CnArTKU IV 

 BATTHHKl) AM> ABRADED STONE IMPLEMENTS 



GENERAL PROCESSES OF MANUFACTURE 



The term pecked iiiii>lemeiits is used to desijiiiate such articles as 

 owe certain of their more niaiked cliaracteristics of I'oriii to tlie hat- 

 teriug processes of bruising and crushing by successive blows — the 

 bushing or bush-hammering of modern stone workers. The aboriginal 

 stone worker jHoduced tliis effect largely by means of pecking the 

 object undergoing manufacture lightly with a suitable stone tool. The 

 process is a tedious one, and especially so in the hands of a novice, but 

 the skilled operator with proper stone and suitable tools soon defines 

 a groove or removes an excrescence. 



The battering processes do not generally stand alone, but are asso- 

 ciated to greater or less extent with (1) flaking, whicli, when employed, 

 precedes the i)ecking, and (2) grinding and rubbing which follow it. 

 Percussive drilling of hard stone is a variety of battering, and rotary 

 drilling and sawing go with the auxiliary process of grindiiig. Imple- 

 ments shaped largely by battering are so often finished by abrasion 

 that the term "polished stone implements'' is often applied to the entire 

 group, but as I desire to deal here mainly with the more decidedly 

 dynamic shaping agencies, abrading will not be referred to save as an 

 auxiliary process. 



All, or nearly all, primitive peoples with whom we are acquainted 

 understand and practice the art of shaping stone by battering and its 

 auxiliary processes, Archeologists have reached the conclusion, from 

 a study of certain groups of prehistoric remains, that the battering- 

 abrading operations belong to a somewhat advanced stage of human 

 progress, and that their employment was preceded by a period in which 

 fracturing processes alone were practically used. Tliis is probably in 

 a broad way true of the race, and is certainly true of many peoples or 

 nations. The reason for this order must be sought in (1) the nature 

 of the operations involved, (li) in the materials available to primitive 

 artisans, and (.''!) in the capacities and needs of men. 



Of the four leading shaping acts, which may be designated as frac- 

 turing, battering, abrading, and incising, it may be hard to say which 

 is the most elemental. However, the ease with wliich, or the order in 

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