898 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



for use as a spear, arrow, knife, or dagger, can be determined positively 

 only by tbe liandle itself, of whicb, unfortunately, no traces were found. 



Fig. 94. 



LEAF-Sn.\PF.l> IMPLEMENT, POINTED AT BOTH ENDS, TWO NOTCHES NEAR BASE FOR FASTENINCJ HANDLE. 



Gilmer Cotmty, Georgia. 

 Division I, Class A. OxlJxJ. 



Cat. No. 9S0i>8, U.S.N. M. 



It may be useless to speculate on these different uses, but tbe circum- 

 stances seem to point toward its use as a knife or dagger. 

 Tbe danger of fracture of sucb long, thin flint implements, so easily 

 broken by tbe shock which would be inevitable in 

 their employment as spears, appears so much against 

 that employment that the author prefers to believe 

 them to have been knives or daggers. Held in the 

 hand, they would give the maximum of service with 

 the minimum of danger from breakage. 



Fig. 95 is another of the same type as fig. 04, in that 

 it is a leaf-shaped, Class A, spear point and has the 

 two notches near the base as if for ligatures, which is 

 equally pronounced evidence of it having been in- 

 tended for a knife or dagger. It is 2 inches wide 

 and but five- sixteenths of an inch thick, so that it 

 would be too fragile for a spearhead. Its edges are 

 convex for the principal portion of the blade, but 

 near the point they become concave, making the edge 

 for the entire length a combination of concave and 

 convex — an ogee. This has the effect of sharpening 

 the point and giving it a needle form. This needle 

 form is extremely rare, this being tlie only specimen 

 remarked in the U. S. National Museum. The notch 

 ill the edges of a leaf-shaped implement pointed at 

 both ends (Glass A) is almost equally rare, as the 

 two specimens here shown are the only ones we 

 have. They are introduced not so much because 

 of the rarity of their form as that it may assist in 

 deciding the ultimate destination of the class of leaf-shaped imple- 

 ments to which they belong and which has never been satisfiictorily 

 determined. These specimens are from the eastern or middle United 

 States and so have no relation with the long, thin blades from the 

 Pacific coast. 



Fig. 95. 



LEAF-SHAPED IMPLE- 

 MENT OF GRAY HORN- 

 STONE, POINTED AT 

 BOTH ENDS. 



Belleville, St. Clair 



County, Illinois. 



Division I, Class A. 



5x2xx'!5- 



Cat. No. 32315, U.S.N.M. 



