Abstract
THE preliminary survey of recent field work of the Smithsonian Institution ("Explorations and Field-Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1936." Washington, D.C., 1937; pp. 100) covers nineteen investigations, beginning with Dr. G. C. Abbot's "Exploring Solar Power Possibilities" and including research in geology, palæontology, zoology, botany and anthropology, the last-named predominating with seven investigations, mostly archaeological. Of these last, Dr. Hrdlićka's explorations of sites on Kodiak Island, Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands have attracted no little attention, not only on account of the exceptionally large number of antiquities brought back by this year's expedition, but also by the collection of mummified human remains from Kagamil. Dr. Henry B. Collins, jun., by his excavations at Bering Strait, has succeeded in determining beyond question the place of the Thule culture in the cultural succession at this gate of entry of man into the American continent—an important contribution to the Eskimo problem—and also has arrived at the conclusion that there is little hope of discovering any trace here of the passage of early man prior to the Eskimo, owing to physiographic changes. Further investigations by Dr. Frank H. Roberts, jun., on sites of the Folsom culture in Colorado and on a new site in Iowa discovered in 1935, the easternmost occurrence noted of the true Folsom stone point, have yielded new data bearing on the occurrence of this early type of the American stone age. It is now established that Folsom man was contemporary with the extinct camel, and also that he lived before, as well as at the same time as, the thick growth of vegetation which preceded the present condition of aridity in the south-western area. This points to an antiquity even higher than that indicated by previous evidence.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Field Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1936. Nature 140, 356–357 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140356d0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140356d0