. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. PREHISTORIC ART. 371 SOLUTREEN EPOCH. Tbo art of flint chipping lias never, in prehistoric times, nor among prehistoric or savage peoples, attained a higher degree of excellence than during the Solutrren epoch. There seems to have been an evolu- tion from the rude and heavy Chelleeu implement up to the fine Solu- treen leaf-shaped blades. What time elapsed between the two we have no means of determining; it is to be counted by geologic epoc
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. PREHISTORIC ART. 371 SOLUTREEN EPOCH. Tbo art of flint chipping lias never, in prehistoric times, nor among prehistoric or savage peoples, attained a higher degree of excellence than during the Solutrren epoch. There seems to have been an evolu- tion from the rude and heavy Chelleeu implement up to the fine Solu- treen leaf-shaped blades. What time elapsed between the two we have no means of determining; it is to be counted by geologic epochs and not by years or centuries. There was a regular and steady improve- ment in the art of flint chipping, produced, apparently, by continued experiment and practice, the result of which must have been communi- cated or transmitted from father to son, from teacher to student, from master to apprentice, until the ideal flint chipping was attained in the Solutreen leaf-shaped blades (Plate 0). During this epoch the spear-heads of the Mousterien epoch became perfected in form, style, and delicacy of manufacture. They increased in leugth and decreased in thickness, until the standard imi)lement took the shape of a laurel leaf and the name " leaf-shaped," which name has been perpetuated and extended to similar implements throughout all ages and countries. They will be shown in the chapter on America. The leaf-shaped spearhead was not only enlarged to the largest size, n-. lo. but it was diminished to the smallest, so as to assimi- eoundended solu- late them with the leaf-shaped arrowheads (Plate 9). ^(!)Tceaper^°"^" A further development was wrought by changing cat. no. 99912, these implements so as to mi''" 1 shoulder on oue ^^ natural size. side (Plate 10), and herein it was probably the ancestor or i.)recursor of the notched or shouldered arrow and spear head which traveled through- out both hemispheres while civilization was yet young, and lo
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