Fig. 18—Flint Drills and Perforators.
For drilling wood, stone, bone, and other materials, primitive man made and used Flint implements of the types shown in this picture. Flint Drills such as these are abundant in village sites and on the surface of the ground where their makers lived. Two different kinds of perforators are shown here. The one to the left is made with an expanded base so that when drilling a hole through hard material, such as wood or a thick piece of leather, the tool could be turned easily by the hand. The other specimen, to the right, “A,” was probably used like an ordinary punch of today, with a twisting motion. Flint is a very hard stone and with such Drills as the one on the left, holes were made in softer stones like granite and slate.
In “B” is shown the manner in which Flint points of this type were mounted on a shaft and made into a mechanical drill by twining a bow-string once around the shaft and drawing the bow back and forth.
Fig. 19—Flint Arrow and Spear Points.
Most useful of all Flint implements were the “Points” or “Heads” of Flint, as shown above. The only difference between an Arrowhead (A) and a Spearhead (B) is that of size. Those more than three inches long are usually called Spearheads.
With Arrows and Spears tipped with Flint Points, the primitive hunter was able to “bag” an abundance of game. Flint Points like these are probably the most numerous of the relics left by the prehistoric inhabitants of America. They are found by the hundreds of thousands in all parts of the country, on the surface, in mounds and graves, and in places where the Indians had their villages.
Shot from strong bows, these Flint Points had great penetrating power. Arrowheads have been found imbedded in the bones of large animals and human beings in such positions as to show that they passed through almost the entire thickness of the body before being brought to a stop.