472 NEW YORK STATE MIJSEUM 



the most primitive, is the collecting of relics secured in a casual 

 way, and since it aims simply to amass the various objects used by 

 the early races for preservation, it may be called the preservation 

 method} Inasmuch as the objects are secured by those unfamiliar 

 with the requirements of scientific archeology, it is natural that they 

 should be those most attractive to the eye, the less striking things 

 being passed over as unworthy of preservation if not overlooked 

 entirely. This method, now obsolete in progressive institutions, is 

 one that has been employed by people with whom collecting was 

 only an incident or by historical societies that have sought to add 

 archeological material to their collections of antiquities. The second 

 method, called the synoptic method, is a systematic attempt to pro- 

 cure in any way specimens to illustrate the known facts of arche- 

 ology. The third method is termed the research method. By this 

 method the archeologist aims to obtain material first-hand from 

 original sources, such as mounds, camp and village sites and earth- 

 works of various kinds. Such sites are carefully and systematically 

 excavated and all the accompanying objects secured. Painstaking 

 records are kept and every fact that might be of value noted in 

 record books. The methods employed in the field by the State 

 Museum exemplify the workings of this system. 



^ For this nomenclature the author is indebted to Methods of Collecting 

 Antliropological Material, by Harlan I. Smith. 



