REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
5 9416
)11
166
7.1
L70
THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
WI I.I.I AM H. LIGHTNER, WARREN UPHA3I,
President. Secretary.
THE WEATHERING OF ABORIGINAL STONE ARTIFACTS NO. L
A CONSIDERATION OF THE PALEOLITHS OF KANSAS
{Illustrated by 20 figures and 19 half-tone plates
By ST. H. WINCH ELI..
Col Iet t ion s of the Minnesota Historical Society, Volume XVI, Tart I.
ST. PAUL, MINN. 1013.
St. Paul, Minn., Oct. 10, 1912.
President W. EC. Lightxer.
My Dear Sir : In accordance with the recommendation of the Mu- seum Committee a manuscript entitled "A considera- tion of the Paleoliths of Kansas" is herewith offered for publication It is a further result of the examina- tion of the collections amassed by the late J. V. B rower.
Respectfully,
N. H. Winch ell.
Museum Committee.
Newton H. Winchell Francis J. Schaefer
Olin D. Wheeler Harold Harris
Warren Upham, E.r-Officio.
Publication Committee.
William G. White Harold Harris Chas. W. Ames
Henry S. Fairchild Jas. H. Baker Warren Upham
Ex-Offkio.
t
V.
i
t/-V7
DEDICATION.
To Dr. Charles Conrad Abbott, Trenton, N. J.
I beg the honor and the privilege of inscribing to yon the following work on the "Weathering of Aboriginal Stone Artifacts:7 Never having met you, not knoicing you by sight, I can assure you that it is only because of my admiration of your skill, and your persistence through more than forty years, in describing the occurrence of paleolithic stone artifacts in the Delaware valley, that I am moved to offer you this testimonial of esteem.
N. H. Winchell.
St. Paul, Minn., April 30, 1913.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive.org/details/collectionsofmin161 minn
PREFACE. Vll
Preface.
One of the most interesting-, as well as the most im- portant, questions that concern man is that of his antiquity. In America, as in Europe, for many years it has been much discussed, but in America archeolo- gists are not in as good concord on the fundamental ideas as in Europe. The leading American authorities are about where the European were prior to the dis- coveries of Boucher de Perthes. That is about the same as saying that in America authoritative archeo- logical opinion on this subject is about sixty-six years behind that of Europe. It is true that human artifacts in the river gravel at Trenton, Xew Jersey, were an- nounced in 1872 by Dr. C. C. Abbott, who is the Boucher de Perthes of America, and have been de- scribed elsewhere, but to this day all discoveries of pre-Glacial human remains, whether bones or imple- ments, have been discredited and discarded by the powerful influences that are localized at Washington, and the existence of man in North America earlier than "the Glacial epoch'', i. e. the Wisconsin ice-epoch, is tabooed. The effect of this leading has been so pro- nounced that in most of the museums of the country, outside of New England, it is vain to search for any labels that indicate pre-Glacial man in America.
There is a singular anomaly in the course of numer- ous American archeologists in this matter. Admitting that European study of aboriginal stone artifacts ante-
Viii WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
dated American, they accept the conclusions of European experts as to the names and uses which they ascribe to American specimens, adopt the terms applied to their culture stages, their classification and definitions; practically therefore European archeology has been transplanted to America, though with some extensions and modifications. But, the signs of age when discovered in America are rejected, in such a manner that, to be philosophic and reasonable, it be- comes necessary, in order to justify such rejection, to assume that in America, the difference of longitude, or of climate, or manner of exposure to the atmospheric elements, was so powerful that we cannot expect in America the same results as in Europe. If that be true, it is an important new element in natural physics, and were it to be applied generally it would be incum- bent on American geologists and geographers, as well as .all natural scientists, to reconstruct the sciences which are current, and to build up from the foundation a special code of American sciences. But the work which follows is based on the assumption that natural forces have operated in America in the same manner as in Europe, and 'have produced identical results. The patmation of flint is accepted in Europe as an in- dication of great age. When found on similar arti- facts in America it has the same significance. Not only do European specimens show the well-known pat- mation indicative of Paleolithic date, but African and Asiatic stone implements, when they possess this evi- dence also are classed uniformly with European Pale- oliths. It seems that, in order to be justifiable in the rejection of this evidence in America, the burden of
PREFACE.
ix
proof rests upon the objectors. They should show, either that what in this work is called patination is not patination, or that different natural causes have produced in America those results which in Europe are ascribed to patination.
