HOLMESl 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 



297 



The work of speciulization was then completed by well-known 

 pressnre processes. 



The very primitive forms of stone craft resulted probably from 



the use of natural forms in the rude activities of 



Direct Rest Per- yj^-iij^jtive times. The stone used for crushing or 



cussiou J^ '^ . 



breaking would be fractured, and the observation 

 that the tool, thus modified, was improved for certain purposes 

 would lead to intentional fracture with a definite purpose in view. 

 But since the stone thus modified Avas held in the hand it is sur- 

 mised that the first purposeful attempt at shaping by fracture w^ould 

 probably relate not to the stone struck, but to the stone held in the 



Fig. ]r>S. Froc-haiKl fracture with liam- 

 niir and deer horn punch. (Rcd- 



diiij;'.) 



Fig. 159. Fracture of a stone held 

 in the hand b.v strilving it against an 

 anvil stone. 



hand, as indicated in figure ir)0. This form of fracture naturally 

 occurs unintentionally during tlie ])i'actice of stone craft, whatso- 

 ever the period, l)ut as a method of shaj^ing its capacity is necessarily 

 limited, and we may reasonably doubt its systematic, purposeful em- 

 ployment by any people. 



A second and hardly less elementary form of rest percussion is 

 the crushing or breaking of a stone at rest by striking it with an- 

 other stone held in the hand or hands and cast as a missile (fig. 100), 

 the purj)ose being to split or change the shape of the stone or to 

 obtain fragments, splinters, and spalls which would serve as tools. 



