File:Antiquities of the southern Indians, particularly of the Georgia tribes (1873) (14777002262).jpg

Identifier: antiquitiesofsou00jone_0 (find matches)
Title: Antiquities of the southern Indians, particularly of the Georgia tribes
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Jones, Charles C. (Charles Colcock), 1831-1893
Subjects: Indians of North America Indians of North America
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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n mounting the ordinary grooved axe. Thebent handle, we think, was probably adopted. II. Hand and Wedge-shaped Axes, oe StoneCelts.1—In the accompanying Plate XI. are figuredsix varieties of this class. As in the case of thegrooved axes, so with those we propose now to con-sider, greenstone or diorite was the material usually se-lected for their manufacture. A few chipped flint axeshave been found. The largest specimen representedweighs three pounds and a half, is ten inches and a halfin length, and three inches and a half broad at the cut-ting edge. Its symmetry of proportion is admirable.Some of these axes are nearly cylindrical, and resem-ble very closely the variety called by Mr. Mlsson thecross-axe with edge ground on both sides. Othershave the broad sides somewhat convex, and the nar-row sides flat. Some have blunt heads and are fan-shaped, widening very much at the cutting end. 1 Compare Evans Ancient Stone Implements, etc., of Great Britain, chap,vi, London, 18T2. 7*lale X/.
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AM PHOTOLITHOGRAPHIC CO N Y \ OSBORNES PROCtSTj POLISHED STONE CELTS. 279 Others still, terminate in a sharp point at the upperend, as though the intention was with it to loosen orbreak up the material worked upon, and then, withthe cutting end, to remove the particles and smooththe surface. Such a tool would have been very con-venient in many instances. Particularly valuablewould it have proved for dressing the interior of awooden canoe hollowed out by fire. Within the oldoak canoe, unearthed in 1780, at St. Enochs croft, andnear the prow, lay a beautifully-finished stone axevery similar to the pointed celt we have figured inthe accompanying plate. It was doubtless one of thesimple implements with which this primitive Clydeboat had been fashioned.1 A like tool was equallyeffective in giving shape to the cypress canoes whichin ancient times navigated the yellow waters of theSavannah and the Alataniaha. These wedge-shapedaxes or celts differ in length from three inches to afoot; are, a

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