HRDLICKA] SKELETAL REMAINS 11 



are such remains likely to occur and how is their antiquity to be 

 determined. The first of these queries is answered with compara 

 tive ease. Man s greatest necessities are food and water, and unre 

 strained settlement of primitive peoples was guided everywhere to a 

 large extent by facilities for obtaining these requisites. The only 

 other strong motives which generally influenced the choice of dwell 

 ing sites were the requirements of comfort (including primarily a 

 favorable climate) and of safety. It may be assumed, therefore, 

 that the habitations of the earliest Americans were established on 

 defensible sites along the seashore and larger streams where the food 

 supply, consisting of mollusks, fish, and game animals, as well as of 

 fruits, was particularly abundant, and in regions free from the ex 

 tremes of climate. Thus it is mainly on and about elevated sites 

 along the sea coasts and in the valleys of the temperate zones of the 

 periods of occupation that bones of early man should first be looked 

 for. If there are contemporaneous rock recesses, especially caves, 

 these should receive attention, for such shelters were utilized by all 

 primitive peoples for both dwelling and burial. Bog deposits, which 

 naturally offer favorable conditions for the preservation of the bones 

 of those who perished in such places, also deserve examination. 



Proper identification of human bones as those of early man is of 

 the first importance, and at the same time is fraught with exceptional 

 difficulties. Finds of osseous remains suggesting man of other than 

 the recent period should be photographed in situ, and should be 

 examined by more than one man of science, including especially a 

 geologist familiar with the particular formations involved; and the 

 chemical and somatological characters of the bones should receive the 

 closest attention with the view of determining their bearing on ques 

 tions involving the antiquity of the remains. The history of a ma 

 jority of archeological finds suggestive of early man in this country is 

 particularly instructive in this connection^ illustrating as it does 

 many of the difficulties attending efforts at chronological identifi 

 cation. 



A point requiring especial attention is that of the possibility of 

 intrusive burials. Men of recent times have inhabited many of the 

 sites that may have been occupied by early man, and it will be readily 

 appreciated that human remains of different periods might often 

 be closely associated or even intermingled. Where such an occurrence 

 is suspected, chemical and somatological tests are of particular value, 



a See especially tbepapers of W. IT. Holmes on Traces of Glacial Man in Ohio, Journal 

 of Geology, i, 147^63, February-March, 1893 : Vestiges of Early Man in Minnesota, 

 American Geologist, 3^1, 219-240, April, 1893 ; Are there Traces of Man in the Trenton 

 Gravels? Journal of Geology, i, 15-37, January-February, 1893; Primitive Man in the 

 Delaware Valley, Science, n. s., vi, 824-829, 1897 ; and Review of the F/vidence relating 

 to Auriferous Gravel Man in California. Smithsonian Report for 1899, 419-472, Wash 

 ington. 1901. 