No one, reading American literature devoted to stone artifacts, can fail to notice the paucity of de- scriptions and discussions made from the geologist's point of view; that too when the nature of the speci- mens and their environments were more or less geo- logical, and when a careful examination by a compe- tent geological observer would have added materially to their significance and to their value. The archeolo- gists of America have usually not been equipped with geological training. They have gathered, with great assiduity a vast number and variety of aboriginal im- plements, and have assigned them in many cases to their supposed uses. They have filled their cases with "beautiful " specimens, and have dazzled the visi- tor with skillful arrangements from shelf to shelf. They have had little .concern for the question of the relative ages of these specimens, and usually they have considered all their ' collections from American localities as the product of the historic Indian. More recently, as the question of Paleolithic man in America has been revived, while discerning the need of geologi- cal investigation, they have still been content to sub- mit the inquiry to archeologists who made no pretense of geological skill, or to geologists who, with super- ficial and insufficient investigation, were satisfied to corroborate the views of their archeological associates. Thus in some notable instances the geological evidence
v4
X WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
of the antiquity of man in America has been glozed over, and in others seems to have been distorted and ignored ; at the same time geologists generally are too intent on the facts of their own science to give heed to that dim border-line which separates man from geol- ogy. It will be probably many years before the Pleis- tocene relations of man in America can be worked out with that particularity which has been attained by re- cent work in Europe.
If there be one portion of American geological his- tory which more than any of the others has undergone modification in recent years, -as geologists have pushed their investigations to greater detail, it is that which is called Glacial Geology, or, in broader terms, Pleisto- cene Geology. In this remarkable modification it is notable that in all cases, as new features have been discovered, it has been necessary to lengthen rather than shorten the time involved. Thus, the "Glacial Period" which was at first believed to have been a simple, single and unique phase of Pleistocene time, has been doubled and quadrupled in its recurrent phases, and hence has been doubled and quadrupled in its complexities, as well as in the time needed to warrant such physical revolutions as are evident. Some of the momentous topographic changes of the western United States have been effected by volcanic action and by erosion, since the close of the Tertiary. Thousand of square miles have been covered by vol- canic lava floods and have been given a new topogra- phy by post-Tertiary erosion. It is only recent that it has been found necessary to take cognizance of this great lapse of time since the close of the Tertiary,
PREFACE. XI
and it has not yet been found possible, in all cases, even to distinguish between the later Tertiary and the early Pleistocene ; nor is it to be wondered at that in some instances no notice whatever has been taken of this long Pleistocene period, and that in the discussion of human antiquity no room has been left for the existence of man between the Tertiary and the historic Indian, i. e. between the Tertiary and the Xeolithic.
If the writer has succeeded in showing, in the pages of this little work, that man existed in Kansas through- out at least the Glacial period, with its many phases, he has opened the door through which proof may flow eventually that man occupied the entire Xorth Ameri- can continent during the same period and that he wit- nessed many of the convulsions of the western states which were marked by violent volcanism, as well as the. more gradual changes of topography consequent on floods and their resulting erosions, which marked the successive Glacial epochs.
Scientific workers in America are not numerous, and they are often handicapped by poverty of resources and of time. They do not always agree in their con- clusions, but there can not be found a body of men more unreservedly devoted to the single cause of the advancement of truth. They are subject in their re- searches only to errors of judgment, not to lapses of integrity. Therefore whatever their differences on scientific questions they should be credited with hon- esty o"f motive and conviction, for however great those differences it requires only the further prosecution of research to prove where the truth lies. It behooves
Xii WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
them to be patient and conciliatory with each other, and to have constant willingness to accept new facts whenever and wherever they appear, and whatever may be their bearing on their own views.
The writer contemplates a similar treatment of hu- man implements from other states in the near future,' and he asks the co-operation of American archeolo- gists.
A brief announcement of these results was pub- lished in Records of the Past, July-August, 1912. A more extended account was presented at Geneva, to the Congres international d'Anthropologie et d'Arche ologie prehistoriques, September, 1912. They were discussed in a paper read in December, 1912, at Cleve- land O., before Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in January, 1913, at Milwaukee, before the Wisconsin Archeological Society and before the Minnesota Academy of Science at Minneapolis.
N. H. WlNCHELL.
St, Paul, April IS, 1913.
I
CONTENTS.
