284 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 60 



recent years. Prol". Sven Nilsson ^ was probably the first to compre- 

 hend its nse in shaping by fracture, his experiments having been 

 begun very early in the last century. It remained for various stu- 

 dents of the present generation to work out the full range of its 

 application. Its field of usefulness is wonderfully wide. In the 

 shaping arts, besides its universal use in the fracture processes it 

 holds an e(|ually exalted place in the pecking-crumbling arts and 

 was, besides, in one form or another, employed in the household arts 

 and in the arts of war and the chase. Its usefulness in the fracture 

 arts was largely confined to the breaking up of rock masses and the 

 rough shaping of implements and other artifacts. The hammer was 

 in a vast number of cases merely a water-worn bowlder, which 

 assumed artificial shajie through use, while where bowlders were not 

 convenient tough, hard bits of stone were collected and roughly 

 shaped to adapt them to the work. Examples are illustrated in figure 

 142. It is doubtless true that the pitted hammer (fig. 143) w^as some- 

 times employed in the chipping work, but examples are rarely found 

 in the (^uarry slumps where this work was extensi\'ely carried on. 

 Ilannners made of a section of the indurated base of deer and elk 

 antler were in connnon use m some localities for the lighter chip- 

 ping work. 



The fi-acture [)ro('esses in which the luuumer is the active agent are 

 sunnnarized as follows: 



]. DIUIOCT FUKKlIA^'l) I'KKCL'SSION 



Fracture by striking the stone to be woi-ked, held in one hand, with 

 another stone held in the other hand, thus pur[)osely shaping the 

 former or obtaining desired fragments. 



•2. TXDIUFXT FKKEIIAND PEIJCUSSION 



(a) Chipping brittle stone held in the palm of one hand with a 

 bone ])unch held between the fingers of the same hand and driven by 

 a hannner held in the other hand. 



(h) Chipping l)rittie stone held in the i)alm of one hand with a 

 bone })unch held in the other hand and di'iven by a hammer in the 

 hand of another person. 



0. DiKKcr i:i:s'i' rKitcrssiox 



(a) Fracturing the stone by striking it against another stone, the 

 latter usually of larger size and stationary. 



(b) Fracture by casting one stone against another as a missile; 

 employed largely in breaking up masses and more especially in 

 mining and quarrying. 



1 Kilsson, The I'rimitivc Inhabitants of Scandinavia. 



