Archaeology
the science of antiquities. The subject as defined by the Century Dictionary is "that branch of knowledge which takes cognizance of past civilizations, and investigates their history in all fields, by means of the remains of art, architecture, monuments, inscriptions, literature, language, implements, customs, and all other examples which have survived."
Most archaeologists exclude the study of written records. In the first place, they are interested in the rude beginnings of mankind; and in the second place, they take the ground that this kind of investigation belongs rather to the historian. Archaeology, however, is an aid to history. It supplies the means of confirming or rejecting written testimony, and, in the absence of writings, the historian may draw shrewd inferences from antiquities. Chronicles may err, but seeing is believing. When the archaeologist finds a dated coin beneath the ashes of a lake dwelling, he is in position very possibly to aid the historian in fixing, more or less definitely, some date required in connection with local history of the region. But cooperation with the historian is only one kind of service. The archaeologist is engaged independently, as well, in discovering and inferring and reconstructing the long pathway trod by mankind before the dawn of history.
One great obstacle to the use of antiquities as historical material lies in the uncertainty of date. Major Powell states that many collectors have paid high prices for relics of the mound builders, when, as a matter of fact, the "antiquities" in question are articles made by whites in recent times, bartered, little doubt, for furs or other Indian possessions. The first decisive achievement, and, in fact, the great achievement, of archaeology, is the discovery and mapping of the route by which savages passed on their way to civilization. The modern archaeologist holds that while some peoples have journeyed faster than others, all have trod the same pathway. According to this theory, even the most enlightened nations have come up, step by step, from savagery. It is possible to point out five distinct stages of advancement.
1. THE EOLITHIC AGE. The dawn of stone implements. This age is marked by the use of horns, claws, beaks, bones, shells, and other bestial organs for awls, arrows, harpoons, and spears. Such tools served for piercing and tearing, but hardly for cutting. Tools of vegetable origin were, no doubt, in use, but they have decayed, leaving no clue.
2. THE PALEOLITHIC AGE. The old stone age. Stone hammers, stone mortars, flint knives, mark this period.
3. THE NEOLITHIC AGE. The late stone age. The materials used are the same, but the tools are made with more skill and show better finish. Wooden houses, wooden ships, wooden yokes, wooden plows, were fashioned without metal and without the aid of metal tools. The American Indians were found in this stage.
4. THE BRONZE AGE. This was an age of rapid advance. Bronze axes, bronze chisels, bronze knives, bronze swords, bronze kettles, bronze pins, and bronze articles innumerable enabled the hunter, the farmer, the builder, and the trader to get on. The very idea of a bronze foundry, however crude, distinguishes a people or a tribe from those who have no implement or weapon save such as may be picked up on a shore or torn from a dead animal.
5. THE IRON AGE. This is the age in which we live, though many writers are inclined to claim that we have advanced into the Steel Age.
The second broad principle advanced by the archaeologist is that a people left to nature passes through the stages in the order named. The first step is the use of tools provided by nature; the second, the making of tools from stone; third, the improvement of stone tools and the fashioning of useful articles without the aid of metals; fourth, the employment of metals easily worked, as copper and bronze; and, lastly, the use of iron. Tribes in their infancy learn to walk before they run.
A third archaeological principle runs to the effect that no length of time may be set during which a people may be expected to complete an apprenticeship in the tools of a particular age. A recent writer insists that in localities, the old stone age, the age of flint, lasted 100,000 years. About the only point agreed upon in this connection is that the age of flint is longer than all the rest put together.
Still a fourth principle of importance should be understood. The beginning and end of an archaeological age is not uniform for all parts of the world. The Egyptians were 2,000 years later in reaching bronze implements than were the Assyrians. Tribes may yet be found that are unacquainted with the use of metals and whose stone implements are rude. They are still in the paleolithic age.
Students of archaeology are assisted by the material now to be found in museums. The National Museum at Washington, the Peabody Museum of Harvard, the American Museum at New York, the Field-Columbian Museum at Chicago, and many others, contain priceless collections of Indian implements and articles of Indian manufacture.
The large university museums and the royal, that is to say, the public, museums in the various capitals of Europe, shelter enormous, and, in many cases, rapidly increasing collections.
See Lake Dwellers; Mound Builders; Cave Dwellers