CONCLUSIONS AS TO CELTS, ADZES, GOUGES AND AXES
The distribution of axes in the United States is not equal to that of chipped implements. Axes occur in certain sections of the country where other types of prehistoric objects are wanting, are most numerous where the problematical forms occur frequently, and are more or less individualistic, and one can frequently differentiate the Eastern from the Southern or the Northern from the Western type. There are practically no stone axes in Florida, and few along the seaboard from Florida to Texas. Almost none are found in Texas, and northward from Texas until southern Iowa is reached axes are almost wanting. On the Great Plains of Kansas and Nebraska, where chipped implements are to be found, axes are rare. In the cave region of the Ozarks, which, by the way, is an anomaly in archæology, there are no stone axes, only two having been found in the entire region; whereas, according to percentages elsewhere, there should be several hundred, if not nearly one thousand. On some village-sites in this country numbers of axes have been found; whereas, on other village-sites there are no axes. This is significant, and along with other similar facts of interest should be noted.
In addition to the places already cited where axes are rare, it is strange that a dearth of them exists on the head waters of the Columbia, Missouri, and Colorado. They are very rare on the Pacific Coast, and axes from California, Oregon, and Washington should be considered as strays.
Fig. 284. (S. 2–3.) H. M. Braun’s collection.
Thus our distribution of axes narrows to the whole Mississippi Valley, the Delaware and Susquehanna, the eastern South, New England, eastern and central Canada, and the Cliff-Dweller country. We have already seen where adzes and gouges occur. The chisel-like form of celt is limited to the central Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley, with a few in the Hudson, Susquehanna, and St. Lawrence regions.
Many of these types are more or less alike, and yet one may suggest that they represent different tribes if not different cultures.
A statement was made that axes occur most numerously where the problematical forms are to be found. This statement is true and significant.
Again, axes do not occur where there is an abundance of material suitable for the making of axes, such as in the Ozarks, California, and throughout the Rocky Mountains. I have commented elsewhere on the lack of axes in graves and mounds, although they are frequently found in cliff-houses. But this does not necessarily mean that the Cliff-Dwellers place them with their dead. They are found in cliff-houses along with other objects for the simple reason that the Cliff-Dwellers lived in these places.
