NORTH AMERICAN STONE IMPLEMENTS.
BY
CHARLES RAU.
REPRINTED FROM THE REPORT OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION FOR 1872.
WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1873.
NORTH AMERICAN STONE IMPLEMENTS.
By Charles Rau.
The division of the European stone age into a period of chipped stone, and a succeeding one of ground or polished stone, or, into the palaeolithic and neolithic periods, seems to be fully borne out by facts, and is likely to remain an uncontroverted basis for future investigation in Europe. In North America chipped as well as ground implements are abundant; yet they occur promiscuously, and thus far cannot be referred respectively to certain epochs in the development of the aborigines of the country. Archæological investigation in North America, however, is but of recent date, and a careful examination of our caves and drift-beds possibly may lead to results similar to those obtained in Europe. When in the latter part of the world man lived contemporaneously with the now extinct large pachydermatous and carnivorous animals, he used unground flint tools of rude workmanship, which were superseded in the later stages of the European stone age, comprising the neolithic period, by more finished articles of flint and other stone, many of which were brought into final shape by the processes of grinding and polishing. In North America stone implements likewise have been found associated with the osseous remains of extinct animals; yet these implements, it appears, differed in no wise from those in use among the aborigines at the period of their first intercourse with the whites.