CHAPTER XII
CHIPPED IMPLEMENTS
PERFORATORS
These most interesting objects are widespread throughout the United States. Wherever chipped implements abound, they are to be found.
Their classification is:—
1. Cross-section.
(A) Round. (B) Quadrangular or irregular.
(A) Without stem. (All types shown in Fig. 196.) (B) With stem.
(a) Stem expanding gradually. (b) Stem expanding suddenly.
Many objects heretofore called drills are in my opinion hairpins and cloak-fasteners, even in early historic times. Blankets or cloaks draped over the shoulders, and joined together on the chest, had on the edge loops of buckskin. A decorated stick or long bone was run through these loops to hold the covering together. In prehistoric times it is not unlikely that long bone pins and flint so-called drills were used for this purpose. Many of the so-called drills are too irregular in the cross-section to have been of much service in the real drilling. And if one inspects specimens in which the drilling was incomplete, one will be surprised at the percentage of cores in the bottom of the holes. This is especially true in the Mississippi Valley and the South, where wild reeds and canes grow.
I cannot believe that we have satisfactorily explained these drills.