Fig. 58. (S. 1–2.) A beautiful knife from a grave near Sebago, Maine. Material: porphyry, finely chipped. A. E. Marks’s collection.
Fig. 59. (S. 2–3.) A beautiful knife of quartzite from near Albany, Georgia. H. F. McIntosh’s collection.
“In most cases the shaping operations carried on in the quarry can be followed out with reasonable certainty. On all sites where the raw material was extensively worked, series of forms can be secured illustrating every stage of the morphology. These series begin with the amorphous mass or natural shape, and pass through a succession of modifications, ending in the rude blade or blank. The making and collecting of flakes and fragments to be carried away in an unshaped condition, although undoubtedly carried on in all quarries and upon sites of other sources of raw material, leave little or no refuse that can be studied to advantage.
“Large masses in quarries or on simple shop-sites were reduced by means of rude hammers with or without halting. Fire was often employed as an auxiliary in this work. Approximate masses were reduced to more definite shapes by a succession of free-hand blows. The first step in the shaping of an implement from a boulder is illustrated in Fig. 14. In this work the free-hand blow is employed for the reason that no other method would be efficacious. Fig. 23 illustrates the position in which the partially shaped mass must be held after its margins have become too sharp to be split by a blow directly upon the edge.
“When the incipient implement became too attenuated or fragile to withstand the blows necessary to flaking without imminent danger of breaking, other methods had to be employed. The statement has been made by some writers that arrow-points are produced by simple percussion, the hammers being reduced in size to correspond with the increasing fragility of the object worked. This process, however, must be exceptional.
“Instances are recorded in which indirect percussion—that is, the use of a mallet and punch—was employed in removing flakes intended to be shaped by pressure. Two varieties of indirect percussion are illustrated in Figs. 28 and 29. The first is practiced by the Wintuns of California and other tribes. The drawing is made from a very careful description by B. B. Redding. The second is derived from the observations of George Catlin. According to Catlin, the point is sometimes carried to a finish by the indirect stroke, two persons being employed in the operation, as shown in Fig. 29. As a rule, however, the method of manipulation was changed at the proper stage from percussion to pressure.
Fig. 60. (S. 1–2.) A ceremonial flint knife in original handle from the northwest coast. Material: reddish flint. Found by “a whaler” many years ago and now in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.