Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1879-08-20
FLINT IMPLEMENTS.
Curious Discoveries in Regard to
the Manner Of Making Them by
the Ab0rigines and Prehistoric
Inhabitants Of America.

Inhabitants Of America.
At the last meeting of the Anthro-
biological Society at the Smithsonian
institution, Mr.. F. II. Cushing, who
has made an original aud expert
mental study bf aboriginal processes
in, the manufacture of pottery, stone
axes, and flint arrow-heads, using
only the tools which were within the
reach Of the aboriginal manufacturers,
gave an interesting description of the
manner 10. which flint implements,
| especially arrow ARD spear beads,
were made by the prehistoric inhabi-
tants OF this country and Europe,
previous to the discovery or intro
ducuon of iron.
1t is the popular impression that
flint arrow heads were all Clipped
into shape by striking off fragments
with u rude stone hammer, and this
was the method first tried by Mr..
Cushing. He found. however, that
it was impossible to initiate in this
way my of the finer and more deli
cate specimens ot Indian arrows, and
that three out of four even Of the
coarser forms were broken in the
process Of manufacture. 1t was evil
dent, therefore, that the Indians had
other aud more delicate processes.
After many unsuccessful experiments,
he accidentally discovered that small
IF
piece Of flint with much greater
certainty and precision by pressure
with pointed rod Of bone or horn,
than by blows with hammer-stone.
The sharp edge Of the flint would
cut slightly in the bone, and when the
latter was twisted suddenly upward
fake would fly off from the point
where the pressure was applied in
direction which could be foreseen
aud controlled. ae,
To this process Mr.. Cushing gives
the name of taking, to distinguish
it from chipping produced by per-
cussion. And its discovery removes
most Of the difficulties which pre-
vious experimenters had met with in
trying to work fin: without the use
of iron. Spear and arrow -heads
could, in this way, be faxed even
into the most delicate and apparently
fragile shapes with a certainty attain
able in no other way, and with a
greatly -lessened probability of break
age. Mr.. Gushing then described,
with the aid of blackboard illustra-
tons, all the steps in the manufacture
of an arrow, beginning with the
striking off of suitable flake from
the mass of material selected, trim
ming it roughly with pebble into a
leaf-shape with bevel edge, scaling
off surface flakes by repeated blows
with a hammer stone upon this edge
at right angles to its plane, and final
ly finishing, pointing and notching
the arrow head with the bone taking
instrument previously referred to.
Surface taking, which is the thin
ming Of the unfinished arrow by the
detachment Of fakes running from
the edge to the center, is the most
difficult part of the whole process.
Arrows upon which no signs Of it
appear were always the work Of be-
ginners. 1t may be produced either
by direct blows with hammer-stone,
by pressure with flaker, or by a
combination of the two methods, the
hammer being used with the faker
as if the latter were a stone chisel.
Each of these methods leaves its I'M
mistakable mark upon the finished
implement, so that it is easy to deter
mine by simple inspection of the
Clipped article to what degree of per-
lection the art had come at the time
when it was made. Thus it can be
proven that the marvelously -chipped
axes of the Danish shell heaps were
produced by using a horn-haker as if
it were stone chisel, by striking it
with hammer-stone; while the
beautifully finished daggers, arrows
and spear heads from the same region
had been faxed by combination of
the latter process and pressure; and
that when the paleolithic flint imple-
ments found in the drift were made,
the art Of using the flaker in either
of these methods had not yet been
discovered. Hammer stones, how
ever, which bear marks of having
been used for chipping, are found
everywhere where arrow or spear
heads occur, showing that savagcs
universally pursued the method fol-
lowed by Mr.. Cushing, of first block
ing out the implement with ham
mer-stone, whether they afterward
used flaker to finish it or not.
Since, therefore, all the specimens
found in the great deposits" or
caches, throughout this country bear
marks of the hammer-stone, but not
of any other instrument. they may
he definitely regarded as unfinished
articles laid by for future completion.
The various processes and imple-
ments used in chipping and taking
had grown out Of the difference of
material to be worked. Where the
latter was tough, as was the case with
the hornstone Of Western Arctic
| America, it could not be tlaked by