82 



BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BULL. 60 



In form the specimen is not specialized in any particular except in 

 so far as all rejects of blade making show one heavy and one some- 

 Avhat tapering end, and it gives no indication of having been used; 

 in these respects it is identical with the multitude of wasters in the 

 blade-making shops throughout northern America. The exceptional 

 surface polish often regarded as significant of antiquity is char- 

 acteristic of some varieties of the material even when freshly 

 chipped. Considering the above facts, it is not unreasonable that 

 conclusions regarding the value of this specimen as evidence of 

 antiquity and of paleolithic culture should be held in abeyance until 

 something more trustworthy as to geological position and convincing 

 as to characteristics of form is brought forward. 



In digging a w^ell at JNIadisonville, 

 Ohio, a chipped stone was found rest- 

 ing on a glacial gravel surface beneath 

 a deposit of red clay 8 feet thick. 

 Another implement-like object was ob- 

 tained from a deposit of coarse glacial 

 debris in an excavation at Loveland, 

 Ohio, at a depth of 20 feet (fig. 37).^ 

 The present writer visited these locali- 

 ties in 1802 and examined the objects 

 and sites with all possible care and in a 

 subsequent publication raised such ques- 

 tions as to the value of the evidence as 

 presented themselves.^ Mr. Frank Lev- 

 eret t, employed by the U. S. Geological Survey in the examination of 

 the glacial formations of the Middle West, has given particular 

 attention to these finds and concludes his study of the subject as 

 follows : 



When a question so important as that of the date of the appearance of man 

 may depend upon the correct determination of tlie original position of a stone 

 in sucli loose and poorly assorted gravel, it is well to withhold judgment until 

 every line of evidence has been thoroughly worked out. As the evidence now 

 stands, it is, in my opinion, not conclusively proven that man inhabited this 

 portion of the Ohio valley during the glacial period." 



However, these two objects seem (juite worthy of consideration as 

 possible representatives of late glacial or early postglacial time to 

 which the particular formations belong. The authenticity of the 

 finds as reported may not well be (]uestioned except on the ground 

 that in a reaion in which the surface is strewn with kindred artifacts, 



Fig. 37. Chipped blade from supposed 

 glacial deposits at Loveland, Ohio. 



^ Putnam, On a Collection of Palaeolithic Implements. Wright, Ice Age in America, 

 pp. C42-G43. 



2 Holmes, Traces of Glacial Man in Ohio, p. 147. 



^Leverett, Supposed Glacial Man in Southwestern Ohio, p. 189. 



