ART. 9. HISTORY OF INVENTIONS HOUGH. 45 



to the modeling of pastic materials, the shaping of metal or the 

 carving of wood, bone, ivory, or other hard substances. The history 

 of this art, briefly epitomized here, constitutes a most important 

 chapter in the record of human progress, for its products tell an 

 eloquent story of technical development and at the same time preserve 

 invaluable records of the history of religion, esthetics, and general 

 culture. It is observed that with very primitive peoples the shaped 

 forms are implements and utensils merely, but that with advancing 

 culture life forms, generally as symbols, gradually appear, and that 

 in civilization realistic and ideal phases are prevalent. 



A striking illustration of the condition of the art among primitive 

 races is found in the work of the prehistoric peoples of central, 

 northern, and western Europe. Examples of this work are shown 

 in series 1. This phase of sculptural development is duplicated in 

 the more primitive stages of our native American work (series 2, 

 Nos. 1 to 6), but many of the American tribes had advanced far 

 beyond this, and, as seen in the continuation of series 2, had acquired 

 very considerable skill and taste in the treatment of life forms. 

 Series 3 illustrates the tools and utensils employed in the art. 



riKST STEPS IN SCULPTUEE. 



Plate 50. 



Indian -flint flakers. — Primitive peoples shape stones by four pro- 

 cesses — flaking, pecking, abrading, and cutting. Fracture processes 

 were probably first to come into general use. Splinters or flakes 

 produced by striking one brittle stone against another become useful 

 as arrowheads, knives, perforators, and scrapers. Skillful flaking 

 enables the worlonan to shape implements with great neatness. 

 Larger implements were made by flaking an entire stone, thus re- 

 ducing it to the form of a blade. The most remarkable work of this 

 class known is that observed in a variety of large flint knife found 

 occasionally in ancient Egyptian tombs. 



The figures here shown represent Powhatan Indians, of Virginia, 

 engaged in shaping rude implements from quartzite bowlders. The 

 scene is laid in the ancient quarries on Piney Branch, near Sixteenth 

 Street, in Washington City, where vast numbers of implements were 

 made by the aboriginal occupants of this part of the Potomac Valley. 



SERIES 1. — EUKOPEAN SCXn^PTUEE. 



Plate 51. 



No. 1. Simplest forms of shaped stone ; paleolithic implements ; England. 



Process: Flaking with stone hammers 172,644 



No. 2. Simple flakes used as tools ; also cores from which they are struck. 



Europe 99,881, 99,908 



3136— 22— Proc.N.M.Vol.60 24 