Preliminary Note 1
I. A consideration of the Paleoliths of Kansas 3
1. The Quiviran implements were not from the
Wichita 6
Nature of the Quiviran chert. Patination. 6
Comparison with European Paleoliths 11
Effect of the Ice Age 21
2. The>- have been secondarily chipped by later
people 25
Character of the Paleolithic artifacts 26
3. Location of these artifacts 38
4. Relation to the Glacial drift 39
5. Aqueous deposits of the Lower Kansas
valley 39
6. Mingling of Paleolithic and Neolithic arti-
facts , 40
II. Cultural stages of stone chipping correlated with
Glacial stages 41
Supplemental Note 44
III. What were the tribes met in the Kansas valley
by Coronado in 1541? 44
IV. Early Man and his cotemporary fauna in Kansas.. 48
Explanation of Plates 58
V. Critical working observations on some Kansas
specimens '. . . ' 68
Paleolithic culture in Neolithic time 70
Iron Mould 72
Variation of the chert 75
Criteria of the different ages of Weathering.... 76
Gradation of Culture stages 79
Critical observations 81
Significance of a Gloss 81
Persistence of Paleolithic Culture 82
Relative number of Early Neolithic specimens.. 83
Weather scales are sometimes white and some- times brown 83
Unfinished edges on "Turtles" 85
t
: v.,
Xiv WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
Early Paleolithic, Paleolithic and Early Neo- lithic chipping on the same specimen 87
Successive weather scales 89
Uniformity of the Kansas chert 90
Paleolithic or Earl}- Neolithic? 90
Loss of a Glossy Surface 91
Pink chert * 92
The Tomahawk People 92
Incipient scraper 93
Neolithic "Turtle" 93
Limitation of the terms Paleolithic and Early
Neolithic 93
Paleolithic culture continued in Neolithic time.. 94
Tomahawks have never been writhed 9G
The Scraper 96
Different signs of age 97
Continuation of Paleolithic culture 98
Lefthandedness of Early Neolithic Man 99
Imperfect Harahey Knives 101
Different rates of Patination 102
Early Neolithic preferable to Pre-Neolithic 103
VI. Work of Dr. W. Allen Sturge in England 101
VII. Classification of Kansas artifacts by culture stages 113
The simplest artifact an edged tool 113
Knives 115
Gouges 117
Scrapers 118
Tomahawks 120
Leaves or Blades 121
Celts 122
Explanation of Plate XII 125
Explanations of Plate XIII 127
Points, Neoltihic No. 1 12S
Explanation of Plate XIV 131
VIII. An Archeological Reconnoissance 133
The Kansas valley, Elevations 133
In other western Museums and Private
collections 151
Rotting of chert 151
Resume and Conclusions 169
Index 177
Northeastern Kansas
Showing fhe Relation of the
CHERT DEPOSITS to the
KANSAN MORAINE
Northeastern Kansas
Showing fhe PelaHon of fhe CHERT DEPOSITS
t
v.
/
PRELIMINARY NOTE.
The results presented in this paper, and the evidence on which they are based, were theoretically anticipated by the writer prior to the examination of the artifacts. Indeed they were first confirmed by an earlier cursory handling of a large collection of "Mandan"' flint artifacts collected by Mr. Brower for the Minnesota Historical Society; but at that time it was inconvenient to enter upon the discussion. Sim- ilar conclusions seem to be warranted by the weathering of some Oklahoma specimens. In later discussion these facts will be presented.
The main purpose of this note is to call attention to the fact that Mr. Brower was fully aware of the important bear- ing of the rude culture of the "Quivira" on the question of paleolithic man in America, as shown by the following quo- tation from his Harahey (p. 109):
"I was so impressed by the developments of unusual in- terest, indicating the existence of two stages of ancient cul- ture near the Kansas chert beds, that a series of the chipped implements of each nation was submitted for inspection to the authorities of the United States National Museum at Washington. Dr. Thomas Wilson has replied quite fully, and that portion of his last communication which relates par- ticularly to the Quivira and Harahey implements is available to indicate some of the difficulties encountered.
" 'Smithsonian Institution, .U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C, Feb. 3, 1S99.
Mr. J. V. Brower.
St. Paul, Minn. Dear Sir: —
I do not know what your discoveries of new imple- ments and different stages of culture in the same neigh- borhood is going to delvelop. but it is surely remarkable and opens up a new vista which should be pursued and explored to the very end. I conclude that you are the only individual qualified to make the investigation, and I think the responsibility of pursuing it will rest with you.
