PREHISTORIC ART. 371 



SOLUTREEN EPOCH. 



Tbo art of flint chipping lias never, in prehistoric times, nor among 

 prehistoric or savage peoples, attained a higher degree of excellence 

 than during the Solutrren epoch. There seems to have been an evolu- 

 tion from the rude and heavy Chelleeu implement up to the fine Solu- 

 treen leaf-shaped blades. What time elapsed between the two we have 

 no means of determining; it is to be counted by geologic epochs and 

 not by years or centuries. There was a regular and steady improve- 

 ment in the art of flint chipping, produced, apparently, by continued 

 experiment and practice, the result of which must have been communi- 

 cated or transmitted from father to son, from teacher to student, from 

 master to apprentice, until the ideal flint chipping was attained in the 

 Solutreen leaf-shaped blades (Plate 0). During this 

 epoch the spear-heads of the Mousterien epoch became 

 perfected in form, style, and delicacy of manufacture. 

 They increased in leugth and decreased in thickness, 

 until the standard imi)lement took the shape of a laurel 

 leaf and the name " leaf-shaped," which name has been 

 perpetuated and extended to similar implements 

 throughout all ages and countries. They will be 

 shown in the chapter on America. The leaf-shaped 

 spearhead was not only enlarged to the largest size, n-. lo. 



but it was diminished to the smallest, so as to assimi- eoundended solu- 

 late them with the leaf-shaped arrowheads (Plate 9). ^(!)Tceaper^°"^" 



A further development was wrought by changing cat. no. 99912, u.s.n.m. 

 these implements so as to mi''" 1 shoulder on oue ^^ natural size. 



side (Plate 10), and herein it was probably the ancestor or i.)recursor of 

 the notched or shouldered arrow and spear head which traveled through- 

 out both hemispheres while civilization was yet young, and long before 

 history began. 



The same kind of development was made in the scrapers, by which the 

 scraping edge was changed from the side to the end (fig. 10), aud this 

 round ended scraper has continued through all prehistoric times and 

 among almost all savages in historic times who have used any such kind 

 of implement. Practically the same utensil has been seen in the hands 

 of untaught savages by men still living. The stone scra^ier of the 

 Eskimos, used until the advent of the Russian on their shores, was not 

 different inform, appearance, or mauufacture, and probably not in use, 

 from that which began in this epoch. The same utensil was prevalent 

 amoug North American Indians as it was among all savages who used 

 skins for dress or tent covering, and so had need to use the scraper. 

 The teshoa^ so named by Dr. Leidy, and used by the Indians on the east- 

 ern slope of the Rocky IMountains, is the i)rincipal, ii' not the only, 

 exception. This was simply a round or oval spawl struck from a smooth 

 quartzite or other hard bowlder, the scraping edge of the spawl making 

 the edge of the tool. The United States National Museum possesses 

 specimens of it. (Cat. Nos. 170602, 170667, and 11540, U.S.N.M.) 



