HOLMES] ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 99 



and the results, as siio-geslecl by a study of the several areas, are among 

 the most striking and scientifically important features of our aborigi- 

 nal ethnolog}'. 



The following sketches do not assume to approximate complete 

 presentation of the cultural remains of the several areas; they are 

 merely intended to cultivate familiarity with the vast field as a 

 whole and to lay out its great features tentatively as an aid in de- 

 scribing and comparing the antiquities and the cultures they repre- 

 sent. It is by no means assumed that the culture phenomena of any 

 considerable area are uniform throughout. There may be much 

 diversity, possibly great complexity of conditions. There may be 

 a number of somewhat independent centers of development of nearly 

 equal importance, or a single center may have spread its influence 

 over a wude area. The mapping of the cultures will, in the end, take 

 forms that can not now be foreseen, ^^^len all available relics of 

 antiquity have been considered and their history and distribution 

 recorded, discussion of the culture complex may be taken up to 

 advantage, and, enforced by the somatic evidence and illumined by 

 the researches of ethnology, may round out the history of man in 

 America wdth gratifying fullness. 



1. The North Atlantic Area 



The North Atlantic characterization area, as outlined for present 

 purposes, extends from Xewfoundland and the St. Lawrence Valley 

 on the north to Georgia on the south. It includes eastern Canada, 

 New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and large sec- 

 tions of Virginia, West Virginia, and the Carolinas. It is a region 

 of splendid forests, rugged highlands, charming valleys, and a 

 diversified coast line indented by many tidewater inlets. The 

 aborigines, largely of the Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan 

 stocks, Avere primarily hunters and fishers, although 

 o"ouUure ^^'^*"*^ agriculture was practiced successfully in many of the 

 fertile valleys. The natiAe culture of both colonial 

 and precolonial times, so far as known, though varying with the 

 widely distributed centers of habitation, was quite uniform in grade 

 and general characteristics. It is w^ell differentiated from that 

 of the South and Middle West but passes with no abrupt change 

 into that of the upper lakes and the great interior regions of the 

 North. The changes from north to south were doubtless due in 

 large measure to differences in food resources and the influence of 

 neighboring cultures. 



The use of stone in building was practically unknown, the dwell- 

 ings being constructed of wattlework, bark, and mats, and stockades 

 w^ere relied upon for village defence. Burial mounds and other 

 earthworks in the area are rare or insignificant in size, except where 