Yours very truly,
Thomas Wilson, Curator,
Division of Prehistoric Archeology.
WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
"Eminent archeologists, appealed to for assistance and advice in the preparation of these papers, are unable to definitely conclude new questions which have arisen during the continuance of these explorations in Kansas, and the fact that some of the rude implements found there indicate no higher culture than existed probably 50,000 years ago in the Somme Valley,* France, places a responsibility upon me which I have been cautious to assume, on account of the wide diversity of opinions in archeologic matters relating particularly to American anthropology."
It is in continuation of the examination of the specimens gathered by Mr. Brower, and the work which they entail upon the Minnesota Historical Society, that the writer has prepared this paper. To the late Dr. Thomas Wilson must be given the credit, as appears from the foregoing and from other excerpts from his letters which have been published by Mr. Brower, of detecting the paleolithic character of the rude artifacts assigned by Mr. Brower to a tribe of historic Indians. Mr. Brower shrank from the labor and the re- sponsibility of the task pointed out by Dr. Wilson, of pur- suing the "new vista" opened up by the discovery "to the very end." Hence the subject has remained dormant for thirteen years. N. H. W.
August, 1912.
*"Primitive man in the Somme Valley, by Professor W'ar- ren Upham, Vol. XXII. p. 350, American Geologist, Decem- ber, 1S9S. Professor Upham conducted a critical examina- tion of the locality mentioned in 1S97, by observations based on Glacial Geology." -
t
.3
THE WEATHERING OF ABORIGINAL STONE
ARTIFACTS.
L A CONSIDERATION OF THE PALEOLITHS
OF KANSAS.
Without calling in question the identification of Ouivira by Mr. J. V. Brower, and the distinction to which he called attention between the artifacts found in one part of the area and those found in another, which he has delimited on his various maps in "Ouivira, " "Harahey," and in "Kansas," there are cer- tain important other facts which seem to require a profound modification of his archeological reasoning.
1. The coarsely chipped large artifacts which Mr. Brower attributed to the Quivirans (Wichita Caddo) are not characteristic of that branch of the Caddo people, nor of any other branch, nor of any existing Indian people of America. They are distinctly paleo- lithic and manifest all the characteristic features of the paleolithic artifacts of Europe as stated by Evans in his work, "Ancient Stone implements of Great Britain."
2. They have been secondarily chipped by a later people, and this later people have left their work strewn up and down the Kansas valley and its tribu- tary valleys. This later people may have done inde- pendent quarrying in the cherty limestone.
3. These paleolithic artifacts are south from, but quite near, the oldest known glacial moraine of the
4 WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
ice-age, the northeastern corner of Kansas having been invaded by the Kansas ice-sheet. An outline map of this section of Kansas has been constructed by the aid of Prof. J. E. Todd, showing the Glacial geology. (See Plate-map).
4. The area of the Quivirans, as marked out by Mr. Brower, takes in a part of the elevated lands which are underlain by the chert-bearing limestone, which was not disturbed by the ice-movement, nor covered by a sheet of Glacial drift of an)- kind.
5. The area of the Haraheyans (of Brower) is fur- ther north and further east, and was in part involved in the events of the near-by Glacial moraine, at least so far as the abundant waters from the dissolving ice
were able to spread a sheet of gravel and sand, or of loess, along the valleys. Hence
6. The rude artifacts from the chert-bearing up- land when not wholly buried from sight, are found mixed, in the valleys, with the more finished artifacts of the later people, some of the former being partially (and frequently wholly) re-chipped.
7. The stone artifacts show therefore two (or three) ages of sto'ne-working, one being perhaps pre- Glacial, or inter-Glacial (if not both) and one post- Glacial. The corresponding inter-Glacial terms would probably be Pleistocene (or Af Ionian), Buchanan and Recent.
There are several other interesting propositions that might here be given, but they will appear more reason- ably in connection with the circumstantial discussion of these, and their perfect adjustment with these will serve to elucidate and confirm these. Air. Brower's
BROW Eli'S COLLECTION IN KANSAS. 5
great work in establishing Quivira in the Kansas river valley, and having it marked by a granite monu- ment at Logan grove,* cannot be called in question. It is in his attempt to adjust his discovery with discov- ered archeologic facts, and with aboriginal history and tradition, that the writer thinks that some change should be made — a change, moreover, which, if Air. Brower had apprehended it, he would have welcomed, since it furnishes another confirmation of one of the leading ideas of his archeological work — the existence of pre-Glacial man in x\merica.
