spud-shaped implement. It is not difficult to group the extremes. We hesitate over the specimens which may be said to lie in the borderland of two divisions. One student would place them in this class, and another observer might contend that they belonged in that division.
The average celt is not large, although specimens have been found weighing as much as fifteen or twenty pounds. Celts five and six pounds in weight are not of rare occurrence, although they are by no means common. Abnormally large celts, axes, and other cutting-tools seem to me to indicate the skill of the aboriginal worker in stone, for it is quite clear that it would be impossible to put to any practical use such unwieldy stone implements.
The largest grooved mauls I have ever seen were found about the ancient copper-mines of Lake Superior or in flint quarries.
Mr. H. M. Braun owns two beautiful specimens of large celts which are shown in Fig. 228. The sizes have been indicated in white letters on the specimens. A few similar ones have been found in Tennessee, but such are rare. I would call attention to the slightly flaring edges of these specimens and to the fact that they are not highly polished, which might indicate that they are not finished.
There are chisel-shaped celts and celt-like implements sharp at either end, the purpose of which is not clear. A number of these odd forms in celt-like or pointed instruments are found in the Iroquois country. Dr. William Beauchamp, the authority on archæology and ethnology of northern New York, has referred to these peculiar forms and illustrated them in the Bulletin of the New York State Museum, vol. IV, no. 18. It may not be out of place here to remark that the New York State Museum has published many bulletins, eight of which are of special interest to students of archæology and Indian history. These describe not only polished stone articles and the chipped implements, but metallic implements and ornaments, wampum, shell and bone, and also aboriginal use of wood. I recommend all these to readers.
Fig. 226. (S. 1–1.)
Beautiful polished stone hatchets, from Andros and New Providence Islands, Bahamas, West Indies; other objects from Tlaxcala, Mexico. The central one is almost jade-like. The specimens are colored accurately. Collection of B. W. Arnold, Albany, New York.
Fig. 227. (S. 1–1.)
A celt, a chisel, and four unknown forms in dark, highly polished stone and obsidian. Celts from Andros and New Providence Islands, Bahamas, West Indies; other objects from Tlaxcala, Mexico. The original colors are reproduced. Collection of B. W. Arnold, Albany, New York.
Fig. 228. (S. 1–4.) Unusually large celts from Mr. Braun’s collection, East St. Louis, Illinois. I have referred on a previous page to celts such as these. There are quite a few in our museums, particularly in the Washington, Chicago, Cambridge, and New York collections. It is very seldom that they are highly finished; usually they are a trifle rough, although there are instances in which the specimen is brought to a high finish, as is the case of the smaller polished stone hatchets. Whether these were tribal possessions, or were made to show the skill of the worker in stone, or were brought forth under certain conditions and placed in the medicine lodge, I leave for others to decide.
In Fig. 225 I have reproduced from Dr. Beauchamp’s Bulletin ten specimens, ranging from a small wedge-shaped celt to three long double-pointed instruments. The one to the right is sharply convex with a flat base. To the extreme left is an elongated oval not very sharp at either end. Next to it is an object with quite pointed ends. While these are placed by me in the celt class, the four larger specimens are scarcely celts.
Fig. 229. (S. 1–3.) To the right is a remarkable celt. It is eighteen inches long, 7 3–4 wide at the cutting edge. Made of dark greenstone; weight, six pounds. To the left is a very slender celt 17 1–2 inches long. Largest circumference, 3 1–2 inches. The two central ones are 10 1–2 and 9 3–4 inches. One is made of greenstone, and the other of syenite. All are from Kentucky. B. H. Young’s collection, Louisville, Kentucky.
Elsewhere in the United States, particularly in the St. Lawrence Basin—which includes southern and eastern Canada and northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, northern Indiana and Ohio, a strip through Pennsylvania and New York and the Lake Champlain region and a little of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, other specimens, but smaller than these, though the same general type, are found. Sometimes they are so blunt that they resemble commercial whetstones.
Fig. 230. (S. 2–5.) This presents two views of a rare form of celt, from the John Merkle collection, Bellevue, Iowa. The specimen exhibits much use. It is just the opposite of the lower specimen shown in Fig. 224, and illustrates that the Indian put the edge on either end of an axe or celt blade to suit his fancy. It is quite likely that Fig. 230 was mounted in a handle and used as a tomahawk. The flaring blade is quite unusual. Drawn by Richard Herrmann. Material: blue-black, close-grained, hard rock, probably diorite.
In Fig. 224 there are shown eight celts from the collection of Phillips Academy, Andover. They come from various portions of the United States. In the upper row at either side are typical oval celts, with this difference, that the one to the right has a broad cutting edge, and the one to the left is quite convex, with poll and edge of equal width. This approaches the chisel type. In the centre of the top row is a roughly pecked, unpolished celt, the poll of which is narrowed for the purpose of fitting it into a handle.
