Fig. 136. (S. 1–2.) Serrated types from California. H. K. Deisher’s collection, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
Fig. 137. (S. 1–2.) This figure shows a series of 39 chipped implements. These were found in various portions of Kentucky, and are in the collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky. Because of the number shown, readers might infer that they are common. Such is not the case. Colonel Young was many years in collecting these specimens and they are selected after an examination of fifteen or twenty thousand chipped objects, if not more. They represent both the skill of the worker and individual fancy.
Fig. 138. (S. 1–2.) Arrow-heads, spear-heads, and a drill, which were found on the Mandan sites, on the banks of the Missouri River, North Dakota, by Mr. Steinbrueck. Material: dark agate. Phillips Academy collection. Presented by Edward H. Williams.
And there are many places in the United States where types that stand for the lifework of a family or of an individual, or let us say of the grandfather, and then the father, and following him the son, may be found. All of this is not opinion merely. To the man who states that all projectile points are alike,—and, surprising as that statement is, I have heard a number make it who should know better,—the spears referred to might seem identical with the yellow chert spears of Illinois. But if one is seriously interested in archæology let him examine an exhibit from a given locality, and I think that he will soon come to the belief that in that locality there lived one or more persons whose specialty was the manufacture of a certain type of implement made in a way that was clearly individual; and the man, or men, who made them were artists beyond question.
Fig. 139. (S. 2–3.) This remarkable problematical form in obsidian was found near Highland Springs, California. The serrations are worked in high relief. Professor Putnam saw the original, and pronounced it genuine, and compared a similar type from a grave near one of the great Maya ruins in Yucatan. Collection of E. E. Baird, Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
Figs. 110 to 134 show groups from various localities in the United States including specimens under various classifications previously described. Attention is called to the central specimen in the upper row of Fig. 110. It is a long, thin, leaf-like blade, slightly notched at one end. Fig. 95 presents several serrated Oregon points; and Fig. 138 shows nine objects from the Mandan village-sites, North Dakota. The Mandan points are nearly all triangular in form with square bases. That is, before being notched or barbed they were stemmed square, or at one end angular, and seldom with convex sides. Then the notches were cut, giving the appearance of a war-point with notches.
A few Mandan objects have concave bases, prominent shoulders, or barbs, but the most of them were of the form shown in the lower specimen in Fig. 138.