Near the close of Air. Brower's work in Kansas, he collected, boxed and sent to St. Paul, with the aid of Judge J. T. Keagy of Alma, living in the valley of Mill Creek, in Wabaunsee county, a large number of those coarse artifacts. This collection came from "Quivira" village sites in Morris, Geary, Riley and Wabaunsee counties, and from various isolated spots, and in the course of examination of Mr. Brower's ex- tensive collection has just been reached (January, 1912). The sites are often well up toward the crest where the uplands break down in undulating slopes and descend into the valleys. The upland divides be- tween adjacent creeks (such as Humbolt and McDow- ell) on the northwesterly side of the range, are narrow, and it was easy for the people who lived on the north- westerly side to pass the crown of the upland and find suitable sites on the upper slopes of the southeastern side. (V. Kansas, pp. 101-102).
*Logan Grove is on the land of Capt. Robert Henderson, near Junction City. Later .Mr. 1. rower was instrumental in having similar commemorative monuments erected at Man- hattan, Alma and Herrington.
!
I
V.
6 WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
1. THE "QUIVIRAN" IMPLEMENTS WERE NOT FROM THE WICHITA.
Taking the foregoing propositions in numerical order, it is not at all necessary to dwell on the first part of No. 1. Probably every student of the present Indians will admit that the "Ouiviran" artifacts de- scribed by Mr. Brower are notably different from those now in use, or in use when America was dis- covered. That they are distinctly Paleolithic however requires demonstration.
Nature of the Quivim Chert. Patination.
This chert is embraced in nodules and broken lay- ers in a magnesian limestone of the age of the Coal Measures, or the Permo-Carboniferous. This lime- stone does not effervesce freely in cold acid, but dis- solves on being boiled. It is apparently also quite siliceous, and in this condition is cemented firmly up- on the surfaces of some of the coarse artifacts that have been made from the chert.* The chert and the surrounding limestone are fossiliferous with small organisms, some of which are coralline (crinoids and cyathophylloids). rarely brachiopodous or ostracodous and bryozoan, and with many siliceous spicules ap- parently from sponges. The chert has been called blue, but it is prevailingly, at least on the outside, of a dark gray color, with denser portions which are more blue. P>esides these shades, which may be considered
*This condition of the limestone chemically is more allied to chert than to limestone, but its grain and its color exclude it from the designation chert.
*
NATURE OF QUIVIRA CHERT. 7
as variations of one color, there is a notable amount of a light gray color, and this light gray is not due to atmospheric weathering of any recent date, for these two penetrate each other in irregular patches and sometimes in a manner resembling sedimentary lamin- ation. As chert it is not very siliceous. It is easily chipped. Perhaps one eighth of all the coarse arti- facts collected are made entirely of this light-colored chert, and more than one-half of them show both colors. Long weathering turns both these colors usu- ally to a still lighter color. This light-colored chert was noted by Mr. Brower, who "considered it of an in- ferior quality, and as prevailing in the western part of Quivira, along the eastern boundary of the Dakota sandstone. This alteration may be attributed there- fore to pre-Cretaceous exposure, and perhaps to the atmospheric elements, and it may be expected that the limestone, where now overlain by the Dakota sandstone, would show, on deep exploration, a large amount of this altered chert. It is apparently from this that numerous Missouri artifacts have been made.* The darker-colored chert, further east, shows, by the manner of transition to light-colored, that the latter is only a phase of the former.
Paleolithic Wcath cviiig. W eathering of a more su- perficial kind is notable on nearly all the coarse arti- facts of Quivira. This later weathering requires care- ful consideration. It manifests various characteris- tics, viz :
*The "points" figured on "plate 3 of arrow points" "Abor- igines of Minnesota'' made of "light colored chert" illustrare this kind of Kansas chert, and can be referred confidently to eastern Missouri, as noted on page 415.
i
8
WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
(a) . Patina consisting of a superficial change of color. The dark gray and the blush-gray cherts have a tendency to become much lighter colored, approach- ing white (and sometimes light brown) and the light gray has a tendency to become yellowish, passing through buff to yellowish brown.
