Fig. 372.
VIEW SHOWING BOTH ENDS OF A BOBBIN(?) OF FINE-GRAINED SANDSTONE.
Maysville, Kentucky. Cat. No. 16747, U. S. N. M.
Figs. [373] and [374] illustrate textile fabrics in the Bronze Age. Both specimens are from Denmark, and the National Museum possesses another specimen (Cat. No. 136615) in all respects similar. While prehistoric looms may not have been found in Europe to be compared with the looms of modern savages in America, yet these specimens of cloth, with the hundreds of others found in the Swiss lake dwellings, afford the most indubitable proof of the use of the looms in both countries during prehistoric times.
Complementary to this, textile fabrics have been found in America, from the Pueblo country of Utah and Colorado, south through Mexico, Central and South America, and of necessity the looms with which they were made were there also. It is not meant to be said that the looms of the two hemispheres have been found, or that they or the textile fabrics are identical. The prehistoric looms have not been found in Europe, and those in America may have been affected by contact with the white man. Nor is it meant to be said that the textile fabrics of the two hemispheres are alike in thread, stitch, or pattern. But these at best are only details. The great fact remains that the prehistoric man of the two hemispheres had the knowledge to spin fiber into thread, to wind it on bobbins, and to weave it into fabrics; and whatever differences there may have been in pattern, thread, or cloth, they were finally and substantially the same art, and so are likely to have been the product of the same invention.
While it is not the intention to continue this examination among the prehistoric objects of the two hemispheres in order to show their similarity and thus prove migration, contact, or communication, yet it may be well to mention some of them, leaving the argument or proof to a future occasion.
The polished stone hatchets of the two hemispheres are substantially the same. There are differences of material, of course, for in each country the workman was obliged to use such material as was obtainable. There are differences in form between the polished stone hatchets of the two hemispheres, but so there are differences between different localities in the same hemisphere. Some hatchets are long, others short, some round, others flat, some have a pointed end, others a square or nearly square or unfinished end; some are large, others small. But all these differences are to be found equally well pronounced within each hemisphere.
Fig. 373.
WOMAN’S WOOLEN DRESS
FOUND IN AN OAK COFFIN
AT BORUM-ESHOI, DENMARK.
Bronze Age. Report of the
Smithsonian Institution
(U. S. National Museum),
1892, pl. CI, fig 2.
Scrapers have also been found in both hemispheres and in all ages. There are the same differences in material, form, and appearance as in the polished stone hatchet. There is one difference to be mentioned of this utensil—i. e., in America the scraper has been sometimes made with a stem and with notches near the base, after the manner of arrow- and spear-heads, evidently intended to aid, as in the arrow- and spear-head, in fastening the tool in its handle. This peculiarity is not found in Europe, or, if found, is extremely rare. It is considered that this may have been caused by the use of a broken arrow- or spear-head, which seems not to have been done in Europe. But this is still only a difference in detail, a difference slight and insignificant, one which occurs seldom and apparently growing out of peculiar and fortuitous conditions.