HRDLu^KA] mSCOVERTES ATTBIBUTED TO KAELY MAN" 37 



Avhelming and unequivocal proofs that the bones and artifacts in 

 question were not recent before they could be assigned to geological 

 antiquity? 



E\'en this, hoAvever, is not all. In considering the problem of hu- 

 man antiquity in any region anthropology must take into considera- 

 tion the broader aspects of the case and ask whether, in the light of 

 our actual knowledge, the presence of man in that region during the 

 specified geological period was probable, or even possible. This is of 

 especial importance on the American Continent for, the reason that 

 man here is not autochthonous, but must Iiave imniigrated from some 

 other part of the earth. Thus the first question to be considered in 

 every case on this continent where Ave are confronted with the prob- 

 lem of man's anticjuity is, Could man have been present in the locality 

 in question, or even in America, during the period to which the finds 

 seem to belong or are being attributed? This difficult question for- 

 tunately can be met Avith something more than mere hypotheses. 



According to all indisputable evidence which we now possess man's 

 age is comprised well within the Pleistocene and Kecent periods; 

 that is, within possibly 500,000 to GOO.OOO years. By far the larger 

 part of this time, hoAveA'er, was required for his cultural deA-elopment, 

 physical differentiation, multiplication in numbers, acclimatization 

 to neAv environments, and his spread OA-er the immense territories of 

 the Old World, the warmer parts of which were his cradle. Before 

 all these results Avere accomplished or were far advanced man evi- 

 dently could not haA'e reached the distant, isolated Xoav World; and 

 there is much evidence that this Avas not reached until A^ery late in 

 man's history, in postglacial times or at the earliest toward the end 

 of the QuaternarA\ As late as the ^Vurignacean culture period, ap- 

 proximately 15,000 to 25,000 years ago, man had not yet fully reached 

 modern standards in physical dcAelopment, had made no pottery, 

 kneAV no metals, did not extend to northern Europe, left no evidence 

 that he knew even the crudest naAngation, and can not possibly be 

 conceiA'ed of as having been numerous enough to reach the north- 

 easternmost limits of Asia, from Avhich alone there Avas a practical 

 way ojien to the American Continent. How could Ave have, then, 

 in this country man of even much greater antiquity? These con- 

 siderations can not be easily passed OAer. They rest on a mass of 

 realities and would have to be completely explained awa}^ before 

 anthropology could admit the presence of geologically early irfan in 

 the New World.^ 



1 More detailed discussion of various phases of the subject will be found in the writer's 

 reports on Skeletal R(>mains Suggesting or Attributed to Early Man in North America 

 (Bull. 33, Bur. Aiiier. Ethn., 1907) : Early Man in South America (Bull. 52, Bur. Anicr. 

 Elhn., 1012) ; The Most Ancient Skeletal Remains of Man, 2d edition, 1916, 1-eprin(ed 

 from Annual Re/tort of the Siuithsnuian Insititution, 191.]; and The (Jenesis of the Indian, 

 Trann. Nineteenth Intern. Cunijress Americanists, Washington, 1917. 



