354 AXNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



sity of Texas provided office and laboratory room. A field base was 

 also made available at Athens, Ga., by the University of Georgia. By 

 July 1951, after the program of field work had been going for 5 

 years, surveys had been completed in 225 reservoir areas situated in 25 

 States. One lock project and four canal areas were also investigated. 

 Some 2,894 archeological sites were located and recorded and of that 

 number 545 have been recommended for excavation or limited testing. 

 The initial phase of the program called for preliminary surveys to 

 locate remains with such testing as might be necessary to determine 

 which of the sites were of prime importance. The next step was that 

 of extended excavation at those sites which promised particularly in- 

 formative results in relation to the archeology of neighboring districts 

 and of the particular area as a whole. Because of the fact that the 

 program was late in starting, it took the greater part of the first 3 

 years to catch up with the necessary survey work. In some cases the 

 construction of dams was so far advanced that they were completed 

 and were impounding water before survey parties could reach them. 

 In others surveys were made, but the area went under water before any 

 digging could be done. As more and more of the regions were sur- 

 veyed, however, it became possible to start actual digging and by the 

 end of the 5-year period there were more excavations than surveys in 

 progress. Digging had been done or was continuing in 33 reservoir 

 projects in 10 river basins scattered over 15 States. While detailed 

 analyses of the data and materials from the excavations have not been 

 completed, it is evident that considerable new knowledge has been ob- 

 tained and that a much better understanding of aboriginal activities 

 in the various areas will be forthcoming. 



In carrying out the program, the River Basin Surveys was aided in 

 no small degree by State and local organizations which in some in- 

 stances actually joined forces with the Surveys' reconnaissance or ex- 

 cavation parties and in others assumed full responsibility for specific 

 projects. During the first 3 years the cost of such assistance was borne 

 by the cooperating institutions. In the last 2 years of the period, how- 

 ever, there was a change of policy and a number of local institutions 

 signed agreements with the National Park Service whereby they were 

 furnished some fmids and excavated sites that had been chosen in ac- 

 cordance with recommendations of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The sites located by the survey parties represent the whole range 

 of such remains known throughout the United States. There are 

 localities attributable to occupation by some of the early hunting, food- 

 gathering peoples, camping places intermittently occupied by later 

 Indian groups, quarries, bluff and rock shelters, caves giving indica- 

 tions of inhabitation, villages, artificial mounds, burial grounds, os- 

 suaries and cairns, and even battlefields. In association with many of 



