50G DEVELOPMENT OF PRIMAL SHAPING ARTS. 



.sharp or incisive .stones would l)e deniiinded for euttino-, piercing, 

 diogino-, serapinj>-, and the like. The .same statement may ])e made 

 with respe(;t to the stone tools applicable to purposes of defense and 

 otfen.se, and availa})le in activities pertaining to shelter, clothing, and 

 transportation. 



These two general classes of stone implements fultilled, so far as 

 stone could fulfill them, all the requi*rements of man's existence in 

 primal days; and if the question were limited to that of the relative 

 need of blunt and sharp stones in the practice of the arts, we should 

 be compelled to say that no distinction could be made, that one class 

 could not claim precedence over the other in u.sefulne.ss or in period 

 of utilizatif)n. 



A QUESTION OF SUPPLYING WANTS NOT C^THERWISK SUPPLIED. 



But it should be most carefully noted that the question is not one as 

 to the comparative usefulness of these forms of implements, or even 

 of the period of their adoption, but of their production as works of 

 art. Which form would man first be induced to shape for himself, 

 thus adding a group of artificial utensils to his simple list of adapted 

 appliances? If, as seems to ])e the case, both classes of tools, the 

 blunt and the sharp, are equally essential to man, the question becomes 

 one of natural supply. If nature furnished all that was retjuired in 

 the way of tools, art would not be called on to produce them. If 

 nature supplied one cla.ss meagerly and the other abundantl}-, the 

 meager class w^ould l>e added to by artificial means. Now if we review 

 the various regions of the world that could have served as the abiding 

 place of auroral man, we lind that the rounded stone — the breaking, 

 bruising, grinding stone — is nearly everywhere more readily obtain- 

 al)le than the cutting, piercing stone. The former, being ready at 

 hand, would l)e at first most freely utilized and for a long time util- 

 ized in the natural state, while the latter, ])eing also known and used, 

 yet comparatively rai'e, would be artiticially produced as .soon as the 

 capacity to do so was developed. 



The aititicial sharp stone, the intentionally shaped sharp stone, 

 would thus naturally have precedence as an art form over the intention- 

 ally shaped rounded stone. It would probably be the first represen- 

 tative ol" the shaping art in stone to come into general use. But there 

 are other points to ))e considered. 



OPERATION OF THE PRIMAL SHAPING ACTS. 



Iiicip'tent ,'<tagt'S. — We must now look more fully into the operation 

 of the four elementary stone-shaping acts — into the beginnings of the 

 arts to which they give rise. It is important to note that the act, the 

 essential element of the process, is not necessarily an index of the 

 simplicity or ease of its utilization. The ease of the first step in a long 



1 



