THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 45 1 



The archeological and the ethnological exhibitions of the State 

 Museum have attracted many students of science, the methods of 

 display and the arrangement of the specimens have been pronounced 

 as scientifically correct as it is possible to make them. 



The State Museum holds out a permanent invitation to all the 

 people of the State to cooperate with it in making its exhibits a 

 complete course of instruction in the natural sciences with which it 

 deals. 



The Museum maintains a staff of men, as well as special experts 

 employed from time to time. The Director of the Museum is also 

 the State Geologist and the State Paleontologist, having assistants in 

 each of these branches. Other members of the staff are the miner- 

 alogist, the botanist, the entomologist, the zoologist, the taxidermist, 

 and the archeologist. 



Stone age. The term '' stone age " is applied to the long period 

 in the history of human culture during w^hich the most durable tools 

 made by mankind were of stone. With tools for pounding, bruising, 

 pulverizing, scratching, sawing, cutting and scraping, man was able 

 to reduce softer material and even rocks to desired forms. Thus 

 man made hammers, mullers, flint knives and scrapers of stone. 

 With his stone hammer he knocked out a spear head ; with an edged 

 flint, sawed away on a sapling and made a spear shaft. 



It must not be supposed that during the so-called stone age there 

 w^re no other articles beside those of stone, for in fact early mankind 

 used bone and antler tools and ornaments, used articles made of 

 shell and wood, and probably dressed In the skins of various animals. 

 To the race-mind, physically endowed as it was with hands, the 

 simple use of one Instrument with which to pound and one with 

 which to cut, be the processes ever so laborious, proved a wonderful 

 stimulant to further progress. 



The earliest evidence of man's use of stone tools dates back Into 

 a period thought to be nearly a million years ago. The rude flints 

 found in the strata lying between the tertiary and the quaternary, 

 are called eoliths (dawn stones) In allusion to the dawn of material 

 culture. With the further development of man's manual ability, 

 after thousands of years came an advanced type of flint Implements, 

 known as paleollths (old stone). As progress continued chipped 

 stone Implements Improved until polished chopping blades or hatchet 

 heads were made. In Europe this period is called the neolithic 

 (new stone). The neolithic period In Europe Is divided into several 

 sections each characterized by the types of blades found, So far as 



