880 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



ranges, thougli by commerce specimens have traveled great distances. 

 Prof. W. K. Moorehead found about a thousand hirge and well- 

 wrought obsidian spearheads and arrowpoints in the great mound on 

 Hopewell farm,' Ross County, Ohio, which he has cited in The Anti- 

 (juarian.^ 



The specimens shown in Plate 25, figs. 1 to 4, are cores of great size 

 and beauty. The tlakes have never been replaced as in the case of the 

 Brandon core just shown, but one can easily see that the mode of manu- 

 facture was the same. They were struck off by a blow, and the con- 

 choid of percussion is always to be seen on both the flake and the core. 

 The arrowpoints and spearheads, leaf-shaped and stemmed, are samples 

 of those of obsidian from the Pacific coast. Their chipping shows 

 delicate workmanship. 



HAMMKESTONES. 



Fig. 66.— White jaspery flint. Fig. 67.— Quartzite pitted. 



Ohio. Kew York. 



Cat. No. 1"3U, U.S.N. M. Ji natural size. Cat. No. 6602, U S.N. M. )^ natural size. 



The principal tool used by preliistoric man was the stone hammer 

 (tig. 6G-7). Thousands of these have beeu found, and their distribu- 

 tion extends over nearly the entire prehistoric world. They were hard, 

 so as to stand the blows without breaking. Any sort of stone which 

 l)08sessed the requisite condition of hardness and was of suitable size 

 would serve the purpose. Bowlders of quartzite were not infrequently 

 used and the periphery or prominent ends or corners frequently show 

 the battered or pecked surface, the evidence of use. Many of these 

 quartzite bowlders have a cup marking on the one or the other of the 

 flattened sides, the precise purposes of which have never been sat- 

 isfactorily determined. It lias been contended by some that they were 

 indentations for the thumb and fingers, to assist in holding the hammer 

 in the hand, but this theory has not been a(;cepted. 



'Clark's Work; Squier and Davis, .Sinithsoiiiau Contributions to Knowledge, 

 No. 1, !>. 26, pi. -x. 

 ^October, 18U7, p. 255, fig. xlvii; November, 18t>7, p. 291, tigs. 1, liv, Iv. 



