PREHISTORIC ART. 



441 



f^^ 



pressure instead of being struck off; the edges of tbe implement are 

 made regular, the surface reduced to a level, and the entire object is 

 made ready for polishing. 



Another method, different, but similar, was employed with the non- 

 chipable materials; that is, hammering or jjecking {marielage). The 

 same stone hammer was used, and by repeated strokes in the same 

 place the refractory substance is gradually reduced 

 by abrasion to the desired form. 



The implement having been reduced, approxi- 

 mately, to the desired form by either of the fore- 

 going methods, the next step required a grinding or 

 polishing stone. These grinding stones are found 

 wherever the polished-stone culture existed. They 

 are numerous in France and England. The National 

 Museum possesses specimens from Massachusetts 

 and from Tennessee. Fig. 97, represents one of these 

 grinding stones from the bank of the Hiawassee 

 Kiver, 15 miles east of Charleston, Polk County, 

 Tennessee. It was found by 

 Mr. N. G. Baxter, and pre- 

 sented by him (through Mr. 

 Edward Palmer) to theUnited 

 States National Museum in 

 1882. It was reduced from a 

 much larger piece, believed to 

 have been solid, in order to be transported to the 

 Museum: its present surface measurement is 22 

 by 14 inches. There are three grooves shown, all 

 made by the grinding process. The largest and 

 princii)al of these is 17 inches long, 5 inches wide, 

 and 1^ inches deep, evidently made by rnbbing the 

 fiat side of the hatchet thereon. One of the small- 

 er grooves is deeper and narrower, and has doubt- 

 less served for the corners, edges, or ends of the 

 hatchet. This grinding stone was the principal 

 object or tool of the prehistoric workshop wherein 

 it was f(mnd, for around it were collected no less 

 than forty chipi)cd and pecked implements ready 

 tobe, or in the process of being, polished. The cliiitpi^l stone implement 

 (fig. 96) is laid upon the grinding stone (fig. 97) and rubbed back and forth 

 until ground smooth. Water might be used with it, but it should make 

 its own sand. Fig. 98 represents the implement partially smoothed, the 

 ridges rubbed off, and approaching completion. Fig. 99 represents the 

 completed implement, it having been smoothed over its entire surface, 

 save possibly some iusigiiiiicant ])laces where the fractures of chipping 

 were too deep to be easily ground out. 



Fig. 95. 



HATCHET OF FLINT RUDELY 

 CHIPPED, FIRST STAGE, 

 OF MANUFACTURE. 

 Cat. No. 99916, U.S.N.M. 

 J«i natural size. 



HATCHET OF FLINT FINELY 

 CHIPPED, SECOND STAGE, 

 READY FOR GRINDING. 



Cat. No. 119915, U.S.N.M. 

 k natural size. 



