North American Stone Implements

by Charles Rau

In the first place I will mention certain leaf-shaped flint implements which have been found in mounds and on the surface, as well as in deposits below it. They are comparatively thin, of regular outline, and exhibit well-chipped edges all around the circumferences. On the whole, they are among the best North American flint articles which have fallen under my notice. The specimens found by Messrs. Squier and Davis in a mound of the inclosure called Mound City, on the Scioto River, some miles north of Chillicothe, Ohio, belong to this class. Most of them were broken, but a few were found entire, one of which is represented in half-size by Fig. 100 on page 211 of the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." This specimen measures four inches in length and about three inches across the broad rounded end. I have a still larger one, consisting of a reddish mottled flint, which was found on the surface in Jefferson County, Missouri. The annexed full-size drawing, Fig. 2, shows its outline. The edge on the right side is a little damaged by subsequent fractures, but for the sake of greater distinctness I have represented it as perfect. The finest leaf-shaped implements which I have had occasion to examine, are in the possession of Mr. M. Cowing, of Seneca Falls, New York. The owner told me he had more than a hundred of them, which were all derived from a locality in the State of New York, where they were accidentally discovered, forming a deposit under the surface. Mr. Cowing, who is constantly engaged in collecting and buying up Indian relics, refused to give me any information concerning the place and precise character of the deposit, basing his refusal on the ground that a few of these implements were still in the hands of individuals in the neighborhood, and that he would reveal nothing in relation to the deposit until he had obtained every specimen originally belonging to it. I am, therefore, unable to give any particulars, and must confine myself to the statement that the specimens shown to me present in general the outline of the original of Fig. 2, though they are a little smaller; and that they are thin, sharp-edged, and exquisitely wrought, and consist of a beautiful, variously-colored flint, which bears some resemblance to chalcedony.

Concerning the use or uses of North American leaf-shaped articles, I am hardly prepared to give a definite opinion, though I think it probable that they served for purposes of cutting. They were certainly not intended for spear-heads, their shape being ill-adapted for that end; nor do I think that they were used as scrapers, as other more massive implements of a kindred character probably were, of which I shall speak hereafter.

The aborigines were in the habit of burying articles of flint in the ground, and such deposits, sometimes quite large, have been discovered in various parts of the United States. These deposits consist of articles representing various types, among which I will mention the leaf-shaped implements in the possession of Mr. Cowing; the agricultural tools found at East Saint Louis, Illinois, of which I have given an account in the Smithsonian report for 1868; and the rude flint articles of an elongated oval shape, which were found about 1860 on the bank of the Mississippi, between Carondelet and Saint Louis, Missouri, and doubtless belonged to a deposit. I have described them in the above-named Smithsonian report, (p. 405,) and have also given there a drawing of one of the specimens in my possession. This drawing has been reproduced by Mr. E. T. Stevens, on page 441 of his valuable work entitled "Flint Chips," (London, 1870,) with remarks tending to show that the specimen does not represent an unfinished implement, as I am inclined to believe, but a complete one. I must admit that my drawing is not a very good one. It gives the object a more definite character than it really possesses, the chipping appearing in the representation far less superficial than it is in the original, which, indeed, has such a shape that it could easily be reduced to a smaller size by blows aimed at its circumference. I have myself scaled off large flat flakes from similarly-shaped pieces of flint, using a small iron hammer and directing my blows against the edge, and have thus become convinced that the further working of objects like that in question could offer no serious difficulties to a practised flint-chipper. My collection, moreover, contains several smaller flint objects of similar shape, which are undoubtedly the rudiments of arrow and spear-heads, and I may add that I obtained a few from places where the manufacture of such weapons was carried on.

Yet the most important deposit of flint implements resembling certain types of the European drift, is that discovered by Messrs. Squier and Davis during their researches in Ohio. They have described this interesting find in the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," and a résumé of their account was given by me in the Smithsonian report for 1868, (p. 404.) The implements in question, I stated, occurred in one of the so-called sacrificial mounds of Clark's Work, on North Fork of Paint Creek, Ross County, Ohio. This flat, but very broad mound contained, instead of the hearth usually found in this class of earth-structures, an enormous number of flint discs, standing on their edges and arranged in two layers, one above the other, at the bottom of the mound. The whole extent of these layers has not been ascertained, but an excavation six feet long and four broad disclosed upward of six hundred of those discs, rudely blocked out of a superior kind of dark flint. I had occasion to examine the specimens from this mound, which were formerly in the collection of Dr. Davis, and have now in my collection a number that belonged to the same deposit. They are either roundish, oval, or heart-shaped, and of various sizes, but on an average six inches long, four inches wide, and from three-quarters to an inch in thickness. These flint discs are believed to have been buried as a religious offering, and the peculiar structure of the mound which inclosed them rather favors this opinion, while their enormous number, on the other hand, affords some probability to the view that they constituted a depot or magazine. Many of them are clumsy, and roughly chipped around their edges; and hence it has been suggested that they are no finished implements, but merely rudimentary forms, destined to receive more symmetry of outline by subsequent labor. Many of the discs under notice bear a striking resemblance to the flint "hatchets" discovered by Boucher de Perthes and Dr. Rigollot in the diluvial gravels of the valley of the Somme, in Northern France. The similarity in form, however, is the only analogy that can be claimed for the rude flint articles of both continents, considering that they occurred under totally different circumstances. The drift implements of Europe represent the most primitive attempts of man in the art of working stone, while the Ohio discs, if finished at all, are certainly very rough samples of the handicraft of a race that constructed earthworks of astonishing regularity and magnitude, and was already highly skilled in the art of chipping flint into various shapes.

