Fig. 698. (S. 1–2.) Hematite cones. Collection of Henry M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Missouri. From Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas.
Hematite objects do not seem to have served as tools—save perhaps as celts and axes—but on the contrary they are of the problematical class. The bright color of the stone and its peculiar properties doubtless appealed to stone-age man. The fact that hematite celts are found in graves and mounds and also hematite plummets, whereas ordinary stone axes are seldom, if ever, found in mounds or graves, would strengthen the hypothesis that objects made of this peculiar stone were considered apart from the ordinary run of artifacts.
Fig. 699. (S. 1–2.) Hematite plummets, grooved in the centre. Collection of Henry M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Missouri.
Fig. 700. (S. 1–2.) These objects are also from the Andover collection and show the various types of plummets. In the centre is a fine plummet of steel gray hematite, very hard. Beneath it, a hematite a trifle softer in which there are some flaws. At the top, an unfinished hematite pecked and ground into shape, but not polished or grooved. On either side of the centre, ruder hematite plummets, and at the top, to the left, a grooved hematite object, the groove extending around the longest periphery of the object. To the right is a small plummet, grooved in the centre.
Fig. 701. (S. 1–1.) This ornament is made of hematite. It is remarkable in that both ends are decorated by notches. On the upper end there are eleven notches or incised lines; on the lower or broad end there are fourteen lines. This specimen is not a type but an anomaly. It is of heavy, pure hematite and not of stone discolored by iron oxide as are many of the ornaments. It was extremely difficult to work because of the density and hardness of the material. Aside from these facts this form is peculiar. The edges are slightly beveled. The specimen shows unmistakable evidence of antiquity because of the patina, and the cuttings (striæ) are irregular and have been made with flint and not with steel. Ross County, Ohio. Andover collection.
The reduction of the harder hematites to symmetrical plummets and cones must have been a severe task for workmen possessed of no metallic tools. Truly the ancient artisan who had the patience to cut and grind gray hematite (the hardest of all) “worked at his task with a resolute will.” It must be remembered that there are not a few but hundreds of these hematite problematical forms worked from most refractory iron ore.