554 CONTRIBUTIONS OF AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY TO HUMAN HiSTORY. 



arts is best studied among existing peoples. This is esiDeciallly true 

 of hunting and fishing, the gathering of wild fruits and grains, and 

 agriculture. But archeology alone can be depended upon to tell the 

 story of the industries conc(u^ned with de^-eloping the mineral 

 resources. These activities escaped the observation of the conquerors 

 and colonists and were discontinued so abruptly that very meager 

 records of their operation have been preserved. The story of the 

 struggles of primitive man in exploiting the valleys and mountains 

 and in extracting the staple materials of the stone-age culture from 

 their rocky beds forms one of the most interesting and important 

 chapters in the history of incipient civilization. With implements 

 of stone, bone, and wood the aborigines attacked the massive strata, 

 breaking u}) solid l)odies of flint, quartz, obsidian, jasper, etc., 

 for the manufactui-e of implements and carving out huge monoliths 

 from the living rock for building and sculpture. A study of the 

 American mines and quarries gives us a vivid conception of the 

 strength and persistence of the forces that underlie human develop- 

 ment, and of the difficulties encountered by the race in carrying culture 

 upward through the stone age to the higher level of the age of metal. 

 The shaping of the stone into implements and utensils supplemented 

 the work of the quarryman, and the story of the development is clearly 

 told in many lands. But America's contribution to the history of this 

 most important brancli of activity is exceptionally full and satis- 

 factory. 



Architecture. — Aboriginal architecture in America teaches the 

 lessons of the initial development of this branch of culture with 

 exceptional clearness, beginning at the lowest stage and carrying 

 it up to about the stage of the keystone arch. The present period 

 affords a wide range of phenomena representing the elementary forms 

 of building, and post-Columbian clironicles giA^e us somewhat meager 

 glimpses of the higher development that came under the observation 

 of the Spanish conquerors, whilst archeologic remains supplement the 

 lessons of the historic f)eriod. We find constructions of great variety 

 and of remarkable preservation in the Mississippi valley, in the Pueblo 

 country, on the Mexican plateau, in Yucatan, (xuatenuila, and Hon- 

 duras, and in South America. By the aid of these we see how the 

 midden and the earth mound develop into the pyramid with its mul- 

 tiple stairways of cut stone; how the walls change from irregularly 

 placed stone, and clay-covered wicker to massive structures of accu- 

 rately hewn stone ; how the chamber spaces, ceiled at first with weak 

 timbers subject to quick decay, are spanned later by the offset arch of 

 stone. We see suj^ported on this native arch the concrete roof, so 

 massive as to defy the earthquake and support the forest growth of 

 successive centuries; we see the multiplication of stories, tier on tier; 

 Ave see the spanned si)ace, limited at first to a few feet, increase indefi- 



