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HRDLICKA] SKELETAL REMAINS elt 
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 2 
| 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 ea7/y 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 1s 
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, 
@ See especially the papers of W. H. Holmes on Traces of Glacial Man in Ohio, Journal 
of Geology, 1, 147-163, February—March, 1893; Vestiges of Early Man in Minnesota, 
American Geologist, xt, 219-240, April, 1893; Are there Traces of Man in the Trenton 
Gravels? Journal of Geology, 1, 15-37, January-February, 1893; Primitive Man in the 
Delaware Valley, Science, n. s., VI, 824-829, 1897; and Review of the Evidence relating 
to Auriferous Gravel Man in California, Smithsonian’ Report for 1899, 419-472, Wash- 
ington. 1901. 
