20 PREFACE. 



eucouutered. The region occupied is vast, and the works are scat- 

 tered over it in great numbers, not b.v hundreds only, but by thou- 

 saiuls. It was at once perceived that to attempt a systematic and 

 thorough examination of them all, or even of a large number of them, 

 including surveys and mapping, would involve many yearsof labor and 

 the expenditure of a very large amount of money. Neither the force 

 nor the money necessary for a work of such vast magnitude was avail- 

 able, for the lines of research undertaken by the Bureau of Ethnology 

 are necessarily many, and none may be unduly j^ushed at the expense 

 of the others. On the other hand, to attemjit the thorough investiga- 

 tion of the mounds of any single district to the neglect of the area as 

 a whole, could result only in a failure to comi)rehend the more impor- 

 tant problems connected with the mounds and their builders. More- 

 over, it should not for a moment be forgotten that the mounds are fast 

 being leveled by the encroachments of agriculture and under the stim- 

 ulus of commercial enterprise. Archeologic relics of all kinds have 

 attained a new value in recent years because of the great increase in 

 the number of private collectors. Those who gather specimens merely 

 for sale rarely preserve any data in connection with them, and, although 

 relics gathered in this haphazard manner have a certain value as 

 examples of aboriginal art or as mere curiosities, their scientific value 

 is compariitively small. As a consequence of the leveling of the 

 mounds by the plow and their despoiling by the relic hirnter, oppor- 

 tunities for acquiring a clear insight into the character and methods of 

 mound-building and into the purpose of their builders, are rapidly 

 diminishing. 



Chiefly for the above reasons a plan was adoj)ted which comprises 

 the advantage of thoroughness in the case of single mouuds and single 

 groups, and yet permits the work to be carried o\'er a large area. No 

 attempt has been made to exhaust the local problems of mound-build- 

 ing by a comjdete examination of the works of any given section. 

 Nevertheless, such mounds and groups as are believed to be typical of 

 their class have been examined with care and thoroughness. By the 

 method of a careful examinntion of typical structures in the various 

 districts it is thought that the end aimed at has been secured — that is, 

 the collection of data necessary to an understanding of the more gen- 

 eral and important problems relating to the mounds and the mound 

 builders. The exhaustive examination of numy single groups and the 

 study of local problems is left to the future. It is hoped that this 

 important work may be undertaken largely by local societies whose 

 lesources, when inadequate, may be supplemented by state aid. 



The questions relating to prehistoric America are not to be answered 

 by the studj' of its ancient monuments alone, but also by the study of 

 the languages, customs, arts, beliefs, traditions, and folklore of the 

 aborigines. If any of these monuments are the work of an extinct 



