Investigations in this department are of great interest, and haveattracted to the field a host of workers; but a general review of themass of published matter exhibits the fact that the uses to which thematerial has been put have not always been wise.
In the monuments of antiquity found throughout North America, in campand village sites, graves, mounds, ruins, and scattered works of art,the origin and development of art in savage and barbaric life may besatisfactorily studied. Incidentally, too, hints of customs may bediscovered, but outside of this, the discoveries made have often beenillegitimately used, especially for the purpose of connecting the tribesof North America with peoples or so-called races of antiquity in otherportions of the world. A brief review of some conclusions that must beaccepted in the present status of the science will exhibit the futilityof these attempts.
It is now an established fact that man was widely scattered over theearth at least as early as the beginning of the quaternary period, and,perhaps, in pliocene time.
If we accept the conclusion that there is but one species of man, asspecies are now defined by biologists, we may reasonably conclude thatthe species has been dispersed from some common center, as the abilityto successfully carry on the battle of life in all climes belongs onlyto a highly developed being; but this original home has not yet beenascertained with certainty, and when discovered, lines of migrationtherefrom cannot be mapped until the changes in the physical geographyof the earth from that early time to the present have been discovered,and these must be settled upon purely geologic and paleontologicevidence. The migrations of mankind from that original home cannot beintelligently discussed until that home has been discovered, and,further, until the geology of the globe is so thoroughly known that thedifferent phases of its geography can be presented.
The dispersion of man must have been anterior to the development of anybut the rudest arts. Since that time the surface of the earth[Pg 074] hasundergone many and important changes. All known camp and village sites,graves, mounds, and ruins belong to that portion of geologic time knownas the present epoch, and are entirely subsequent to the period of theoriginal dispersion as shown by geologic evidence.
In the study of these antiquities, there has been much unnecessaryspeculation in respect to the relation existing between the people towhose existence they attest, and the tribes of Indians inhabiting thecountry during the historic period.
It may be said that in the Pueblos discovered in the southwesternportion of the United States and farther south through Mexico andperhaps into Central America tribes are known having a culture quite asfar advanced as any exhibited in the discovered ruins. In this respect,then, there is no need to search for an extra-limital origin throughlost tribes for any art there exhibited.
With regard to the mounds so widely scattered between the two oceans, itmay also be said that mound-building tribes were known in the earlyhistory of discovery of this continent, and that the vestiges of artdiscovered do not excel in any respect the arts of the Indian tribesknown to history. There is, therefore, no reason for us to search for anextra-limital origin thr