G^G 



REPOET op national museum, 1888. 



EEC A PITUL ATION. 



Original number in Museum 950 



Number sent 789 



Number of implements in Museum 1, 739 



Total implements reported as in United States 8, 502 



There is a question yet to be examined, whether certain leaf-shaped 

 implements (see Fig. 15), the same being long, thin, and well-formed 

 chipped points (spear-points), made frequently of the same material, and 

 found associated with the ruder forms just described, may not also be- 

 long to the paleolithic period, but not to the same epoch. These may 

 possibly be found to belong to a later epoch which corresponds with the 

 Solutreen of Europe. This, however, waits further investigation. 



NEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS IN AMEEICA — INDIAN RELICS. 



The civilization of the aboriginal occupants of tlie United States, 

 whether mound-builders, or the red Indian in possession of the country 

 at the time of its discovery has been assigned to the neolithic period. 

 Many copper implements have been found, and were used, but there 

 was never such general use of that metal as to establish what might be 

 called the epoch of copper. Stone does not appear to have been super- 

 seded as material for implements. This can not be attributed to scarcity 

 of copper, but rather to its want of favor among the savages. They 

 were about as difficult and tedious to malie as were the stone imple- 

 ments, while, when made, they were much softer and more inefficient. 

 Altogether, they do not seem to have possessed sufficient advantages 

 over the stone implement to have displaced it. The principal objects 

 and implements, whether tools, weapons, domestic articles, those for 

 ceremonj^, gaming, and many for ornamentation, continued to be made 

 of stone. Pottery was, of course, made and used to a great extent. 

 Some domestic articles and many for personal decoration were of bone 

 and shell. 



Illustrations of types of these objects taken from the originals in the 

 National Museum will be given in the following pages. 



