BITLL. 30] 



STONEWORK 



639 



higher intelligence and greater skill — 

 would follow. In America, although 

 there haa doubtless been, generally speak- 

 ing, progress from simpler to more com- 

 plex comlitions of stone art, no definite 

 separation of an early and a late, a paleo- 

 lithic and a neolithic, a chipped and a 

 polished stone age, has been recognized. 

 See NeoUlhic arje, Paleolithic implements. 



The Americans n. of Mexico were still 

 well within the stone stage of culture. 

 Metal had come somewhat into use, but 

 in no i^art of the country had it taken in 

 a very full measure the place of stone. 

 According to the most approved views 

 regarding Old World culture history the 

 metal age was not definitely ushered in 

 until bronze and iron came into common 

 use, not only as shaping implements but 

 as shaped product. With stone imple- 

 ments the more cultured tribes of middle 

 America had constructed handsome build- 

 ings and executed sculptures of a high 

 order of merit, but n. of Mexico the results 

 were of a much less pretentious kind. 

 Only one group of tribes, the Pueblos, had 

 made intelligent and extensive use of 

 stone in building (see Architecture, Cliff 

 dwellings, Habitations, Pueblos), although 

 the mound-builders, the Eskimo, and 

 others employed it for this purpose in a 

 limited way. Numerous tribes, however, 

 had entered the field of sculpture, especi- 

 ally as applied to the shaping of objects 

 of utility and common use; but the work 

 extended also to the shaping of personal 

 ornaments and of symbolic objects con- 

 nected with religious beliefs and cere- 

 monies. See Sculpture. 



No extensive region in America is with- 

 out stone of one or more varieties, and 

 the resources usually are varied and vast. 

 The raw materials were obtained from the 

 surface supply, or, where that was not 

 available in sufficient quantities, they 

 were quarried from the beds in place. 

 See Mines and Quarries. 



The varieties employed by the primitive 

 tribes are very numerous, and being of 

 special interest in this connection the fol- 

 lowing are briefly described under sepa- 

 rate heads: Actinolite, agate (chalcedony), 

 alabaster (gypsum), amber, andesite, ar- 

 gillite, basalt, calcite, cannel coal (jet), 

 catlinite, chalcedony, chert (chalcedony), 

 chlorite, flint, granite, gypsum, hematite, 

 iron, jade (nephrite), jasper, jet, lignite 

 (jet), limonite (hematite), marble, mica, 

 muscovite (mica), nephrite, novaculite, 

 obsidian, onyx (marble), pectolite, por- 

 phyry, pyrites, quartz, quartzite, rhyolite, 

 schist, selenite (gypsum), serpentine, sie- 

 nite, slate, soapstone (steatite), stalactite 

 (marble), stalagmite (marble), steatite, 

 talc (steatite), trachyte, travertine (mar- 

 ble) , turquoise, utahlite. 



The processes employed in shaping 

 these materials by the American tribes, 



and, for that matter, by the whole primi- 

 tive world, are: (1) fracturing processes, 

 variously known as breaking, spalling, 

 chipping, flaking; (2) cruml)ling proc- 

 esses, as battering, pecking; (3) incising 

 or cutting processes; (4) al)rading inoc- 

 esses, as sawing, drilling, scraping, and 

 grinding, and (5) polishing processes. 

 The implements used in or connected with 

 the shaping work are described separately 

 under the following heads: Abrading 

 implements. Anvils, Arrowheads; Arrotrs, 

 Bows, and Quivers; Chisels, Drills and Drill- 

 ing, Flaking i7nplements, Hammers, Knives, 

 Pecking implements, Picks, Polishing im- 

 plements, Saws, Scrapers. 



Of later years the operation of the 

 primitive stone-shaping processes has re- 

 ceived much attention on the part of 

 archeologists, and the mystery formerly 

 surrounding some of them has been well 

 cleared away. Implements of stone and 

 bone in skilled hands are demonstrated 

 to be as effective in shaping stone as 

 bronze or iron, and the methods most 

 commonly employed by the tribes may 

 be briefly outlined. 

 Implements shaped 

 by the chipping or 

 flaking processes 

 present a wide range 

 of size, form, and 

 finish, and include 

 principally arrow- 

 heads, spearheads, 

 lance heads, har- 

 poon heads, knives, 

 scrapers, drills, hoes, 

 spades, and unspe- 

 cialized blades. 

 These objects are 

 largely leaf- shaped 

 or were specialized 

 from leaf-shaped blades, and the getting 

 out of these blades was one of the most ar- 

 duous and difficult tasks undertaken by 

 thenativeartisan. In shaping the bladesa 

 suitable piece of brittle stone, preferably a 

 flattish pebble, bowlder, flake, or fragment 

 was selected, and with a hammerstone of 

 proper weight, usually globular or dis- 

 coidal in form and generally not hafted, 

 chips were removed by means of vigorous 

 blows about the periphery, alternating 

 the faces. The utmost skill of the oper- 

 ator was exerted to cause the flakes to 

 carry from the point of percussion near 

 the edge across and beyond the middle 

 of the sides of the stone; failure in thig 

 resulted in the formation of a high ridge 

 or node on one or both faces of the blade, 

 which effectually prevented the proper 

 development of the form. 



If breakage or imperfect fracture did 

 not intervene, the skilled workman in 

 a few moments had roughed out a leaf- 

 like blade of requisite thinness, and 

 when the work had proceeded as far 



Use of the Flaking hammer — 

 First Step in Bowlder 

 Working 



