. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 552 CONTRIBUTIONS OF AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY TO HUMAN HISTORY, Old World. The stone age and the red race stand i^ractically alone within the field of study. In America the high-Avater mark of culture barely reached the lower limit of civilization. In the Old World the fuller representa- tion of man's cai'eer is above that limit, so that America can be ex- pected to assist, especially in building up the substructure of human history. It can be e
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 552 CONTRIBUTIONS OF AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY TO HUMAN HISTORY, Old World. The stone age and the red race stand i^ractically alone within the field of study. In America the high-Avater mark of culture barely reached the lower limit of civilization. In the Old World the fuller representa- tion of man's cai'eer is above that limit, so that America can be ex- pected to assist, especially in building up the substructure of human history. It can be expected to furnish a fuller reading of the early chapters of culture progress than any otlier part of the world. The position of aboriginal America in the field of cultui-e history and the area of that history which American archeology, as well as American ethnology, can be expected to illumine is clearl}^ indicated in the accompanying diagram. In this diagram the whole field of human history is represented by the five spaces which, beginning below, are: (1) The stage of pre- human development, through and out of wdiich the race arose; (2). S Knl)q|lnfen«d. ^ ClMl«««d 3 Gar\Mr' 1 8 the average stage, in which humanity took definite shape; (3) the barbarous stage, in which powerful nations were founded and sys- tems of record were developed; (4) the civilized stage, in which higher culture was achieved, and (5) the enlightened stage, reached as yet only by a limited number of nations. The idea of time is not involved in this diagram. The stages of progress thus become a scale on which the cultural achievements of any race or people in its struggle upward may be laid down. It enables us to shoAV just what relative place is taken by each race or people and just how much and at what points each can contribute to the history of man; for human history as written is composite, made up of the separate histories of many peoples of all grades of development set together as a mosaic.
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