ARCHIEOLOGY, AMERICAN. In many re spects the Western Hemisphere forms a distinct archwologie field, and one of peculiar interest to the student. In the first place the two great continents, with their insular appendages, form a single ethnic province. ,i.e., from the earliest times up to Caucasian discovery, the lands were inhabited by the single tribe or race of man kind known as the Amerind, or American type; and though the province is vast, yet throughout its extent the tribes and their works bear what may lie called the family resemblance in a strik ing degree. In the second place, the American aborigines, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, were remarkably similar in cultural development. True, some of the tribes discovered by Caucasians represented lower savagery, while others (as in \lexien and Peru) occupied the higher planes of barbarism verging on civilization, yet the cultural range represented by their works is narrower than that of any other ethnic province save Australia. Furthermore, the aboriginal tribes survived until the spirit of inquiry among the European invaders of the Continent had been developed, and until observation and records were well advanced. By reason of the several condi tions, a distinctive, if not a novel, science of archaology has grown up in the Western Hemi sphere. In the American system, prehistoric arti facts -ire interpreted in the light of the observed of artifacts, recorded by early explorers or studied by modern investigators: the modern artifacts are interpreted in the light of primi tive thought ascertained by current inquiries into primitive arts, industries, laws, languages, and faiths—and thus the ancient and the modern. the prehistoric and the historic, the living and the dead are correlated in a simple yet compre hensive scheme at once coextensive with the world's greatest ethnic province and sufficiently definite to outline a considerable part of the course of human development.
The object matter of American archeology comprises (1) human remains imbedded in natural deposits or entombed in prehistoric structures, and (2) artifaeti: in wide variety. including (a) habitations, (b) mounds and other structures connected with habitations or places of worship. (c) gaming devices, (d) implements, and (e) ceremonial ob jects. (f) domestic and ceremonial utensils. (g) shrines and monuments, (h) petroglyphs. (i) moldings in stucco. (j) sculptures, (k) Inis vellaneous inscriptions. II) wrought metal ob jects, etc. The various artifacts may be grouped
under a few general designations based on pre vailing types such as earthworks, stone imple ments, pottery. etc.
HUaIAN PEMAINS. Bones of prehistoric men are exceedingly common in the mounds and other burial places of central and eastern United States: skeletons, with and without integument, have been found in eaves throughout nearly all of both Americas, and are fairly common in the arid districts; and complete mummies of pre historic bodies, with complete wrappings, have been found in large numbers, especially in Peru. The chief lesson taught by these remains is that the prehistoric inhabitants of the various dis tricts (so far back as this record runs) cor responded more or less closely, in most cases exactly, With the tribes found there by Caucasian explorers, the correspondence extending to the mode of burial, the preila•ation of the body, and the mortuary sacrifices• as well as to the somatic or physical characteristics of the individuals. In sonic cases diversities between the living and the dead have been found of such sort as to indicate migrations or displacements of tribes, and in a few instances these have thrown useful light on early movements of the aborigines: but in a gen eral view, these indications are of minor impor tance. By some students, numbers of prehistoric crania have been grouped by types—e.g. doli•ho cephalic and brachyeephalic—assumed to repre sent distinct genetic- stocks or races: but since the types merge in very large series, since both are sometimes found in the same mound or ceme tery (and even in the same living clan), the value of the cranial classification would seem but secon dary at the best. In some instances the prehis toric skeletons. especially the crania, throw light on customs; thus the Muniz collection of 1000 Peruvian crania, of which In were trephined in 24 distinct operations, proves that the pre historic folk of this region performed this critical operation with a frequency higher even than that of a modern military hos pital, and with a degree of success hardly exceeded by that of the best modern surgery. Similarly the distribution of deformed crania throws light on cradle customs and on the half intentional flattening of infantile heads in pre historic times; while the pathologic conditions occasionally revealed by the buried bones serve to extenil our knowledge of certain diseases and and of the medical practice of the early ribes.