History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1054

USA > Vermont > Chittenden County > History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 7

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

most were less. In closing this discussion of our ancient pottery I think I can do no better than, by way of illustration of what has been said, describe briefly the two entire jars in the university museum. The smaller jar is probably the most elaborate specimen of ancient ceramics ever found in the eastern United States. It is poorly figured in Thompson's Vermont, and very much better in Harper's Magazine for August, 1882, page 354. It is of a form which, though peculiar, is not unique in this region, for there are fragments of several other jars which were apparently of the same general form, and the ornamentation of these is similar to that of this. The usual globular form is found only in the lower part of this jar. Above this the form changes to rectangular and the sides incline toward each other, so that they are nearer above than below. From the bottom to the beginning of the square portion is about two and a half inches, and the sides above are about the same width. Above this the circular form is again seen, in a neck or wide groove, above which the square form reappears. This time the sides incline outward to the rim, which is about two inches above the neck. The ornamenting is done entirely in rings and lines. Beginning at the lower portion, we find the globular part plain. About the bottom of the quadrangular part is a row of rings deeply stamped, which extends around the jar. These rings are rather less than half an inch in diameter and are of nearly uniform size. They appear as if stamped with a cylindrical, hollow bone. Just above the rings are two lines. Above these the surface of each side is covered with diagonal, vertical, and horizontal lines- so arranged as to make a V-shaped figure in the center, filled in with short horizontal lines, while oblique and vertical lines fill the space between it and the outer sides. Above these are two horizontal lines. The corners where these four sides meet are flattened, and ornamented by a vertical row of circles. A row also runs around that portion which has been called the neck. The flat sides above this neck are ornamented in a manner similar to that of the sides below, though the arrangement of lines is somewhat different. Around the inner edge of the rim there is a band of short lines. The entire height of the jar is seven and a half inches, the diameter across the top about six inches ; capacity, as before stated, nine pints. It was found in Colchester, under the- roots of a large decayed oak. Our other jar is almost wholly destitute of deco- ration, nor has it the peculiar form of the first-mentioned jar, since it is nearly spherical, with a short, vertical rim or neck. About this neck is a band of oblique parallel lines about an inch wide, below which is a line of notch-like grooves ; and another band is about the top, and still another inside of the rim. This jar was found in Bolton. It is about nine and a half inches high and its diameter at the largest part is very nearly the same, although at the neck it is only seven and a half inches. It is about one fourth of an inch thick at the bottom, twice as much at the top, and holds twelve quarts.

Not only jars were made of earthenware, but pipes. Some of these were-

INDIAN OCCUPATION AND RELICS.

quite rough on the outside, others very smooth and of fine material. They are generally shaped very much like the large end of a cornet-that is, they are straight and cylindrical, with one end flaring. They are three or four inches long and about one inch in diameter, except just at the flaring end, which may be two inches across. These earthenware pipes are very rare. The finest of these pipes is shown in Figure I, Number 3.

Not only dishes of pottery were used by the people we are studying, but they also used those made of soapstone, or freestone. These dishes do not appear to have been very common, and they were heavy and clumsy compared with the earthenware jars. Probably they were not ornamented as a rule, though we have fragments of one which bears rectangular figures arranged in a double row. These soapstone dishes were heavy and shallow and generally of an oval form, if we can judge from the few large pieces which have been found.

