NELSON— FLINT WORKING 



pose; it is a selected view of the workman in action and as such tells 

 a better story than words could do. Ishi holds a water-worn bowlder 

 in the right hand and a lump of obsidian in the left, and is attempting 

 to break up the latter or to dislodge flakes from it by means of repeated 

 direct blows. From among the resulting fragments he will pick out 

 those most readily adapted to the purpose needed, let us say arrow- 

 points, and proceed at once to shape them. 



Secondary Flaking or Chipping. — Having selected a suitable flake, 

 Ishi assumes the new pose shown in plate I, b, also kindly furnished by 

 Professor Kroeber. The actual disposition of flake and tool is better 

 indicated in the detail views of plate n. The flake to be worked will 

 be observed resting on a bit of leather and placed transversely across 

 the proximal fleshy part of the left palm and there held by one or 

 more of the finger-tips. The chipping tool, grasped firmly with the 

 right hand, is placed on the upper side of the flake, very close to the 

 edge, and by a quick, downward pressure a chip is removed from the 

 under-side of the flake. That much of this seemingly simple act will 

 be noticed by any casual observer, but it may be well to analyze the 

 act a little so as to show that it is after all not so simple as it looks. 

 There is, so to speak, some knack about it. First of all we may note 

 the fact, well shown in the illustration, that the axis of the tool used 

 and the edge of the obsidian to be worked do not meet at a right 

 angle, although they are in nearly the same plane. Secondly, and 

 this does not show well in the illustration, the chipping tool is so 

 turned on its axis that the plane of its cutting edge meets the plane of 

 the flake to be worked at nearly, if not quite, a right angle. That 

 this turn of the chipping tool is necessary or at least deliberate is 

 certain because Ishi employs it invariably in the later stages of the 

 chipping process, but not at all regularly in the early stages. Not 

 having experimented very much, I am unable to say why Ishi pro- 

 ceeds as he does, but he gets results which I cannot imitate, try as I 

 will. Ishi removes thin and fairly slender chips that extend two- 

 thirds or more across the face of the flake, while my chips are thick 

 and short. Consequently his arrowpoints when finished are thin and 

 shapely, while mine, much to his disgust, are thick and clumsy 

 affairs. My work resembles the abrupt Mousterian retouch, while 

 Ishi's is the true Solutrian technique. 



As to the actual movements involved in chipping, these would 

 be rather difficult to describe. The pressure exerted, if not too great, 

 comes mostly from a wrist action ; but if greater weight is needed the 

 leverage is thrown back to the elbow and shoulder. The precision of 

 the movement in the later and more delicate stage of the work is 



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