STEMLESS FORMS.
A. Base straight or nearly so; edges straight and parallel, sometimes half the length from the base, thence with concave curve which is reversed near the end to give a blunt point; these, usually the wider ones, are always thin, and were probably knives. The smaller ones, resembling the small triangular arrows except for the sharpened upper end, may have been for arrowheads, though the sharp points would have served well as awls or needles. Many of the smaller ones seem to be made from small broken arrowheads; exemplified by the specimen from Montgomery county, North Carolina, shown in [figure 245]. The collection includes material from western and central North Carolina; eastern Tennessee; Kanawha valley; northeastern Alabama; South Carolina; Keokuk, Iowa; and Savannah, Georgia.
Fig. 246.—Perforator, not stemmed, double pointed.
B. Slender, somewhat larger about the middle and tapering to a point at each end, or regularly and gradually decreasing from base to point. Some are undoubtedly arrowheads, as they are too blunt or too thin to have been used for piercing. Others show marks of use which could have been produced in no way except by drilling in stone. The specimen illustrated in [figure 246] (from Kanawha valley) shows this to a marked degree, while that shown in [figure 247] (from Nicholas county, Kentucky) is without such indications. The distribution of this form is wide, including Kanawha valley; northeastern Kentucky; southwestern Illinois; southwestern Arkansas; southwestern Wisconsin; Coosa valley, Alabama; northwestern and southwestern Georgia, and Savannah; eastern Tennessee; and Scioto valley, Ohio.
Fig. 247.—Perforator, not stemmed, double pointed.
Fig. 248.—Perforator, not stemmed, rough base.
C. With the base very large in ratio to the point or piercer; sometimes the entire implement is worked smooth or thin, again it is the natural fragment or chip of stone entirely unworked except a point flaked on one part or edge. The piercer varies from one-fourth of an inch to two inches in length. It could have been utilized only as an “awl” or “needle,” the base being held by the thumb and finger. This variable form is represented in [figure 248] (from Lawrence county, Ohio). It comes from Scioto valley; Kanawha valley; western and central North Carolina; northeastern Kentucky; Keokuk, Iowa; southwestern and southeastern Arkansas; eastern Tennessee; and Savannah, Georgia.