Fig. 212. (S. 2–3.) Collection of W. P. Agee, Hope, Arkansas.
Figs. 209, 210, and 211 present eighteen hammers from various portions of the United States.
The pitted stone, the round hammer-stone, and the other rude grooved hammer are tools, as we have seen; but the more carefully worked grooved hammer served a different purpose. On the Plains large hammers were frequently made and used by Indian tribes that subsisted on the buffalo, as it would be impossible to break the larger bones of that animal with ordinary hand-hammers.
Some of the hammers have flat backs, as have axes, and wedges could be inserted for securely fastening them to the handle. As has been previously stated, primitive man was economical, and when he broke an axe he could make the edge round and use it as a hammer. The finer grooved hammers (Fig. 212) were undoubtedly used as weapons and lashed in sticks to serve as clubs or maces, the handles being more or less ornamental. Much is to be learned from a study of the hammer-stone and the grooved hammer, and I agree with Mr. McGuire’s statement, “the hammer is homely at best, yet the hammer tells us more of ancient times than does the celt.”
Mr. Charles E. Brown, the able archæologist, says of these grooved hammers:—
“They closely resemble grooved stone axes in shape, but have blunt edges. Examples are to be seen in all of the larger Wisconsin collections. Several specimens are ornamented with flutings.
“Mauls and club-heads were made of pebbles or small boulders and have a groove about their middles. The smaller are said to have been used as club-heads. Some are very rude, and others smoothed or polished. Specimens are found in most parts of the state. They are most numerous in northwestern Wisconsin and along Lake Superior, where they were employed as weapons in the early struggles between the Chippewa and Dakotas. From the Lake Superior aboriginal copper mining-pits hundreds of stone mauls have been recovered.
“A rare type of stone club-head has two grooves. A few specimens have a ridge on either side of the groove. Another unusual form has intersecting grooves.
“Specimens of these hand-hammers or hammer-stones have been found on every Indian village-site in the state. They show every stage of work, from the ordinary pebble with its surface scarcely altered to those dressed into convenient shape and provided with grips or hand-holds.
“Good series of these spherical stones or stone balls, from the size of a marble to that of an orange, are in all of the larger public and private collections. They are found on Indian village- and camp-sites, and occasionally in mounds.”