PEEFACE XV 



'\'\liile the Museum staff durino; the past 50 years was gradually 

 accumulating, studying, and installing the collections, 

 UndT/poweii "' ^®^*^^ researches conducted by Government experts in 

 various branches were actively adding ncAv material 

 and amassing besides a great body of information relative to the 

 tribes and their culture, present and past. Major Powell began his 

 epoch-making studies among the tribes of the arid region in the late 

 sixties, and the succeeding half century witnessed the gradual build- 

 ing up of the Bureau of American Ethnology, wdiich has done so 

 much toward placing on record the present and the past of the 

 northern aborigines, licsearches carried forward by other institu- 

 tions and by individuals at home and abroad during this period have 

 aided in greatly extending our knowledge of the aboriginal culture 

 of the entire continent, placing the science of American archeology 

 on a substantial and permanent footing. 



Many of the problems of antiquity have been solved, but still 

 ethers remain which must await fuller investigation 

 lems'''^^'^ ^"^^^ than has yet been possible. Among these are the 

 origin of the native race, the period or periods of 

 arrival in America, the routes of migration, the areas occupied by 

 the successive incoming groups, the character and relations of the 

 cultures introduced, the influence of environments and of successive 

 environments on the people and their culture, and the manner in 

 which the stages of culture supervened one upon another, together 

 with their general chronology. Indeed, some of the questions can 

 never be fully answered, as the solutions are unrecorded in the 

 objective forms of art with which archeology has principally to deal. 

 However, the deep mystery which a short time ago enshrouded some 

 of the greater problems is now dispelled and visions of mysterious 

 races and lost civilizations haunt the minds of those only who have 

 failed to keep in touch with the progress of archeological research 

 throughout America. 



Archeology deals primarily with the material relics of antiquity, 



deriving from them what it can of the past of the 



Scope of the stone aborigines, but its researches extend to a much wider 



Age . 



field, as will be shown in succeeding pages. However, 

 it does not assume to comprise the whole of the so-called " age of 

 stone," since our aboriginal history as a whole lies entirely within 

 the so-called age or stage of stone. Intelligently conceived, a dis- 

 cussion of the Stone Age does not signify merely a study of objective 

 antiquities but a comprehensive consideration of the whole subject 

 matter of the aboriginal peoples and their culture. The expression 

 " Stone Age " as applied to America has thus a wider significance 

 than even the term " archeology," comprehending, as it does, 

 somatology, psychology, language, religion, social systems, tech- 