(b) . Patina consisting of a polished, or glossy sur- face. This glossy surface is usually more pronounced on one side of an artifact or chip than on the other, as if one side had been less exposed to the atmospheric agents. It is often visible on both sides, but there are some that do not show it noticeably on either side, although belonging by culture in the same class. This glossiness of course has obliterated all the fine, sharp angularities due to the fracturing of the grain of the chert, but it has not destroyed the coarser angularities (aretes), such as are produced by the intersections of fracture planes. It smoothes off the edges and de- scends into the main undulations of the chipped sur- faces. Some have described this glossines as a ''bur- nishing," but if it were produced by a burnisher, it was one that accommodated itself to the inequalities of a very uneven surface. On making a new chipping from one of these glossy specimens, so directed as to cause an intersection of the new surface with the glossy surface, the contrast presented by them is quite evident. The fresh surface is dull gray, does not re- flect the light from the window and has the feel of a fine roughness, while the old surfaces reflect the light successively as the turning of the specimen brings them into the proper angles.
KINDS OF PAGINATION, 9
This patina, whether change of color or loss of the fine asperity of the original fracture, is very thin. Its thickness usually cannot be seen with the unaided eye. Frequently both characteristics are seen on the same specimen, and on the same surface, indeed usually they go in company.
(c) . There is also another form of patina, which appears on the grayish-blue specimens. In this case, while there is no marked glossiness there is a change of color throughout a surface layer about as thick as card-board, or letter paper, the color assumed being a dirty gray and brownish gray. This change screens entirely the bluish tint of the interior, and when a chip is removed not only the color of the coating can be seen but also its thickness. This form of alteration is due probably to protection from the impact of at- mospheric agents, by burial beneath a rubbish of chert and soil, and its significance is nearly the same, as to age, as the forms (a) and (b), but in numerous cases it is older than fa) and (b).
(d) . Occasionally can be seen scattered spangles and non-reflecting specks of what appears to be black oxide of manganese, but this has not been analyzed, and is not common.
(e) . There is also a persistent thin dirt-colored patina which cannot be washed off, nor removed writh a brush and warm water. This is very common on all the old surfaces, but is absent from modern arti- facts. It is later than the glossy surfaces. It is only in this patina that have been observed (though rather doubtfully) the peculiar spots described by Evans
V.
10 WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
(op. cit. p. 575) "caused," as supposed by him, "by lying for ages in contact with other stones."
(f). In addition to the foregoing there is, though rarely, a calcareous scale which is usually considered evidence of a Glacial age. This I have called a "gla- cial patina" (Records of the Past, Vol. VIII, p. 251) and it is found on pebbles gathered from the drift in the Mill Creek valley. The most remarkable instance of the preservation of this calcareous crust on an artifact is seen on specimen Xo. 520G, of the Brower register, and it is probably due to the size of this specimen that it is well preserved. It is a large, egg-shaped, yet pointed, leaf or turtle, having a length of ten inches, a width of six and three-fourths inches and thickness of three and a half inches. It was coarsely chipped to form, the outline for an implement of its kind (if it may be called such) being about perfect. The chipped facets are large, and usually do not show, on either side, a pronounced gloss, though it is quite plain on some of the facets. This calcareous scale is scattered throughout both surfaces, in spots of varying size, and has apparently been removed from much of the surface by some means unknown, occupying now probably not more than one-fifth. This large specimen was prob- ably covered and screened from friction by the accu- mulation of a layer of debris composed of quarry refuse or surface glacial wash-gravel (or sand) during the prevalence of the flooded waters. It may be in- ferred therefore that this glacial patina has the same origin and probably the same date as the calcareous stalagmite (as described below) which in European caverns covers the paleolithic implements and bones
GLACIAL PATINA. 11
of the cave-earth, and it is a remarkable illustration of the similarity of the effect of the ice-epoch on op- posite sides of the Atlantic.
(g). On many specimens can be seen a sprinkling of limonite, which is in streaks and spots, usually more plentiful on one side than the other. This is accepted as a sign of long weathering, probably with the limon- ated side lying downward.
Comparison With European Paleoliths.
In the Brower collection are several European Pale- olithic specimens obtained from the Smithsonian In- stitution. Two of these are shown on the accompany- ing plates (I and II) by photo-engraving. One (a) is from Feuardent, Loire Bassin, France. (No. 35122 of the Smithsonian register, and 2229 of the Brower reg- ister of the Historical Society) and the other (b) from the drift at Thetford, England, (No. 11083 of the Smithsonian register and 222S of the Brower register).
