The stone age in North America, vol. 1 of 2

by Warren K. Moorehead

The average tablet, a flat gorget, must have been made from a piece of slate or water-worn shale. It is not to be supposed that the native would put himself to the trouble and inconvenience of reducing a block of slate larger than the required size. Large fragments of slate, shale, granite, and blooded quartz he did make into winged objects. Manifestly, he could not make a winged object out of a thin, flat stone (such as our Committee have classified under “laminae”). The flat tablets, gorgets and pendants are more numerous than the winged objects, for the reason that they are easy to make. Inspection of the specimens illustrated in this chapter will prove the point I make that many of these objects required little work, save in shaping the edges. Man cut or ground the edges until they were concave or convex or angular to suit his fancy.

Fig. 331. (S. 1–1.) Andover collection. These are presented to show the use of the reed drill. Unfortunately, the camera does not show the perforations and the central cores as it should. What appears to be a rim in each specimen is the dark circular depression about the core left by the reed drill.

Most of these tablets were ground out, or the stone was nice and smooth, so no grinding was necessary save on the edges. The tablet was then ready for perforation, and he perforated it and rubbed and polished it until the scratches had disappeared. In the case of the winged stones much more care was necessary. The crescents and the ridged stones being thicker were not as easily broken, and we find fewer broken specimens among them than of the winged class. There were more broken “butterfly” or winged stones than of any other class. Because of the thin wings it was necessary for him to work very carefully, and probably to place one half of the specimen on a raised surface covered with buckskin or hide and to rub that until he was ready to turn the specimen and work on the other wing. At best the process was a long and laborious one, as the many unfinished objects of this character attest.

Fig. 332. (S. 1–1.) Andover collection. Short winged object, showing that perforation was made by means of a reed drill, the core remaining in the hole. Reed drills were made use of in many of the larger and problematical forms. Another example of reed drilling is shown in Fig. 331.

A study of the unfinished winged objects in the Andover collection furnishes one with a great deal of information. When I said that we had a hundred unfinished winged problematical forms, I meant of those with exaggerated wings, those in which the wings are the prominent feature. Of all classes, unfinished objects of all the types shown in the outlines (Fig. 292), we have over one thousand.

The larger objects in this series indicate that, after being quarried, or, if not quarried, after the blocks were chipped or hammered, the process of pecking followed next. Then grinding, scratching, or cutting. Last of all came rubbing with softer materials and polishing. Another thing that we proved was that most of these winged objects were drilled with a reed drill. Illustrations of the core remaining in the centre of the perforation are shown in Figs. 331 and 332. It is also apparent that the specimens were not drilled until they were nearly completed. A specimen is worked down until quite thin before the drilling is undertaken. Apparently, the pecking has been ended, most of the grinding done, and the fine grinding and polishing remain to be completed after the specimen is drilled.

Mr. Paul S. Tooker of Westfield, New Jersey, sent me a hundred and fifty New Jersey specimens for study and description in “The Stone Age.” Of these, sixteen represent the problematical-ceremonial class. Unfortunately, they came too late to be illustrated in “The Stone Age.”

I was pleased to observe in the collection a gorget of pink, hard sandstone, curiously mottled, being on one side pink, and on the other variegated with yellow and green bands. Apparently this stone was considered unusual by the Indians. They had drawn five wigwams near one end, and a snowshoe and other objects at the other end and in the centre. There are four notches on each side, made V-shaped, and six in each end.