STONE ART 



By Gerard Fowke 



INTRODUCTION. 

 Basis for the Work. 



The collection of the Bureau of Ethnology includes almost every type 

 of stone implement or ornament, and as the investigations and explora- 

 tions of the collaborators have extended over nearly all the eastern and 

 central portions of the Mississijjpi valley, it furnishes a substantial 

 basis for showing the geographic distribution of various forms of ob- 

 jects in use among the aboriginal inhabitants. 



It has not been deemed advisable to utilize material contained in 

 other collections. Should this be done there would be no reason for 

 drawing upon one rather than another, and if it were once begun the 

 examination would finally extend to every collection made from Amer- 

 ican localities, a study which, although perhaps desirable, would tran- 

 scend the scope of the Bureau plans. 



Much that has been published in regard to the distribution of relics 

 in various portions of the country is of little value to a paper of this 

 kind, since few of the objects are sufficiently illustrated or referred to 

 any class in other than the most general terms; so that it is frequently 

 impossible to determine the group in which a given article should be 

 placed. Partly for this reason, partly because the primary purpose is 

 description of a certain collection made in a definite way, little space 

 is given to the descriptive work of predecessors in the field of archeol- 

 ogy. The general results of previous work are, however, carefully 

 weighed in the conclusions reached. 



Classification of Objects and Matf.rials. 



The ordinary division into chipped and pecked or ground implements 

 has been adopted: the former including all such as are more easily 

 worked by flaking, and the latter including those made from stone 

 suitable for working down by pecking into form with stone hammers 

 or by similar means. The system of nomenclature in general use has 

 been retained, as it is now familiar to students of North American 



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