Everywhere the greater part of archaeological collections consists of ob- jects made of stone, and this is especially true of this region, where metal was used so little by the early inhabitants. People too rude to manufacture some sort of tools from the pebbles that lie within their hands' reach, are rude in- deed, and rarely found. Probably no material has been wrought so universally and with so much labor and patience as stone, and it is chiefly from their work in stone that we must learn what we can of any prehistoric people. Accord- ingly we turn with interest to the thousands of stone ornaments and imple- ments which have been found within the limits of the county, although, because of the abundant record which the earthenware gives us, we are not so wholly shut up to the testimony of the stone work as we should be in some localities. We shall do well to remind ourselves and our friends, especially those who are confident that they can accurately assign its use to each article found, that it is not possible to conjecture even, much less know, the purpose for which stone implements, etc., were designed by their makers, unless one is familiar both with the accounts of the pioneers of the white race in America, those who saw the red men in the condition in which they lived before the in- fluence of civilization reached them, and also with the customs of modern sav- age tribes. Very often these people accomplish an object in a different way and by the aid of different tools from any known to civilization, and one who fails to remember this will surely be misled. New England is not looked to by archeologists as a rich field for prosecuting their studies; nor is it. Yet by dint of diligent search this county and those north and south of it have been forced to yield a harvest which, if not rich, is certainly very well worth the gathering. I think that even archeologists may be surprised to learn that some of the stone implements found here are as elegant in form, material and workmanship, as far as it goes, as any of those found in either Europe or America ; but I am sure that we have in our college collection specimens that

HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

FIG. 9 A.

INDIAN OCCUPATION AND RELICS.

HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

justify such a statement. In variety this may be inferior to many regions, and we have no carving equal to that found on the pipes from the Ohio mounds, but there are no finer celts, gouges or gorgets than are some of those from Essex and Colchester. There is no class of implements found in this county which is more characteristic of the locality than the so-called "gouges" (Fig- ures 2-10). By this I do not mean that this implement is not found elsewhere, but that nowhere is it found in such relative abundance and so great variety as in Western Vermont. Here the gouges form a very important part of our col- lections, and not even the ornaments are more beautifully wrought or of hand- somer material. They are of all sizes, shapes and kinds of stone, yet they are very rarely ill-formed or rudely finished, but in most specimens are regular in shape and smooth, if not polished, over the whole surface (as is Figure 9), and this notwithstanding the fact that not infrequently they were made from gran- ite or basalt, or some similarly hard and intractable material. In length they are from three to nineteen inches. The groove, which is, of course, the char- acteristic feature, is as variable as the size and form. Some of the gouges are deeply grooved throughout their entire length, as in Figures 2, 3, 9, while oth- ers are only so much grooved as to save them from being celts or chisels. The groove may be wide and shallow, as in Figure 10, or narrow and deep, as in Figure 21, Number 2. The body of the gouge may also be much wider than thick, as Figure 6, or it may be cylindrical, or triangular, or square, in cross sec- tions. Besides the hard material mentioned, softer rock, such as talcose schist, slate or limestone, was used. Some specimens are furnished with a gouge end and a chisel end, as Figure 7, and some have an edge at each end, as Figure 3.

It is not reasonable to suppose that an instrument so varied in all its char- acteristics (scarcely any two among them all are alike) was always used for one definite object, but rather that different gouges served different uses. Some may have been used for excavating dug-out canoes, which we know were used; some for dressing skins, removing fat, etc .; others for other uses. Because gouges have been most abundantly found in maple-sugar making regions, some have guessed that they were used in tapping the trees ; but I see no reason for accepting this view, and the form of a large number of our specimens renders it highly improbable. It is noticeable and very singular that few of our gouges appear to have been used for any sort of work, since they are as perfect as when they first left the hands of the maker. So far as I can discover, we have no account of the gouge and its use in the narratives of early explorers. Champlain must have seen many of them used, but he rarely speaks of the implements of the savages with much detail, and not at all of this. We know that some of the Southern tribes used shell or bone gouges for removing the charred wood from the log that was to be transformed into a canoe. In any case we must admit that, considering the facilities which the aborigines pos- sessed for working stone, the amount of labor expended upon some of our

INDIAN OCCUPATION AND RELICS.

FIGURE 16.

FIGURE 14.

FIGURE 13.

FIGURE 17.

FIGURE 15.

FIGURE 12.

FIGURE 18.

HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

FIGURE 11.

FIGURE 19.