The former (a), approximates the general shape of a "scraper" but is too large for that designation, and, besides, its larger end is' not artificiallly beveled on one side in a manner like the mono-oblique beveling of the conventional scraper, although a part of the old outer surface which came in contact with the rock matrix in which as a chert nodule it was orisnnallv surround- ed, slopes toward the base, with a curving contour so as to give it the general shape of the small Neo- lithic scrapers of America. Its general surficial color is a mottling of buff-yellow and gray of differing shades, these colors blending into each other. A few
12 WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
recent chips have been flaked from the edges and
from the small end. revealing the fact that the interior color is a mottling of gray of differing shades, and
Outline of a Pnleolith from Feuardeut, France.
COMPARISON WITH EUROPEAN PALEOLITHS. 13
proving that the yellow and buff tones and the glossi- ness have been acquired by weathering'. These ac- quired tones do not pierce the substance of the chert
Outline of a Paleolith from Feuardent, France.
I
14 WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
to any appreciable thickness, but the oldest surface, which came next to the rock matrix, is changed to a nearly white color to a depth of one thirty-second part of an inch to one-sixteenth part, and its texture is finely granular and harsh to the finger-nail. This yel- low-buff color, which is more pronounced on one side (a) than the other, must be considered, therefore, as a patina formed by long weathering. It is not a glacial coating, but a weather-coating.
The other side of this specimen (a') likewise evinces its age by a similar alteration of color, but much less marked. Indeed this side 'is almost wholly mottled gray, with only a faint clouding by buff. All over this side, however, are small scattered specks of limonite, or limonitic manganese, of about the size of a common pin head. This side was probably turned downward during a long period while the other side was exposed to the sun and the friction of atmospheric precipitation and wind. Both sides are ''polished" or "burnished" but the a side is the smoother. In no case is there any perceptible (though there probably is an actual) loss of sharpness at the angular edges of the flaking, al- though that sharpness is sometimes dulled by small chippings due to use and to rough handling.
The specimen is a typical Paleolithic implement, judging by the roughness of the flaking, no less than by the age which it evinces, or the source record which accompanies it.
2. The second European Paleolith selected for comparison (b) is a rude and apparently purposeless implement, still more altered by long weathering, hav- ing almost uniformly the same yellowish color, but
COMPARISON* WITH EUROPEAN PALEOLITHS. 15
slightly showing' a shading toward dark amber color. This specimen is apparently only a part of the original implement, which was broken before it was weathered, and corresponds to the larger end of the specimen last described. In the same manner, and approximately in the same part of the specimen, is preserved a por- tion of the original matrix-surface.
On fracturing this specimen the interior color is found to be gray, entirely like that from the Loire Bassin. Adherent to the larger end is some rusty grit derived from drift, cemented by limonite.
These two specimens can reasonably be taken as typical of the chert implements which are buried in the drift gravels of the regions mentioned,* and hence as guides to Paleolithic specimens of the same material found in America. The chief characteristic is the nature of the patina. The surface of the chert is turned to honey-yellow of varying shades, but the or- iginal gray of the chert occasionally gives a darker shade to the patina, and on protected surfaces it shows through the patina and appears to be almost un- changed. Besides this patina there is a glossy smoothness which is superior to that of recently flaked chert. This smoothness is not due to use as an im- plement, for the smallest inequalities and the sharp- ness of the flaking are preserved, and are handsomely covered by the patina as well as by this smoothness. It would be a misnomer to call this smoothness a
*It is at present impossible to correlate the drift of these points with the drift epochs of America. But the deep al- teration of the Thetford chert seems to require that the gravels in which it was found belong- to the Kansas epoch rather than the Wisconsin; though it may have long ante- dated even the Kansan.
i
I
V-
16 WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
"polish," if by that is meant an artificial frictional effect. It may be a "polish" if it be allowed that the polishing agent had no grit, and was nothing more abrasive than wind and rain and sunshine. The speci-
Pnleolith from The t ford, Eng.
â– MP
1
<
THE
WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS. MINN. HIST.
soc.
\
ml
FALEOIJTH FROM FEU ARDENT, FRANCE.
â–
(
PLATE I.
PALEOL1TH FROM THETFORD, ENG. Pages 13, 58.
I
V-
THE WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS. MINN. HIST. SOC.
mm V. * H
V
5
* * *
. » * *• »
i
flNP
> . .. Vx >
. * •
'it s
1
9* f '
ye
3*
a
-i
PALEOLITH FROM FEUARDENT, FRANCE.
v..
