The examples we have quoted, even though the case of California be not considered, are all suggestive of a great antiquity for man, taking us back in time to when the glaciers still “shone in frigid splendor” over the northern part of the United States. When European savants had established the science of Archæology, and shown the existence of separate stages of culture, it was but natural that those interested in the matter on this side of the Atlantic should turn with renewed energy to investigate the archæology of this country, to see if here, too, they could find evidence of a Paleolithic Age. But the scholar in this country is confronted with a peculiar difficulty. Owing to the very multiplicity and variety of relics of prehistoric times, it is difficult to properly classify and understand them. The field is of great extent, the time of study has been short, and the explorers few; so it is not strange that but few localities have been thoroughly searched. But, until this is done, we can not hope to reach definite conclusions.
The peculiar culture of the Indians, prevailing among them at the time of the discovery, proved a hindrance, rather than a help, in this matter. The Indians are certainly not Paleolithic, many of their implements being finely wrought and polished; but their arrow-heads, hatchets, and celts were sufficiently rude to spread the conviction that all weapons and implements of stone should be referred to them. This belief has done much to hinder real progress. It is not to be wondered at that some difference of opinion has prevailed, among our scholars, whether the different stages of culture, discovered in Europe, have any existence here.
On one hand, it is denied that different stages can be detected. Says Prof. Whitney: “It is evident that there has been no unfolding of the intellectual faculties of the human race on this continent similar to that which has taken place in Central Europe. We can recognize no Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, or Iron Ages.”46 Others assure us, that if present, the ages stand in reverse order. “The relics last used were by far the rudest, and the historic races, which are the survivors of the prehistoric, are the wildest of the two; the lower status remaining, while the higher has passed away.”47 In still another place we read: “The Neolithic and Bronze Ages preceded the Paleolithic, at least in the Mississippi basin.”48
Notwithstanding these quotations, we think it will yet be shown that in this country, as in Europe, there was a true Paleolithic Age, and that there was no such inversion as is here spoken of. In some places sedentary tribes may have been driven away and their territory occupied by more war-like, but less highly cultivated tribes. But take the whole Indian race, and they were steadily advancing through the Neolithic stage of culture. They were acquainted with copper, and were drawing near to the discovery of bronze and metals, and, indeed, the discovery had been made of bronze in the far south. But lying back of the true Indian Age, long preceding it in time, to which probably belong the relics mentioned in the preceding discoveries, is a true Paleolithic Age.
We are indebted for the facts on which the above conclusion rests more to the writings of Dr. C. C. Abbott, of Trenton, New Jersey, than any other individual, and his results are based on an extensive study of the relics themselves and the position in which found. In a collection of stone implements of this country arranged in a cabinet, we find rude and unpolished specimens, as well as those of a finely wrought Neolithic type. Now the Indians, when first discovered, frequently made use of very rudely formed implements, and from a knowledge of this fact, it came about that but little attention was paid to the position in which the relics were discovered. They were all classified as Indian relics. But the greatest and most valuable discoveries in science have occurred as a result of the attention paid to little things; in this case by carefully scrutinizing the position in which they occurred.
Dr. Abbott commenced by gathering a very extensive collection, carefully searching his section of country and gathering all specimens of artificially shaped stones. These must have existed there in considerable quantities, as, in three years’ time, he collected over nine thousand specimens,49 carefully examining them as they came from the soil.50 As a result of this extensive and careful research he is able to present us some general conclusions. The surface specimens, including in this classification also those specimens turned up by the plow,51 are characteristically Indian. The material is jasper and quartz, and they are generally carefully made. They used other varieties of stone as well. Like the Neolithic people of Europe, they sought the best varieties of stone for their purpose. But his collection also included rude Paleolithic forms, and he found by taking the history of each specimen separately, that just in proportion as the relics were rude in manufacture and primitive in type the deeper were they buried in the soil.52 Writing in 1875, he says: “We have never met a jasper (flint) arrow-head in or below an undisturbed stratum of sand or gravel, and we have seldom met with a rude implement of the general character of European drift implements on the surface of the ground.”53
These are not theoretical opinions, but are deductions drawn from a very extensive experience. From figured specimens of these rudest formed implements, we see they are veritable Paleolithic forms, resembling in a remarkable manner the rude implements of the old world, whether collected in France or in India. We learned that the Paleolithic people of Europe utilized the easiest attainable stone for their implements. They contented themselves with such pieces of flint as they could gather in their immediate vicinity. The easiest attainable rock in the valley of the Delaware is not flint, but argillite, and such is the material of which the Paleolithic implements are formed. Thus it is shown that the first appearance of a stone-using folk in the valley of the Delaware was in the Paleolithic stage of their culture. Judging from the depths of their buried implements, this long preceded the Neolithic stage.
These conclusions have been sustained in a very marked manner by late discoveries in the valley of the Delaware, to which we will now refer. After reaching the conclusion that the relics of the Stone Age in New Jersey clearly pointed to a Paleolithic beginning, when argillite, the most easily attainable stone, was utilized in the manufacture of weapons and implements, Dr. Abbott made the further discovery that in the ancient gravels of the Delaware River Paleolithic implements only were to be found. We must remember that it was in the gravels of European rivers that the first discoveries were made which have since resulted in so wonderfully extending our knowledge of the past of man.