Fig. 231. (S. about 1–3.) Reproduced from Baron G. Nordenskiöld’s “Cliff-Dwellers of the Mesa Verde,” pl. 36.
In the central row are three celts. (Class D.) The surfaces presented in the figure are flat, and beveled off toward the edge; the other surface being convex. In the lower row is a small chisel-like celt with wide poll or top, and narrow cutting edge.
Such specimens as are shown in Fig. 225 are not only celts, but stone tools which are pointed at either end. If space permitted, I should be glad to present more of these implements, for they range from long, slender, pointed tools to celts, and include many objects which other observers might place in the problematical class.
Aside from three of them shown in Fig. 225, there are illustrated two in Figs. 237, 238. There is also a large specimen about a foot in length in the Andover collection. Dr. Beauchamp says of Fig. 225:—
“The figure to the left is reduced in size to about one half, as are also the nine other specimens in the illustration. This left-hand figure is of a rare and peculiar celt, several of which have been found. They are very slender, usually nearly cylindric, and more or less pointed at each end. Sometimes the material seems too frail for use. It is angular and four-sided, but the angles are rounded, and the points likewise. It tapers to each end, and shows no signs of use. The material is a polished dark gritty slate, from Seneca River.
Fig. 232. (S. 1–3.) A stone celt mounted in a wooden handle. From the collection of the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. This was found on the Northwest Coast, and was in use among natives many years ago, and was brought to the Salem institution by a “whaler,” as were many other specimens in the Salem collections.
“The figure to the right might be classed as an adze. One surface is nearly a plane, and the other curves to each sharp end. It is of sandstone, from Brewerton, N. Y., and a rare form for the size.”
All through the Cliff-Dweller country the celts almost approach knives in character. In Fig. 231 we observe three fine stone celt-like knives from ruins in southwestern Colorado. They all have broad cutting-blades and narrow polls.
So much has been written with reference to the use of celts that I shall not present a lengthy paper upon them. One may dismiss them briefly by stating that the principal uses were: The lighter ones in short handles were used as weapons or tomahawks and as hand-hatchets in killing game; larger ones were used for cutting down trees, splitting soft wood, chopping ice (fish-holes), and general use about the wigwam. The Bibliography cites numerous articles on hatchets and celts, in which the authors tell us in great detail regarding the use of these necessary implements.
Fig. 233. (S. 1–3.) presents three beautiful flint celts from Mr. Braun’s collection. These were originally chipped and afterwards ground and polished. The edges on them are as keen as the polished flint hatchets found in Europe. Such specimens as these, which are often found in the Tennessee graves or in mounds, are not to be classed as mere tools. They are more of the nature of problematical forms in flint which were discussed under “Conclusions as to Chipped Objects” in Chapter XIV. 1733, polished chalcedony; 1735, polished greenstone; 1725, yellow quartzite.
Fig. 234. (S. 2–5.) Two polished celts from the collection of B. H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky. Particular attention is called to the one to the left, which shows that the edge is worked out angularly.
Professor George H. Perkins, of the University of Vermont, furnishes me with some notes on the celts of his region:—
“I do not think that the celts of this region exhibit any peculiar characteristics which distinguish them from those of other localities. We have none as large as have been found elsewhere. Rarely is there one over a foot long, and the majority are not more than five to eight inches in length. Some are very small, not more than two or three inches long. Some of these little celts are finely made, and of various shapes. While most of these implements are at least fairly well made, there are some that are very coarse and clumsy. These are usually made from quartz pebbles.”
Mr. Charles E. Brown writes of the principal classes of Wisconsin celts as follows:—
“Poll rounded, square, or pointed. General shape conical, oval, or square. Roughly made, smooth, or polished. A few of the larger examples have the blade roughened near the poll by pecking; presumably for the better attachment of the handle. These specimens range in weight from a few ounces to ten or more pounds. Thousands have been found in Wisconsin.
“Oblong celts occur especially in the Rock River Valley. There are fine series of these in the Milwaukee Public Museum, in the Logan Museum, and in the State Historical Museum. A few are bell-shaped in outline.
“Handled celts. These have the lower portion or the lower half of the blade slightly elevated over the remainder, thus providing a convenient handle. A few examples of these have been found in Wisconsin.
“Fluted celts. A few examples of celts so ornamented have been found. The finest specimen is in the State Historical Museum. Another is in the Logan Museum, at Beloit. A specimen has been found in Michigan, and one in Canada.
“Long narrow chisel-shaped celts occur in many Wisconsin collections. They are square, oval, or circular in section. Some are nine or more inches in length.”