20 STONE IMI'I.EiMICNTS [eih.as.n.15 



It ai)pi>;ired also that there were eoiiveiiient geoorajjhic subdivisions 

 of the subject, and tliat in one case at least the };eo}iiapiiic, unit cor- 

 responds very closely with a well marked ethnologic unit, and strangely 

 enough also with an important unit of colonial history. The great 

 Potomac-Chesapeake province, with its system of tidewater inlets, con- 

 stitutes a natural subdivision of the coastal zone. Formerly the Sus- 

 quehanna flowed southward through a restricted valley, entering the sea 

 outside of capes Henry and ('harles. By subsequent dei)ression of the 

 land this valley and its tributaries were saljtiierged, and the floods rose 

 until the tide reached Iticbmond on the James, Washington on the 

 Potomac, and Havre de Grace in the main valley, Mid one-third of the 

 laTid became sea, the tortuous shore line following the contours oi' the 

 hills and valleys in and out in a marvelous maze. Tens of tliousands 

 of S([uare miles of upland were transformed more or less completely 

 into a maritime province, and this became the seat of a native confeder- 

 acy, ruled over by the renowned Powhatan at the period of colonization. 

 This district was thus a native ethnologic unit — a unit in race and cul- 

 ture—and the circumstances of colonization made it a unit in the history 

 of civilization: it is the territory explored, conquered, and mapped by 

 the intrepid John Smith ; it is therefore a unit of exploration, conciuest, 

 and cartography. 



It further appears, from what has been learned of the past of the 

 region, that the historic peoples and conditions i)ass back without break 

 into the prehistoric era, no traces of distinct occupation or culture 

 phenomena having been found. Archeology but supplements history, 

 and the archeologist works to great advantage in a uuique and charm- 

 ing held illumined by the graphic records of the Roanoke, the James- 

 town, and the Saint Mary colonies. 



In treating the history of this jjrovince, it would seem the natural 

 order to present, first, the historical phases of aboriginal occupancy, 

 passing afterward back into the archeologic field ; but this order proves 

 inconvenient (as just indicated), and special studies of certain phases 

 of art must receive lirst attention. The present paper is therefoie 

 devoted to examination of the derivation, manufacture, nature, and 

 place in time and culture of the stone im])lements of the tidewater 

 province — the province of John Smith. This will be followed by other 

 studies, or by a single paper, on the aboriginal history and general 

 archeology of the same area. 



The Chesapeake tidewater province lies to the eastward of the heavy 

 dotted line on the map presented in plate i. This is the fall line, where 

 the streams descend from the Piedmont plateau to the tidewater lowland. 



THE ART REMAINS STUDIED 



The art remains of a vanished people available for the aTcheologist 

 comi)rise all material forms shaped or in any way modified by their 

 hands, whetbe" from design or from the incidents of use. There are 



