Archaeologia Nova Caesarea: 1907-1909 . melonsand beans; the man whose mentality was so far undevel-oped that he was wholly utilitarian and in no sense esthetic;a man in whom art had not yet blossomed as it has with theEskimo and had with the Eskimos ancestor, Pleistokeneman. This pre-Indian of the Delaware valley was a savage,indeed, but probably a powerful one, yet leading the lazy lifeof a well-fed beast. That his personal possessions wereutilitarian and to but slight degree, if at all, decorative orsymbolic, is inferred from the fact that no objects of thelatter character have been found t
Archaeologia Nova Caesarea: 1907-1909 . melonsand beans; the man whose mentality was so far undevel-oped that he was wholly utilitarian and in no sense esthetic;a man in whom art had not yet blossomed as it has with theEskimo and had with the Eskimos ancestor, Pleistokeneman. This pre-Indian of the Delaware valley was a savage,indeed, but probably a powerful one, yet leading the lazy lifeof a well-fed beast. That his personal possessions wereutilitarian and to but slight degree, if at all, decorative orsymbolic, is inferred from the fact that no objects of thelatter character have been found that could reasonably bereferred to the Indians predecessor rather than to the In-dian. The art instinct may, however, have shown itself in 72 etching rather tlian sciili)ture, for large blade-like flakesof argillite of no very definite design, but clearly artificallyshaped, have been collected that were unmistakably incisedin a suggestive way, but too vaguely to determine the de-sign. These incised lines, broken and often weather-worn. Fig. II. Sandstone Hoe, perforated, of Delaware Indians. A rareform. until scarcely traceable, have all the appearance of an at-tempt at ornamentation of the stone or to depict some specialobject. But all is as yet too indefinite to warrant any con-clusion being drawn. It is not likely this argillite man wasdevoid of all art, but then we are deahng with the almost 73 primitive humanity of thousands of years ago, and havescarcely a foothold in any direction save that of the singlefact of his one-time existence. Furthermore, as has beenpointed out by many authors, time and time again, all thestone implements that are now found are not necessarilyreferrible to the historic Indian. As well assert that all
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