COMMITTEE ON ARCHAEOLOGY. J. H. BURNHAM, Bloomington-Chairman. Prof. Frederick Starr J. V. N. Standish Dr. Wm. Jayne . Hon. Wm. T. Norton Clark E. Carr, ex officio Chicago .Galesburg . Springfield ..Alton Galesburg SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER THE PRAC TICABILITY, ETC., OF ASKING THE NEXT PRIATION FOR THE CONSTRUC- SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO CONFER WITH THE ILLINOIS PARK COMMISSION IN REGARD TO A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF HIS TORIC SPOTS IN ILLINOIS. Wм. A. MEESE, Moline-Chairman. W. T. Norton E. B. Greene.. ..Alton Urbana PREHISTORIC ILLINOIS. THE PRIMITIVE FLINT INDUSTRY. DR. J. F. SNYDER. True flint-silica with very slight admixture of lime and oxyd of iron-is not one of the native minerals of Illinois. But chert-a compound of silica with aluminum, magnesia, lime, soda and a trace of iron-occurs quite abundantly in different parts of the State intercalated in stratas of limestone, and also in free nodular masses. Chert varies in composition and texture from the coarser grades of hornstone to an approximation to true flint; and in color from dusky brown, gray, blue and green, singly or blended, to translucent white. The variety of it known as jasper is often in brilliant colors, and sometimes beautifully variegated. For convenience of description when treating of prehistoric Indian implements, archæologists comprehend all those fashioned of silicious stone in the general class of "chipped flints." As thus designated, flint was indispensable to the aborigines. It was essential to them for obtaining food, for their defensive and aggressive warfare, and for many domestic utilities. Of that class of Indian relics found in Illinois a large proportion were doubtless made here of indigenous flints; but many also occur that were wrought from exotic material, evidently obtained by the Indians of this locality in distant regions by barter or as the spoils of warproving the wide intercommunication of the early tribes. Thus, in the country bordering on the Wabash and its tributaries the predominant chipped implements are of dark flinty stone, easily traced to their origin in the chert beds of the same color and composition abounding in the "Highland Rim" that surrounds the silurian basin of middle Tennessee; having been brought north by the canoe route of primitive emigration and commerce, down the Cumberland river and up the Wabash. In the valley of the Illinois river the material of many-perhaps of the greater number of its flint artifacts is readily recognized as identical with that of Flint Ridge in Licking county Ohio, from whence they no doubt came. Associated with them here are the peculiar blue arrow and spear points from the upper Missouri; those of milkwhite chert common in the Dakotas; rude specimens of Michigan quartzites, and occasional intruders of novaculite, from the environs of Hot Springs in Arkansas. But the most abstruse problem presented in this early aboriginal industry is to explain the (rare and exceptional) presence in Illinois mounds of exquisitely finished implements of obsidian, a volcanic glass found in no locality nearer this State than Arizona or Wyoming. Possibly these fine objects-contrasting so sharply with the local products in that line were among the lares et penates of the first red immigrants from the occident who, wandering to this side of the Mississippi, deposited them, as votive offerings, in their memorial mounds. The extreme scarcity of obsidian here, either fragmentary or in definite forms, precludes the supposition that it was imported in bulk as a raw material, and subsequently chipped into conventional shapes here, as were several varieties of flint from other regions. Cabeca de Vaca relates, in his shipwrecked experience on the rockless shore of Texas, near Galveston, in 1530-'36, that certain Indians, of the tribe that held him in captivity, made periodical expeditions far into the interior of the country for flint to tip their arrow and spear shafts with. Extensive traffic of that kind was conducted by Tennessee Indians with those on the Gulf coast, bartering flint from their hills for marine shells and corals. The Indians of Illinois were not less enterprising. Not finding here the kinds of stone possessing the toughness, and other qualities, to suit their purposes, they procured supplies of the needed article from districts distant sometimes several thousand miles, bringing it here in pieces of convenient size to carry, or in "roughed out" implements to be afterwards finished at their leisure. On arrival here their stock in trade was cached in the ground, for the double object of safekeeping and preserving the natural moisture (water of crystalization) of the stone, that facilitated its cleavage. It may here be remarked that our gun-flint makers, of a century or two ago, discovered that property of the stone and kept it in tanks of water until ready to utilize it. At this late date it not unfrequently happens that the plow uncovers an old cache or buried deposit of rudely shaped flints, hidden there long ago by a venturesome trader who forgot their location or fell in battle without revealing their hiding place. In all parts of the State, excepting in the large prairies, are occasionally seen the remains of the open air workshops where native artisans of the stone age wrought, from the several varieties of flint-like rock at hand, their missive weapons and utensils in daily use. Those remains are now but more or less extensive rubbish heaps of stone flakes and chips, interspersed with broken or incomplete implements and rejects, with bones, mussel shells, charcoal, ashes, and other camp refuse, partially or wholly buried in the soil. They are found usually, but not invariably, near streams, springs, or old village sites. In one of these ancient factories, covering half an acre or more of ground, adjoining a group of large mounds in Brown county, in the vast accumulation of cherty debris, broken pottery, etc., were observed, and collected, fragments of chalcedony, agate, mica, catlinite, and various quartoze rocks, entirely foreign to the geological horizon of central Illinois. For all ordinary purposes, however, the Indians relied upon the supply of cherty flint found here as erratic drift boulders on the surface, or in nodular masses about outcrops of limestone ledges. In but few localities in the State were they compelled to dig in the ground to any extent for this material. |