(A) Continuous with body or neck. (B) Not continuous with body or neck.

(a) With constant direction. (b) With varying direction. (c) With reëntry upon vessel.

Here ends the Committee’s Classification, but there should be added, I feel convinced, articles in bone, shell, copper, hematite, mica, and cannel coal. Copper has been classified by Mr. Charles E. Brown, while I have grouped bone, shell, and hematite.

CHAPTER III
THE CLASSIFICATION

QUARRYING MATERIALS

We have seen that Professor Mason dealt with occupations rather than implements,[[2]] and did not attempt a classification of artifacts.

The result of the Committee’s investigation was to the effect that we should classify objects as to form and material, not taking into account possible use in our grouping. It was supposed that whoever made use of the classification would present his own interpretation of the meaning of these various forms.

The classification was intended merely as a skeleton on which future classifications were to be built. It must be understood that the expansion of this classification and the changes found necessary and presented here in “The Stone Age” are submitted on my own responsibility. The classifications in axes, celts, copper, bone and shell, mortars and pestles, etc., were made by me because the Committee did not present grouping of these forms; all of which is no reflection on the Committee. It is simply that as no classification of these other things existed, it was necessary to make one.

In describing ancient art there is another method of classification—according to locality. But in any work as large as “The Stone Age,” the adoption of such classification necessitates more or less repetition, and I think it better to describe under a given chapter all the implements of one kind no matter where found in the United States than to treat of geographical distributions. I consider this method less cumbersome and more satisfactory than the separate treatment of all the localities. So far as possible all illustrations are confined to prehistoric objects.

No illustrations—save one or two—of axes in handles, wooden objects or ancient bows are offered. Readers are referred to the museums for such exhibits. To show such, would swell the volumes to unwieldy proportions, and “The Stone Age” already contains more figures than were originally intended.