PLATE II.
i
PALEOLITH FROM THETFORD, ENG. PAGES 13, 58.
t
V.
PATINA OF EUROPEAN PALEOLITHS. IT
men from England may also have had some experience of friction in the gravel with which it was associated, but that cannot be stated of the specimen from the Loire Bassin. (See Plates I and II).
Paleolitlt from Theti'orri, Eng.
V.
18 WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
3. Two specimens, chert "scrapers" or flakes, Xo. 2*2.')<> of the Brovyer collection register, and Xo. 99553 of the Smithsonian Institution, from the cavern of Le Monstier, Ye/.ere valley, France.
(d.)
Frttm the Cavern of L,e Monstier.
I
v..
SPECIMENS FROM LE MOUSTIEK. 19
Each of these is a single tlake. but (c) was preceded by other Makes from the same core. They show but little secondary chipping, and probably all of the fine secondary chipping was produced by use as imple- ments, since it is restricted to the long*, sharp edges, or sides. Of these that marked (cj has a few very fine vermicular) tubes or coatings, apparently calcareous, and some scattering- spots of incrustation exactly com- parable with those found by the writer adherent on some flints taken from the McKinstry mounds in northern Minnesota, and described by him in "Aborig- ines of Minnesota" p. 371, probably the forms of mag- gots accompanying the decay of flesh. That marked (d) has no incrustation. Both of them are gray in color, and nearly as fresh as when they were first made. More than one-half of one side of (d) shows however, the original old surface which was the out- side of the nodule from which the flake was taken. This surface is decayed to the. depth of about an eighth of an inch and turned much lighter colored. In general, however, the flaked surfaces of these speci- mens show no patina nor smoothing comparable with the same found on the drift artifacts. Xot only does their known history but also their present condition show that they are much more recent in origin than the above noted drift specimens. Vet they are "prehis- toric," in Europe : and they serve to establish the fact that artificial cherts, at least when in caverns., do not acquire a marked patina with the lapse of several thou- >and years, and do not show any kind of decay. And so far as the cave of Le Moustier is concerned, these specimens tend to show that its inhabitants were not
I
V.
20 WEATHERING OF STONE ARTIFACTS.
contemporary with the men of the river artifacts, but were much later. Still, according to John Evans in his "Ancient stone implements and weapons of Great Britain/' p. 44T, the Hint implements found in the Kent cavern at Torquay, England, in the cave earth below the stalagmite have ''become nearly white and have a lustrous surface/' proving greater age than these of Le Moustier, which may have come from nearer the surface than the bottom of the stratum carrying the human artifacts. A much-altered specimen described by Evans was so situated that it must have been the oldest of human relics found in that (Kent) cavern. It has the shape and about the size of the Thetford specimen above described, and this resemblance to the river-drift implements is noted by Evans (op. cit. p. 449). A worked flint flake is altered in an identical manner, coming from the cave earth beneath the stal- agmite and associated with teeth of hyaena, bear and fox.
So far as can be determined from Evans' book re- ferred to, all the flints from the ''cave earth" are deeply altered, and patinated.
Above the stalagmite layer, which is referred to as an important separating datum, is a "black mould/' and in it are found "polished"' stone implements and others of bronze. The fauna of the cave earth, below the stalagmite, consists almost entirely of extinct species, cave lion, cave hyaena, cave bear, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, horse, urns, Irish elk, bison, etc., but in the black mould are bones of modern species such as dog, short-horn ox, roe-deer, sheep, goat, pig and rabbit. It is evident that some great catastrophe in
EFFECT OF THE ICE AGE. 21
nature had taken place after the formation of the cave- earth by which the great mammals had been extermin- ated or expelled and. after the catastrophe, had been succeeded by a fauna essentially modern, at least post- Glacial.
Now, not only are the cave-earth flints similar to those found in the river-drift, but the extinct mammal remains of the river-drift are entirely similar to those of the cave-earth showing a substantial cotemporane- ity. The inference is plain that the cave earth was accumulated in pre-Glacial (Pleistocene) time and that in England, as in America, Pleistocene time was char- acterized by the prevalence of the mammoth and the lion and a large number of predaceous animals, which became extinct with the oncoming of the Glacial epoch.
Effect of the Ice Aye.
The ice-age was a period of flooding, in the countries that lay south of the ice margin, and this flooding was not confined to the time of the retreat of the ice, as has sometimes been- supposed, but was continuous with and