Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/180

 1 68 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 22, 1920

Ohio. The significance is so clear, it appears fo the writer, as to admit of only one deduction; namely, that these several types pertain to a culture variety distinct from those already recognized, and which logically may be identified as the Algonquian group. It is probable that mound-building, while of restricted practice, was not altogether foreign to this group. Their habitation sites, while not so extensive as those of the Fort Ancient culture, appear to be fairly numerous, but up to the present time they have received scant attention from the investigator. The writer has observed several sites where notched flint specimens appear to occur to the exclusion of the unnotched variety, and where grooved axes and bell-shaped pestles are found in significant numbers.

Future explorations, it is believed, will clearly define the presence and extent of occupancy of this group of the Algonquian family in

Ohio.

TIME RELATIONSHIP OF OHIO CULTURE GROUPS

While originally the sole aim of this paper was to differentiate the apparent culture varieties of the Ohio area, in the end this procedure has seemed to entail the obligation of brief reference to the matter of time relations as among these several groups.

Since the native American race, as historically observed, is characterized by numerous cultural divisions and these by frequent changes of habitat, it may be inferred that the Ohio area, throughout the centuries preceding discovery, sheltered a proportionate number of culture groups. Interpretation of the time relations of these several groups is a problem toward which the student of anthro- pology turns an inquiring mind, and an important task awaiting archaeological research in Ohio. Unfortunately, much of the earlier investigation in the area is of little value in this connection and the work of more recent years has not covered sufficient ground to furnish the cumulative evidence necessary to a solution. At the normal rate of progress, years of systematic research are needed for this; and the danger of drawing general conclusions from incom- plete evidence must be avoided. Nevertheless, a few indications may be cited, not necessarily as conclusive in themselves, but as suggestive of fact.

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