60 



ANTIQUITY 



[b. a. e. 



quired Kuch marked physieal characteriH- 

 tics as to be ii^garded as a separate race 

 of very considerable lioniogeiieity from 

 Alaska" to ratagoiiia, is regarded as indi- 

 cating a long and complete separation 

 from their parental peoi:>les. Similarly, 

 the existence in America of numerous cul- 

 ture groups, measurably distinct one from 

 another in language, social customs, reli- 

 gion, technology, and esthetics, is thought 

 to indicate a long and more or less exclu- 

 sive occupancy of independent areas. 

 But as a criterion of age the testimony 

 thus furnished lacks deliniteness, since to 

 one mind it may signify a short time, 

 while to another it may suggest a very 

 long period. Native historical records of 

 even the most advanced tribes are hardly 

 more to be relied on than tradition, and 

 they prove of little service in determin- 

 ing the duration of occupancy of the con- 

 tinent by the race, or even in tracing the 

 more recent course of events connected 

 with the historic peoples. No one can 

 speak with assurance, on the authority of 

 either tradition or history, of events dat- 

 ing farther back than a few hundred years. 

 Archeology, however, can furnish definite 

 data with respect to antiquity; and, aided 

 by geology and biology, this science is 

 furnishing results of great value, although 

 some of the greater problems encountered 

 remain still unsolved, and must so remain 

 indefinitely. During the first centuries 

 of European occupancy of the continent, 

 belief in the derivation of the native 

 tribes from some Old World people in 

 comparatively recent times was very gen- 

 eral, and indeed the fallacy has not yet 

 been entirely extinguished. This view 

 was based on the apparently solid foun- 

 dation of the Mosaic record and chronol- 

 ogy as determined by Usher, and many 

 works have been written in the attempt 

 to determine the particular people from 

 which the American tribes sprang. (See 

 Popular Fallacies, and for various refer- 

 ences consult Bani'roft, Native Races, 

 V, 1886; Winsor, Narrative and Critical 

 History, i, 1884). The results of re- 

 searches into the ])rehistoric archeology 

 of the eastern continent during the last 

 century, however, have cleared away 

 the Usherian interpretation of events 

 and established the fact of the great an- 

 tiquity of man in the world. Later, in- 

 vestigations in America were taken uj), 

 and the conclusion was reached that the 

 cour.se of primitivt' history had been 

 about the same on both continents. Ob- 

 servations tliat seemed to substantiate 

 this conclusion were soon forthcoming 

 and were readily accepted; but a more 

 critical examination of the testimony 

 shows its shortcomings and tends to hold 

 fhial determinations in abeyance. It is 

 clear that traces of early man are not so 



Iilcntifnl in America as in Eurojic, and 

 investigations have proceede<l with pain- 

 ful slowness and nuich halting along the 

 various lines of research. Attempts have 

 been made to establish a chronology of 

 events in various ways, l)ut without (leti- 

 nite result. The magnitude of the work 

 accomplished in the building of mounds 

 and other earthworks has been empha- 

 sized, the time requisite for the growth and 

 decay upon these works of a succession of 

 forests has been computed (see Mounds). 

 The vast accumulations of midden depos- 

 its and the fact that the strata composing 

 tliem seem to indicate a succession of oc- 

 cupancies by tribes of gradually advanc- 

 ing culture, beginning in savagery and 

 ending in well-advanced barbarism, have 

 impressed themselves on chronologists 

 (see SIiL'll-heaps). Striking physiographic 

 mutations, such as changes of level and 

 the consequent retreat or advance of the 

 sea and changes in river courses since man 

 began to dwell along their shores, have 

 been carefully considered. Modifications 

 of particular species of moUusks between 

 the time of their first use on the shell- 

 heap sites and the present time, and the 

 development in one or more cases of new 

 varieties, suggest very considerable antiq- 

 uity. But the highest estimate of elapsed 

 time based on these evidences does not 

 exceed a feU' thousand years. Dall, after 

 carefully weighing the evidence collected 

 by himself in Alaska, reached the conclu- 

 sion that the earliest midden deposits of 

 the Aleutian ids. are probably as much 

 as 8,000 years old. Going beyond this 

 limit, the geological chronology nmst be 

 appealed to, and we find no criteria by 

 means of which calculations can be made 

 in years until we reach the close of the 

 Glacial epoch, which, according to those 

 who venture to make estimates based on 

 the erosion of river channels, was, in the 

 states that border the St Lawrence basin, 

 not more than 8,000 or 10,000 years ago 

 (Winchell). Within this period, which 

 in middle North America may projierly 

 be designated post-Glacial, there have 

 been reported numerous traces of man so 

 associated with the deposits of that time 

 as to make them measurably valuable in 

 chronological studies; but these evidences 

 come within the province of the geologist 

 rather than of the archeologist, and find- 

 ings not subjected to critical examination 

 by geologists having special training in 

 tlie particular held may well be placed 

 in the doubtful category. 



P(ist-(ilacial rivers, in cutting their 

 channels through the various deposits 

 to their present level, have in some 

 cases left a succession of flood-plain ter- 

 races in which remains of man and his 

 works are embedded. These terraces af- 

 ford rather imperfect means of subdivid- 



