60 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 
this polished stone epoch had been preceded by a paleolithic stone age 
not represented, so far as is known, in America. The ethnology and 
archeology of our Indians therefore form only a chapter, and that a 
brief one, or a segment of a much more extended racial evolution, as 
illustrated in Asia, Europe, and Africa. 
It is profitable to compare the neolithic stone ages in the New 
World and the Old in order to appreciate rightly the position of the 
American Indian in the advance of human history, and his relation to 
the dawn of human history. 
In order to carry on comparative studies of the stone age of 
aboriginal America and the corresponding age in the Old World, Dr. 
Fewkes spent six months in field and museum work in Europe and 
Africa. He visited the prehistoric mounds, dolmens, and megalithic 
monuments at Stendal and Stockheim in Altmark, a short distance 
from Berlin, and examined the finely installed collections from these 
localities in local museums. He also visited the island of Rugen, in the 
North Sea, where there are many prehistoric mounds, Huns’ graves, 
workshops, and megalithic and other remains of the neolithic inhabit- 
ants. The many antiquities from this island in the museum at Stral- 
sund furnished considerable data for a comparative study of arti- 
facts from this part of Europe with similar objects from North 
America. 
Dr. Fewkes believes that the time is past when the great ruins in 
our Southwest should be left to destruction by the elements, after 
smaller objects have been extracted from them. In order to protect 
these ruins he has inaugurated, under the direction of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, at Casa Grande, Spruce-tree House, and Cliff 
Palace, a scientific method of excavation and repair. In order to 
improve his methods by becoming better acquainted with excavation 
and repair work adopted by the ablest European archeologists, he 
visited Egypt, Greece, and Italy ( Pompeii). 
He found in some cases that whereas repair work in the Old World 
is often neglected and cannot be called very scientific, and some of 
the excavated ruins have been left in very bad condition for future 
students, the majority are being carefully protected after excavation, 
ina manner well worth study by those who aspire to the most ad- 
vanced standards. 
The best archeological repair work in Egypt may be seen on the 
Temple of Amen Ra at Karnak, and the mortuary temples, the 
Ramesseum, Medinet-Habu, and the Seteum, from which were ob- 
tained valuable suggestions. The admirable repair of the hypo-style 