FIGURE 20.

largest gouges was simply prodigious.1 Another very interesting class of ob- jects are the celts, often popularly called chisels. They may have served as chisels sometimes, but not usually ; they were for the most part, undoubtedly, used as axes. Very likely the first impiement which primitive men used was a pebble, which they made serviceable as a hammer for cracking nuts or break- ing heads. From a pebble used just as it was found, they advanced to one which was hammered with another pebble until it was more easily held or in any way better served its purposes. Then after a time it occurred to some one to rub a flat pebble upon another until a blunt edge was produced. A very rude instrument this, but as it was his one implement with which he must perform much of the labor which the rude necessities of his life required, man would learn to accomplish very much by its aid. With it he felled trees and hewed them into canoes, built huts, slew his enemies, or dug in the earth for roots. A simple beginning, indeed, was this rudely-edged pebble ; and yet it was the first step in the long and toilsome series by which man has risen from savagery to civilization. The man of the rude stone axe was a man, and therefore he was the forerunner of the man of the steam-engine

1 Figures 2-10 show some of the more common forms of gouges. Figure 2 is of basalt, well formed and finished; 2 A shows a cross section, giving the peculiar form of this specimen. 3 is a double-edged gouge, also an uncommon form. 4 and 5 show the back and front sides, reduced one- half. This is of a fine-grained, greenish talcose rock; the surface is finely polished. 6 is a chisel gouge, shown full size, of polished talcose schist. 7 is a ruder specimen, with a very peculiar edge. 8 shows, one-half size, a very finely-made gouge in which the groove is pointed above. 9 is a superb gouge, the full length of which is 1112 inches. It is beautifully made and polished. I A shows a transverse, and I B is a longitudinal section, from which the form can be well made out. 10 shows a specimen of the wide and short gouges. 21, No. 2, shows a much reduced figure of a most elegant gouge of cylindrical form. It is very regular in form, finely polished, and in every way a most admira- ble piece of stone work. It is over a foot long, of light green stone.

INDIAN OCCUPATION AND RELICS.

FIGURE 21.

HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

and the telegraph. Doubtless the first axes were used without handles, simply held in the hand. It would seem that no long experience of this sort of chop- ping would be necessary to impress upon the workman the need of something to spare the hand the shock of the blows, and at length handles were used, at least upon some of the axes. Possibly the pitch from pine or spruce was col- lected from the forests, and a mass of it attached to the end of the celt, thus furnishing it with a substitute for a handle, as modern Australians sometimes do. Very probably the ingenious mode of attaching a handle to a stone axe, which was known to more southern tribes, was in use here. Having, by per- haps years of labor, brought the stone axe to the desired form, the owner went to the forest, and selected a suitable branch vigorously growing on a tree. This branch was cleft and the axe inserted into it and bound in place. It was then left for weeks, or even months, until the wood had grown firmly about the stone. The branch was then severed from the tree and shaped as the owner chose. That such a method was possible shows the honesty of the people. Would it be practicable to obtain an axe with a well-fixed handle in this way now? Would not the modern inhabitant of Chittenden county be very likely to leave his axe, never to see it again, should he try the experiment? And yet these old stone axes were far more valuable to the owner than any modern steel axe could be. Stone axes are found all over the world, and some of the forms are common to all localities. Each has, however, some peculiar form, and many varities of celts are found in Vermont, and most of them are found in this county. Most are ungrooved, some are grooved, and a few are notched. Some of the celts were made, obviously, to be used without a handle as hand-axes, as Figure 11.1 These are short, thick celts, with the upper end rounded so as to fit into the palm of the hand. They are small and well inade. Something of the same variety in form, material, etc., already noticed in the gouges is seen in the celts, though not to so great an extent. Some are very rude, being little more than either water-worn pebbles or bits split from a larger mass, one end of which is ground to an edge, the rest of the stone remaining untouched. From these rudest of all our implements we can gradually pass to finer and finer specimens, until we reach in our best celts those which are are well-nigh unsurpassed in excellence of material or finish. Very many celts are not polished, and, though more or less regular in form, they still show either the irregularities of surface caused by fracture from a large mass or by some instrument which left little pits, or both. Our best celts, however, are not only smooth, but finely polished. All the more common rocks, hard and soft, found in the State, were used in the manufacture of celts, as well as sonie of the rarer kinds. Granite, trap, sandstone, mica schist were often used, while less commonly slate, quartz, prophyry, and serpentine were chosen. Some of the serpentine celts are very handsome, and it is remarkable that a

