Archaeological research has been widely conducted north of Mexico ; but the territory is so vast, the tribes and bands were so numerous and their shiftings so many, that knowledge of the archaeology of many areas is still almost a blank. Enough has been gleaned, however, to enable a fair classification of the char acter and distribution of the cultures in prehistoric times, and in many instances it has been possible, by analogy with the arts and customs of existing tribes or through historical research, to iden tify the peoples whose remains were under investigation.
There is general agreement with respect to the limits of the various archaeological culture areas north of Mexico, such differ ences as are due to more or less marginal influence not materially affecting the general classification. Furthermore, a close correla tion is shown in the archaeological culture areas and those of the historic tribes. Within the limited area of this treatment the Indi ans had no records beyond arbitrary, and for the greater part unde cipherable picture-writings, hence archaeology at best can hardly be relied on to present a vivid picture of the life of the northern Indians before the coming of white men. In a comparatively few instances Indians occupied dry caves and rock-shelters in which have been found examples of almost everything they made, of their foods, as well indeed as the bones of the occupants, thus enabling determination of at least the approximate relationship of the crania, affording an opportunity to reconstruct much of the life of the people, and of estimating the relative periods of occu pancy through study of the stratigraphy of the deposits. While archaeology has revealed a relatively high degree of culture in certain areas north of Mexico, notably in those of the mound building tribes and of the Pueblos of the Southwest, yet in no instance did it equal that of Mexico and Central America, where the ancient cultures were characterized by stupendous buildings of elaborate architecture, by glyphic writing, and by works of art in stone, wood, mural and other painting, and ceramics, in many respects equal to the highest art of early times in the Old World.
North Atlantic area; (II.) Georgia-Florida area; (III.) Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley area; (IV.) Upper Mississippi and Great Lakes area; (V.) Plains and Rocky Mountains; (VI.) Arid region; (VII.) California area; (VIII.) Columbia-Fraser area ; (IX.) Northwest Coast area; (X.) Arctic Coastal area; (XI.) Northern Interior area. This general classification well serves the present purpose.
I. North Atlantic Area: This culture area, sometimes di vided into two at the Delaware valley and sometimes into still lesser areas, may be regarded as extending from Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence valley in the north to southern Georgia in the south, and as including the Maritime Provinces of Canada, New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and large por tions of Virginia, West Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, the northern part of the territory extending inland indefinitely to the north and west, and its southern part extending westward to the Appalachian mountains. The tribes were chiefly those of the Algonkin, Iroquoian and (in the south) Siouan stocks of his toric times, and save for certain shiftings of boundaries and the extinction especially of most of the Algonkin and Siouan mem bers, the archaeological and known linguistic areas may be re garded as practically coextensive. The forests and highlands af forded excellent hunting ; the many rivers and bays, and the sea itself, offered an abundance of fish and shellfish, and while agriculture was practised, it was subordinate to fishing and the chase. Shellfish (oysters, clams, mussels, scallops, whelks, cockles) formed an important part of the diet, as shown by the almost numberless heaps of shell refuse along the coast and the tidewater bays, rivers and inlets. One heap at Pope's creek on the Potomac in Maryland, consisting of oyster-shells, covered about 3o acres and reached a depth of 15 feet. The Peninsular shell mound, one of five principal deposits of oyster-shells on the west bank of Damariscotta river, Maine, is about 400 feet long and attains a maximum height of 22 feet.