504 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1935 



selves. To that end the tabular scheme on opposite page is presented, 

 which seeks to indicate at once the geographical sources and techno- 

 logical characteristics of the data and also their alleged geological 

 dates. 



Comment on the table is scarcely necessary, inasmuch as it does 

 little more than sum up what has been previously considered. It is 

 legitimate to remark, however, that the Old World column, though 

 very likely subject to shortening at the lower end, presents a fairly 

 natural, genetically related evolutionary series of implemental forms, 

 which is all but completed within the range of the stratified " archeo- 

 logical deposits " themselves. The New World column by comparison 

 is short, though consistent as far as carried by the archeological 

 deposits, and beyond that distinctly erratic and incomplete. Some 

 downward lengthening and rectification of the strictly archeological 

 portion of the column is to be expected, but the section of the record 

 falling within " geological deposits " seems beyond all hope of recon- 

 ciliation either with itself or with the corresponding section of the 

 Old World record. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 



An effort has been made in the foregoing pages to review the 

 various aspects of the archeological problem presented by the native 

 inhabitants of the American continent, with a view primarily of 

 seeking an answer to the much disputed question of their antiquity. 

 In approaching the task it has been frankly assumed that the 

 physical and cultural characteristics of the New World peoples were 

 not entirely unique and independent developments, but were to some 

 extent intimately related to human life and culture of the Old World, 

 and that, therefore, the best results could be achieved through con- 

 stant comparison of the pertinent facts made available by research 

 in the two hemispheres. The original peculiar fascination of the 

 general American problem has been explained and the various steps 

 in its formulation indicated, leading to the notion that so far as 

 primary interest is concerned the old questions of origin and an- 

 tiquity have today been largely superseded by the more immediate 

 and practical question of cultural development. Next, a brief sketch 

 of the actual course and accomplishment of American investigations 

 has been introduced to supply the necessary basis for an appreciation 

 of current archeological opinion. Finally, there has been presented 

 in some detail the various types of New World evidence — ethno- 

 logical, paleontological, and archeological — produced and adduced 

 during the past century as having direct bearing on the antiquity 

 problem ; and this body of mostly concrete data has been compared 

 and contrasted, as far as possible, with similar data recovered in 



