300 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BULL. 60 



on the other, striking off a tiny chip at each stroke until he soon 

 had it reduced approximately to the dimensions re(}uired. The -work 

 of specialization was completed by pressure with a bone point. ^ 



A fourth form of fracture by rest percussion is that in which the 

 pebble or fragment of stone or partially shaped implement was set 

 edgewise on the anvil stone, where it was held in place by the fingers 

 and tlnnnb while struck edge on with the hammer. The capabilities 

 of this method in the shajHng work, however, are found to be 

 limited. It served to split or splinter the stone or to break off spalls 

 and flakes (fig. Ifi.S), which served unmodified as implements or for 



elaboration by more 

 refined processes. 

 The stone thus op- 

 erated upon assumed 

 fortuitously various 

 shapes readily mis- 

 taken by the inexpe- 

 rienced for purpose- 

 ful forms. The ham- 

 mer used was any 

 stone suited to the 

 purpose. The method 

 was employed very 

 extensively along the 

 Atlantic shore of 

 Argentina, where it 

 was regarded by Am- 

 eghino as pertaining 

 to a very primitive 

 stage of culture, and 

 the chipped nuclei, 

 regarded as imple- 

 ments, were assigned 

 by him to Tertiary or 

 early Quaternary times. However, the conclusion reached by 

 the writer, based on collections and observations made by Ilrdlicka 

 and Willis along the Pampean coast, is that the work prob- 

 ably pertains to recent times and to the historic tribes.- Examples 

 of the Argentina specimens are presented in figure KU, and the as- 

 sociated hammerstones and anvils displaying their peculiar mark- 

 ings ai)pear in figures 105 and IOC). This process, even in its most 

 refined api)lication, had one serious defect — it was almost as likely 

 when the stone was brittle to result in fracture at the point of con- 



FlG. 1G3. 



Chipping a stone lield at rest by strolies of a 

 hammerstone. 



1 Snyder, The Method of Maliing Stone Arrow-points, p. 231. 

 ^ See llrdlitka, Early Man in South America. 



