Flint Working by Ishi |
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actual adjoining amount of raw ANNIVERSARY VOLUME NELSON-PLATE appears archeologist arrowpoint art of producing artist axis based partly better bits bone butt-end California chipping tool core curve cutting edge delicate dexterity direct blow duplicate early Egypt employs fact factor finished firmly flint chipping flint workers flying furnished by Professor Gift glass hammerstone held HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME illustration implements index finger Indian interest involved iron Ishi By NELS ISHI HOLMES ANNIVERSARY Ishi's knife-blade leather pad less let us say lump of obsidian manufacture master METHODS MUSEUM nature NELSON RECEIVED NELSON-FLINT NOTCHING AND SERRATING notching tool observed obsidian mass once Pacific palm piece plane pose Preliminary pressure proceed Professor Kroeber punch removed reversal right angle right hand Scandinavia Secondary Flaking seemingly selected shape shown in plate slender stages STONE substance superfluous Tech technique thick thin thumb TOZZER LIBRARY water-worn bowlder workman
Popular passages
Page 399 - As a matter of fact, what is wanted in the case of producing a large implement is not the division of the obsidian mass but the trimming down of this mass by the detachment from it of all unnecessary portions. A direct blow with a hammerstone might be fatal to the obsidian core being thus shaped, while an indirect blow, delivered through this punch, the same being held at a selected spot and angle, has some chance of success in removing the superfluous portions without shattering the whole piece...
Page 401 - 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 proceeds as...
Page 401 - Quite naturally therefore the accompanying illustration of the act (Fig. i), furnished by Professor Kroeber, shows Ishi with his eyes closed. This photograph, it should be explained, is not a mere 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.
Page 401 - Consequently his arrowpoints when finished are thin and shapely, while mine, much to his disguest, 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...
Page 392 - VOLUME work. A glance at the Handbook of American Indians under "Stonework" shows what interest the subject has aroused during the last four or five decades. Technology would seem to have been a favorite study, and no one has contributed more to the subject than Professor Holmes. The various processes of pecking, grinding, drilling, flaking, and chipping have all been more or less successfully duplicated.
Page 392 - ... scattered over the face of the earth are no longer mysterious darts from heaven. The art of producing them is well understood. This being so, it may seem superfluous to record yet another observation on flint chipping. Nevertheless, without citing possible arguments in defense, I venture to describe...
Page 400 - For the secondary flaking or, as it will be termed in this paper, <• hipping, a tool was made as follows: Ishi on one occasion took a common spike and at another time a piece of iron rod about the size of a lead pencil. He ground one end down about equally on two opposing sides, making a curving, chisel-like cutting edge, lenticular in crosssection — a tool of a nature halfway between an awl and a chisel. Around the butt-end a bit of cloth was wrapped to ease the handhold, and the chipping tool...
Page 401 - ... resulting fragments he will pick out those most readily adapted to the purpose needed, let us say arrowpoints, 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 II. The flake to be worked will be observed resting on a bit of leather and placed transversely across...