The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-17
The ANTIQUITY OF MAN.
Story Told by the Bones, Tools and
Monuments Left by Him.

From the Boston Transcript.
Man leaves behind him when he dies his
bones his tools and his monuments. and
these are the things from which have
been derived all the items of our knowl-
edge of him and his progress up to the
time when he learned to write. And even
in the historic age the story would be
much less complete but for his inscrip-
tons. his art and his relics.
Bones are of the greatest Importance,
for oftentimes man has left no other tok-
ems of his existence behind him. The
first study, therefore, to the archaeologist
is that of the comparative anatomy of the
human race 1t is necessary to distinguish
human bones from those of animals, to
study racial characters and to determine
the sex. Skulls must be studied with the
greatest minuteness, for In them lies some
of the most important evidences of origin
and progress. 1t is desirable also to study
the animals, for the bones of men are
often found intermngled with those of the
animals that he had slain or that have
conquered him, and in the case where
the animal is one now extinct a guess at
the antiquity of mans relics may be
made.
The tools which served in the rude arts
of early man were first of stone, roughly
fashioned to the needs of the work ard
later of metal Mneralogy is therefore
an important study to the archaeologist.
The stone relics furnish a rough index 10
the amount of civilization; they indicate
in crude way the extent of lntercom-
municatlon; they show how new ideas
came to the races; they serve in a man
ner to distinguish between different grades
OF antiquity, and in many ways they are
important. The mineralogist who finds
copper nuggets In the graves of North
Carolina prehistoric Indians knows that
these men had some manner of commu-
nication with the great lakes
knowledge of zoology Is requisite, too.
The presence of the horseshoe crab in le-
gends and traditions of the tribes of our
arid West could have been guessed at only
by one with acute perception, and the
finding of one of the shells as a fetch OF
one Of the tribes was bright exploit. II
was evident that this relic had made its
journey from hand TO hand over 1900 or
500 miles of country at a time when il
was exceedingly wild. Then there are
the shell ornaments. The present craze
for the river pearl is no new thing AS
far back as there is any evidence of the
preferences of man the lustrous liver
shells have been attractive to him, and
the distribution of them has been exceed
ingly wide.
Then there Is the pottery. Here che
must study the beginnings of the useful
arts; he must know how the pots are
made, how In lieu or in advance of the
potter's wheel the aborignes had num-
Der of ingenious ways of revolving the
vessel, how with the fingers and combs
and hundred other implements the pflm-
tive decoration was incsed, and now
with clays and ores of iron the first crude
colors were made wherewith to paint the
earthenware. This study OF old pots is
exceedingly interesting and of the highest
importance. The materials are imperish-
able, and while the vessel in a whole
condition are rare, the fragments Indicate
the more important elements in the story.
In the shapes of the vessels there is ru-
dimentary art in form, while In the dec
GRAFTON there are the beginnings of paint
ing and sculpture. In the painted or in
csed figures there is the key to relation
ships in tribes, races and religions.
Closely allied Is the art of carving. the
finishing and ornamenting OF tools and inn
elements. And there are besides the tex
tiles, and, although the primitive loom Is
an extremely simple affair which the saw
age nations have evolved or copied into
very similar FORMS still the materials en-
ployed and the patterns yield much infor-
nation about the ancestry and afiinitles OF
ancient man.
No word is necessary to uphold the inn
portance of the monuments. when. lack
ing the forerunners of paper, the ancients
recorded their history In cut or painted
monuments. Egypt, Assyria and Central
America, each in q different way, show the
value OF the close study of the monuments
and the stories of these countries would
have lacked the greater part Of their inter
est had the testimony of walls and obelisks
and the magnificent sculptures been with
held.
Languages form an exceedingly impor-
tant part of the preparation of the arch
aeologist. of course, he must know the
modern ones 10 keep abreast of the world s
progress in research, the announcements
being made in any one of the important
living tongues. But comparative philology
Is equally necessary. for 1t may serve TO
give the key to the relationships Of one sci
of characters with another.
In the comparison Of one smybol Ian
guage with another the ground is often
times new, but he who would make his
mark in this field must be prepared with
a knowledge Of what has already been
accomplished He must know by what
gradations aboriginal man made progress
from the representations OF animals that
indicated his successful hunting or the
photographs that recorded his victories IN
war to the imaginative ones that repre-
sented his mythic beings and the deities
that control the storms, and the thousand
other steps that Intervene between these
characters and the alphabet
Then, OF course, the student must famil-
iarize himself with the beginnings OF re-
iigion. He must study faithfully the
treasures Of folklore. He must learn the
great original fairy tales that are com
mon to the uncivilized world. He must