COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



125 



Copper implements (fig. 61). The North American Indians, at the time of the discov 

 ery of the continent, were in the Neolithic period of civilization, and their stone 

 implements were, for the most part, polished. It is commonly believed that they 

 had no knowledge of bronze. Virgin copper was found in divers portions of 

 the United States, chiefly in Lake Superior. The Indians treated it as a malle 

 able stone and hammered it into implements and ornaments. The consensus of 

 opinion is that the Indians could not, at the time of the discovery, smelt or cast 

 metal, though this has been doubted. The Conquistadores saw ornaments and 

 objects of copper in the hands of the natives, and had great disappointment 

 that it was not gold. Mr. Frederick S. Perkins, of Wisconsin, sent to the 

 Exposition at Madrid a collection of prehistoric copper implements and objects, 

 collected principally within the State of Wisconsin. Some were found in mounds 

 or burial places, but others were turned up by the plow. The distribution of 

 copper objects is general throughout the valleys of the Mississippi River and its 

 tributaries, with extensions toward the Atlantic Coast. The common objects 

 are axes, hatchets, hammers, knives, drills, gravers, spear and arrow heads, brace 

 lets, disks, gorgets, tubes, beads, plates. Some have been perforated and others 

 elaborately ornamented with figures made, sometimes by puncture, other times 

 repousse. 



161 



161. syenite, Santa Cr 

 Ohio ; 1/0, greenstone, B 



Fig. 46. 

 PESTLES AND HAMMERS. 



ml, California; 162, sandstone, Dos Pueblos, Californi 



North American sculptures (fig. 62) . The aborigines of the United States were appar 

 ently possessed of a great penchant to represent the human face or form in stone. 

 They were made both in hard and in soft rock. The implement which probably 

 did the most service was the hammer, and the operation performed by attrition 

 or pecking. The sculpture was in some specimens afterwards smoothed and 

 polished. Whether these sculptures were used as idols, for decoration or orna 

 ment, or as totems, has never been satisfactorily determined. They are distributed 

 throughout the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. 



The stone collars of Porto Rico are puzzles to the archaeologist. No suggestion as 

 to their use has proved acceptable. They are thus named because of their resem 

 blance to the modern object of horse furniture. Some are in a rude state, indi 

 cating a rude stage of manufacture. The finished specimens are &quot;right and left 

 shouldered,&quot; as though to be used in pairs. Nearly all are decorated. The National 

 Museum possesses the largest and finest collection known. Five specimens. 



