I 



COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 189 



PRECOLUMBIAN MINING AND STONE WORKING IN THE UNITED STATES 



OF AMERICA. 



Collections made by Mr. W. H. Holmes, from seven large mines and quarries, exhib 

 ited by the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. J. W. Powell, 



director. 



This collection was presented after the close of this exhibition to the Spanish 

 Museo Arqueologico by the Bureau of Ethnology. 



Primitive quartzite quarries (suburbs of Washington, District of Columbia) : The 

 aborigines worked this very extensive quarry to procure the rounded quartzite 

 pebbles, of which, when chipped into thin, oval pieces, they made various 

 implements. The excavations extend over many acres, and the residue from the 

 work is considerable. Little was done in the quarry itself, only the formation 

 of the rough blanks, which were carried elsewhere to be worked into implements. 

 There is therefore not much to be found at the site of the quarry except the 

 waste or rejects,&quot; from the work of which remains have been found in all 

 stages of completion, so that we have a complete line of forms, from the natural 

 pebble with one chip removed to the leaf almost finished, which line is repre 

 sented by many broken blades which were left in the quarry. These are 

 exhibited in the lower line. All the leaf-blades which turned out well were carried 

 away. The photographs are correctly labeled and may be studied in detail. 



Remains of chipped pebbles, abandoned at the beginning of the work. 



Remains of blades well advanced in working. Two specimens. There is little 

 difference between them. 



Blades which turned out well, removed from the quarry, but yet similar. Eouud 

 on the sites of villages near the quarries. 



Various implements made of the quarry blades and found on the sites of villages 

 and widely scattered over the country. 



Remains of knives of leaf form abandoned in various stages of completion. 



Blades of quartzite, abandoned on the eve of completion. 



Blades of quartzite, broken on the eve of completion. Section of an ancient 



quarry, with ddbris, C-(X Stratum of stones, B, B. 



Primitive flint quarries (Ohio): The ancient flint w r orks of Licking County, Ohio, 

 are the most noted of the primitive quarries. A very good quality of flint for 

 chipping into blades could be obtained from a thick stratum covered by a high 

 ridge close to Licking River. The ancient pits and ditches are large and numer 

 ous, and cover a little more than a square mile of territory. The work was in 

 nearly the same state as that of other qu arries where similar material was found. 

 Little was shaped on the spot, except the rough outline of the blades, the 

 residuum from which is found in inexhaustible quantities. The series of speci 

 mens illustrates the whole range of the abandoned forms, and by means of the 

 photographs may be learned the nature of the blades which turned out well, 

 and the various forms which were made from them. 



Rejects of blades abandoned at the start, and when half finished. 



Rejects of blades abandoned in an advanced stage of completion. 



Well-finished blades found on sites of villages in the vicinity of the quarries. 



Implements differing from the quarry blades, found on sites of villages dispersed 



widely in the State of Ohio and the neighboring States. 



Primitive novaculite quarries (Arkansas) : These, so far as is known, are the most 

 extensive of all the flint quarries of America. The stone is found in massive 

 strata which form the crests of the mountain chains, and these quarries have 

 been worked by the quarriers for many miles. Many of the pits and trenches 

 are very large, measuring more than 100 feet in length or diameter, and about 

 25 feet in depth. The quantity of broken, loose, and wasted stone abandoned is 

 enormous, and thousands of stone hammers and blocks which were used in 

 working the quarries are found on these sites. The work of shaping did not 



