Chapter V 

 IXCISED OR CUT STONE UTENSILS 



SCOPE OF THE TOPIC 



This chapter is made to inolude two distinct yet necessarily associated 

 groups of phenomena: 1, all that relates to the origin, manufacture, 

 nature, use, and historic significance of utensils shaped by the incising 

 methods ; and, 2, all that relates to the utensils and implements employed 

 in the shaping operations. In order that the whole subject of the 

 manipulation of the softer varieties of stone might appear together as 

 a unit in this place, the various flaked, battered or pecked, and polished 

 implements used in quarrying and carving were passed over with mere 

 mention in the sections to which they strictly belong, and are ])resented 

 in some detail in the following pages, with a series of illustrations. 



PROCESSES AND MATERIALS 



Under the head of cut stone we have to deal with but few materials, 

 and only one of these (steatite, or soapstone) was of importance in the 

 native art of the tidewater country. Mica, serpentine, clay-slates, and 

 others of the softer calcareous and argillaceous rocks were sparingly 

 shaped by the process in some sections. The shaping operations 

 were necessarily confined to narrow limits by the lack of effective 

 cutting tools. Steatite and like soft and tough massive substances 

 were cut with pointed pick-like tools and by edged, chisel-like blades, 

 probably in most cases set in some sort of handle for direct freehand 

 operation, or with other classes of handles, to be operated with the 

 aid of a mallet of bone or of antler or wood. Mica must have been 

 cut with sharp edges or points, such as are furnished by the fi-acture 

 of glassy varieties of stone. 



Subsidiary to the incising processes in the shaping of soft stones are 

 several of the other processes, such as sawing, drilling, scraping, and 

 grinding. 



USE OF MICA 



So far as we can learn, mica was not extensively used by the Chesa- 

 peake-Potomac peoples; but it can not safely be afflrmed that it was 

 not used in some quantity in nearly any given locality, since the 

 material is not sufficiently durable to be preserved, save under very 

 favorable conditions. Mica does not occur in forms suitable for work- 

 ing within considerable distances of tidewater sites. It is said to have 



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