On page 214 of the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," a group of the flint articles from Clark's Work is represented. The drawing exhibits pretty correctly the irregular outline and general rudeness of these specimens; yet Mr. Stevens states (Flint Chips, p. 440) that "the representations are not at all satisfactory." The only fault, I think, that can be found with these drawings is their small scale, a fault which is very excusable, considering that at the period when Messrs. Squier and Davis published their work, (1848,) flint articles of such shape were no objects of particular attention; for just then the results of the researches of Boucher de Perthes were first laid before the scientific world, which, it is well known, ignored for a long time the significance of the rude flint tools discovered by the indefatigable and enthusiastic French savant in the diluvial gravel-beds of the Somme. It is true, however, that some of the flint discs of Clark's Work are wrought with more care than those represented in the "Ancient Monuments." This fact may be ascribed to a whim of the worker or workers, who gave some of the articles a greater degree of regularity by some additional blows. Mr. Stevens has only seen specimens of this better class, for such were those which Dr. Davis sold to the Blackmore Museum among his collection of Indian relics, and hence the author of "Flint Chips" seems to attribute to them a better general character than they really possess. I learn, however, that Mr. Blackmore, during a recent visit to Ohio, has succeeded in recovering a considerable number of the implements of Clark's Work, and thus an opportunity will be afforded again to investigate the true nature of these relics of a bygone people.

The objects in question consist of the compact silicious stone of "Flint Ridge," in Ohio, a locality described on page 214 of the "Ancient Monuments."[6] A careful comparison has established this fact beyond any doubt. The flint or hornstone which occurs in that region, is a beautiful material of a dark color, resembling somewhat the real flint found in nodules in the cretaceous formations of Europe. It is occasionally marked with darker or lighter concentric stripes or bands, the centre of which is formed by a small nucleus of blue chalcedony; and this internal structure appears particularly distinct in specimens which, by exposure, have undergone a superficial change of color. The stone, in general, possesses peculiarities by which it can be recognized at once, even when met in a wrought state far from its original site. According to Mr. Squier, arrow-heads made of this hornstone have been found in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. That they occur in Illinois, I can attest from personal experience.

Fig. 3.

A few years ago, when treating of the flint implements of Clark's Work, I was not prepared to express a definite opinion concerning the manner in which they were used. In the mean time, however, I have obtained additional information in relation to the class of implements under notice, which enables me, as I think, to point out the purposes for which those of Clark's Work, as well as similar ones from other localities, were designed. In the summer of 1869, some children, who were amusing themselves near the barn on the farm of Oliver H. Mullen, in the neighborhood of Fayetteville, Saint Clair County, Illinois, dug into the ground and discovered a deposit of fifty-two disc-shaped flint implements, which lay closely heaped together. Several of them came into my possession through the assistance of Dr. Patrick, of Belleville, in the same county. They consist, like those of Clark's Work, of the peculiar stone of Flint Ridge. This I noticed at first sight, and so did Messrs. Squier and Davis, to whom I showed them. They resemble, in general shape, the objects of Clark's Work, but are somewhat smaller and of perfectly symmetrical outline, having a well-chipped, though strong edge; in one word, they are highly finished implements, far superior to those of Clark's Work. In Fig. 3 I give a full-size drawing of one of my specimens from Fayetteville, which is twenty millimeters thick in the middle. The slight irregularities observable in the circumference are owing to later accidental fractures. In this specimen, as in the others from the same find, the edge is produced by small, carefully-measured blows. The edges of my specimens from Fayetteville, moreover, exhibit traces of wear, being rubbed off to a small degree, and this circumstance, in connection with their shape, induces me to believe that they were used as scraping or smoothing implements. The aborigines, it is well known, hollowed their canoes and wooden mortars with the assistance of fire, and the implements just described, were, as I presume, employed for removing the charred portions of the wood. They are well adapted to the grasp of the hand, and, indeed, of the most convenient form and size to serve in that operation. Probably they were likewise used in cleaning hides, and for other purposes. The tools of Fayetteville, however, are much more handy than those of Clark's Work.

The fact that implements made of the hornstone of Flint Ridge are found in Illinois—a distance of about four hundred miles intervening—is of particular interest, as it shows that the material was quarried for exportation to remote parts of the country. It doubtless formed an article of traffic among the natives, like copper, sea-shells, and other natural productions which they applied to the exigencies of common life or used for personal adornment.