508 DEVELOPMENT OF PRIMAL SHAPING ARTS. 



and the act the same. The brittle stone is struck and is broken, pro- 

 ducing perhaps a cutting or piercing tool. A second blow produces 

 a second tool, and also modifies the shape of the stone held in the 

 hand. A two-blow tool has thus been made in shaping one-blow tools. 

 By the time ten tools or flakes have been made the portion held in the 

 hand has been shaped by ten blows not directed to its own development, 

 but shaping it adventitiously as a nucleus or core. The results are so 

 well defined and tangible that they could not escape observation, and 

 further experiment would be encouraged. Skill to accomplish soon 

 follows where wants direct the effort, and tangible results are at once 

 attained. From the initial steps of intentional flaking the way would 

 be always open to the achievement of higher and higher results. 

 Advancement could not, however, be rapid; wants had to develop, 

 conceptions ripen, skill increase, and methods differentiate by infinitesi- 

 mal increments, and the highly specialized flaked implement is pos- 

 sibly as far away from the first designed stroke in flaking stone as the 

 printing press is from the well specialized flaked implement of savage 

 days. 



On the other hand, again, the hard, tough stone fitted for elabora- 

 tion by pecking is struck by the hammer stone, and the only result is 

 a slight crumbling of the surface — a little white dust. There is no sug- 

 gestiveness, no recognizable step of progress in this result, and even 

 if a hundred blows were struck, no measurable progress would be made 

 toward any tangible result, for a definite conception must be in the 

 mind and a clear notion of how to realize it as well before such result 

 would be possible. So far, then, as the pecking process of itself is 

 concerned, it stands little chance of primal utilization as compared with 

 the flaking process. 



But is it possible that a suggestion of the utilization of pecking 

 could come from outside sources, from practice of the simple opera- 

 tions of food preparation? In cracking nuts or pounding seeds (for 

 these must have been among the primal activities), the stones employed 

 would through wear finally exhibit slight concavities. The stones 

 used in the hand would also be modified in shape by striking and rub- 

 bing. Could such suggestions possibly give rise to the independent 

 use of these operations in shaping implements of stone? It is not 

 quite clear that the shaping accomplished in the mere routine of use 

 would suggest to the very simple mind the idea of shaping in the 

 abstract, for the shaping in use was adventitious and not necessarily 

 observed. It seems likely that man would go on indefinitely using 

 what nature and adventition supplied unless there was some positive 

 suggestiveness in the results accomplished or some very exceptional 

 exercise of forethought. Certainly the tedious pounding and abrading 

 processes blindly operated in food preparation would, in primal days, 

 stand little chance of being applied to the shaping of tools and utensils 



