PREHISTORIC ART. 



423 



its successful operation required a manual dexterity obtainable onlj- by 

 long- practice. It is sufficiently difficult of performance to be ranked 

 among the finer arts. After the preparation of the nodules of flint, so 

 that the blade can be made a sufficient length, with edges smooth and 

 sharp, the upper or top part of the core is struck with the stone ham- 

 mer (figs. 78a and 78&) so exact and precise as to the proper point and 

 so delicately gauged as to force, that a single blow Icnocks off the blade 

 its entire length. There can be no second trial 5 it is success or failure 

 at the first stroke. Plate 22 represents another of these cores and 

 flakes. The United States National Museum possesses many more of 

 the same kind from the same locality. Anyone who doubts flint chip- 

 ping being a fine art has but to attempt the operation. He will soon 

 discover that it requires a degree of knowledge and manual dexterity 

 which can be obtained only after many trials. In this it can be favor- 



rig. 



HAMMERSTONES. 



(a) White jaspery flint, Ohio. 



Cat. No. 1-31!, U.S.N. M. ^ natural size. 



(6) Quartzite, pittefl, New York. 



C.it. No. C60i?, U.S.N. M. Ji natural sizi'. 



ably compared to the art of handling the pencil in drawing, the brush 

 in painting, or the chisel in sculpture. It re(]uires even a higher 

 degree of manipulation than either of these. It involves a combina- 

 tion of intellectual understanding derived from a teacher, and a man- 

 ual dexterity of the hand obtained only by long practice. 



The Paleolithic period showed the origin, the very beginning, of 

 art so far as can be determined from our present knowledge of man. 

 The different manifestations of art in the succeeding, the Neolithic, 

 period opens anew the discussion of its origin. A hiatus has been 

 declared between the culture of the two periods, and the differences 

 just described are supposed to represent the renaissance of art in 

 the Neolithic period. Western Europe may have been the cradle of 

 art for the world. The fine art of the Paleolithic period originated 

 there. In the passage to the Neolithic period some branches died 

 out or were lost; new ones were employed, whether invented or 