1 All these figures are one-half full size.

INDIAN OCCUPATION AND RELICS.

material so well suited to the purpose and so beautiful when wrought, should not have been more frequently used, since there are large beds of it in several parts of the State ; but with the exception of the few celts mentioned, I have seen no implements made of serpentine. Apparently the celt and gouge were intimately connected, for we find not only, as we have seen, in the same imple- ment at opposite ends as in Figure 6, but from the straight-edged celt to the concave-edged gouge, there is a regular and gradual series. Even when the whole implement is very rude the edge is true and smooth. Its curvature is different in different specimens, never exactly straight, although sometimes very nearly so, it bends more or less strongly from side to side. The inclina- tion, or bevel, is always very variable. In a few instances this is very short and abrupt, but usually there is a very gradual slope from the general surface to the edge, as in a modern axe. In size our celts vary from little hand-axes or hatchets two or three inches long, to large, and often, though not always, clumsy specimens ten or twelve inches long, the more common size being five or six inches long. There is no evident relation between length, breadth and thickness. Some of the longest celts are thinner than most of those which are · much shorter, and some of the shorter are wider than some that are longer. In most cases the length is much greater than the width (as in Figure 12) and always much more than the thickness. In cross-section some are oval, some quadrilateral, some circular. All of our specimens may be conveniently placed under four heads, those that are much longer than wide or thick, those quadrangular in outline, those narrower at one end than at the other, and those that are triangular. Most of our longest and largest celts are of the first class, Figures 12, 13 and 14. Some of them are rude, some very well finished, oc- casionally they were ground at each end, and some may possibly have had a handle attached in the middle, as a few are narrowed at that point, though not so decidedly as to make it certain that this was intentional In one specimen, Figure 13, from Addison county, the edges at either end are transverse, and in Figure 14 we have the section diamond-shaped. Usually of small size, though now and then a larger specimen occurs, are what we may call quadrangular celts, those in which the length does not greatly exceed the width. These celts are less carefully made and finished, as a whole, than those of other classes, and seem to have been designed for rough work. They are not usually large, though one in our collection is nine inches long and rather more than four inches wide; but most are not half so large. Another group is similar in form to the last named, but in these one end is narrower than the other, and often both ends are sharpened (Figure 15). Some of our handsomest specimens belong to this class, and most of them are well made and of fine-grained material, such as could be polished readily. Some of them closely resemble some of the axes found in the Swiss lakes and other parts of Europe. It is an interesting proof of the fact that the human mind tends to work in much the same manner

HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

everywhere, that we find almost exact duplicates of the stone axes found in this county, not only in other parts of North America, but also in Europe, Asia, and Pacific Islands. In studying stone implements in a comparative way the student is often almost startled by the similarity of objects found in widely different localities. Other celts are triangular in outline. These are, some of them, beautiful specimens of stone work. The form is not a common one among our celts, and when found they are usually of iron-stone, porphyry, quartz, or some very hard, compact material. Most of our celts are much wider than thick. They do not appear to have been made as often of a water- worn pebble as from a bit of a ledge or boulder split off for the purpose. Some authors speak of globular celts, wrought from a thick pebble, but we do. not find such here. Lafiteau tells us that some of the stone axes which he saw were not made in one lifetime, but were handed down from father to son, and some of our Vermont specimens might well be of this sort. Perhaps the curi- ous specimen shown in Figure 21, Number 6, should be regarded as a sort of double-edged celt. Notched and grooved axes are found in this county, as they are in other parts of the State, but nowhere commonly.

It is interesting to notice how we can arrange series of specimens showing what we may call the evolution of the grooved axe from the celt, just as we have done in the case of the gouge. In one implement the groove is longi- tudinal, in the other transverse ; and in each case the change from the simple, rude celt involved skill and labor. What I have called notched axes are inter- mediate between celts and regularly grooved axes (Figures 16 and 17). They are celts in which the sides are drawn in so that they are broadly and deeply notched, presumably that a handle may be more firmly or conveniently attached. As the notches are only on the side, it may be that some of them were used as adzes, and this may be said of many of the celts; or the notches may have been made merely to enable one holding the implement in the hand to grasp it more readily and firmly. They are nearly all small axes-that is, from four to six inches long, two or three wide, and from three-fourths of an inch to an inch thick. When the notches extend entirely around the axe they form a groove, and we have the typical grooved axe. This, in this section, is always of considerable size. Elsewhere little axes, the so-called " toy axes," are found ; but we never find a grooved axe liere less than five or six inches. long. On the other hand, we never find such large and heavy axes as are many of those found in the West and South, where they are sometimes picked up weighing ten or even fifteen pounds. The Vermont axes (Figures 18, 19, and 20) are most commonly from five to seven inches long and two to four pounds in weight. The largest which I have seen is rather more than nine inches long and weighs four pounds. The groove is a little above the middle and parallel with the edge, as a rule. There are specimens, however, in which the groove is oblique, as in Figure 18, and a few in which both groove and

INDIAN OCCUPATION AND RELICS.

edge are oblique, in opposite directions. There can be no doubt that this posi- tion of the groove was intentional ; but that of the edge may be due to re-sharp- ening after a bit had been broken from one corner. Some of our grooved axes were made from flat, water-worn pebbles, and the upper portion is left untouched, though most appear to have been ground and picked from rough pieces broken from a ledge or large mass. In general outline our axes are wider and shorter than most Western axes, and, as has been seen, lighter. We do not find grooved axes so finely smoothed and polished as are the best celts and gouges. The edge is always smooth and so, often, is the groove; but the rest of the surface is covered with little pits, made as if by a pointed hammer. One side is often much less convex than the other and this flat surface is smoother than the other, a feature we can readily understand when found in hand-axes and skin-dressers, in which one side might have been held down and thus become smoother ; but it is quite difficult to understand the reason for it in large axes. Some of our stone axes have very good edges for stone axes, but not such as to encourage a white man to do much chopping; and many archaeologists have supposed that the Indians did not use them for cutting, but only attempted to bruise a tree or log, depending upon fire to do most of the work. Others have thought that they were largely used to break ice in winter fishing. Certainly the best stone axe compares poorly with a fine steel axe; but yet I think the stone axe was a far more efficient instrument in the hands of a stalwart Indian than many have supposed. Early travelers speak of the stone axe as a cutting instrument. Champlain mentions the felling of trees often in his narrative, and by stone axes, although iron ones had already begun to be used. In describ- ing the usual mode of arranging the camp when the enemy is supposed to be near, he tells us that one evening, as soon as the Indians had chosen a place for their camp-and this was probably on Grand Isle-they began at once to cut down trees to make a barricade ; and he says that they know how to do this so well that in two hours they make so strong a defense that five hundred of their enemies would not be able to break through without a great loss of life. These were Algonkins; but elsewhere he speaks of tree cutting by Iro- quois in a similar way, and nowhere mentions fire as an aid in the process.

Corn, acorns, nuts, seeds, and similar substances formed an important part of the ordinary diet of an Indian family. That these might be readily cooked they were pounded in a stone mortar with a stone pestle until a coarse meal was obtained, which was undoubtedly often re-enforced by bits of the mortar and pestle. The mortars were made by digging out a bowl-shaped cavity in any large stone and sometimes several, and on either side, so that in some cases the bottoms broke through and the mortar became useless. These mortars must have been common in ancient villages, but we find very few of them now. Pestles are more numerous, though they are prized as among the most precious of our archaeological treasures. I think that many of the so-called pestles were

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History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 1054

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1054