American Anthropologist

The tide-water portions of Maryland and Virginia have an area nearly equal to that of the State of Maryland. About one-fourth of the area is occupied by broad arms of the sea, chiefly Chesapeake bay and its tributaries, and the land is a low but handsome plain broken by erosion into hills, valleys, and terraces. It extends inland from the Atlantic seaboard to the base of the highland or Piedmont plateau, which rises on the west to the Allegheny moun

The curved line separating the two topographic divisionsthe lowland and the highland-is marked by falls in all the rivers. and by the location of towns and cities through which pass the great highways of travel connecting the north with the south. Upon this line are located Philadelphia, Havre de Grace, Baltimore, Laurel, Washington, Fredericksburg, Richmond, and Petersburg (see Pl. I). This was the shore-line of the Atlantic when the formations constituting the lowlands were laid down.

The separation of the lowland from the highland is not a topographic separation only, there are pronounced biologic and geologic distinctions, and these combined in archaic times to produce marked anthropologic distinctions. The tide-water region furnished a plentiful supply of game and fish, and in the brackish and salt water areas an abundance of oysters. The natives lived much upon the water and were perhaps more nearly a maritime people than any other group of tribes in the east. Their peculiar biologic environment had a marked influence upon their art, giving it unique forms and exceptional distribution, but their unusual geologic surroundings had a still more pronounced effect upon their

implements, utensils, and weapons, limiting the forms and sizes and determining to a considerable extent the kinds employed in the various districts independently of biologic and other conditions.

In early historic times the tide-water country was inhabited by numerous tribes of Indians, mainly of Algonquian stock, subject to the renowned Powhatan. A few other nations were located about the headwaters of Chesapeake bay, and others appeared at times along the western and southern borders. The period covered by this occupation practically closed before the middle of the last century. Its beginning is not determined, but cannot extend very many centuries back into the past. Of antecedent or prehistoric peoples, if such there were, we have no information, for the art remains are simple and homogeneous, giving no hint of the occupation of this region by other than the historic tribes. The region. is nearly identical with that explored by that intrepid and illustrious adventurer and colonist, John Smith, whose accounts of the natives are among our most valuable contributions to the aboriginal history of the Atlantic States.

The geology of the tide-water country is wholly unlike that of the highland, and the rocks available to the aborigines in the two regions were not only different in distribution but peculiar in the shapes they took and in other features that affect the character of the utensils made and employed. In the highland, west of the dotted line on the map, the varieties of rock occur in massive forms and with definite independent distribution. The workable varieties, such as quartz, quartzite, rhyolite, jasper, and flint, were much. sought by the aborigines of the lowland. Fragmental material was to be obtained almost everywhere upon the surface, but choice. varieties were confined to limited areas and often to distant regions, and where the surface exposures were not sufficient to supply the demand, quarrying was resorted to and the work of securing, transporting, and trading or exchanging the stone must have become an important factor in the lives of the people. The masses of rock. were uncovered, broken up, and tested, the choice pieces were selected and reduced to forms approximating the implements to be made, and in this shape were carried to the lowland.

In the lowland all varieties of hard stones are fragmental and the species are intermingled in varied ways. These fragments of rock are not merely broken angular pieces, such as characterize the surface of the highland, but are rounded masses and bits, known as

PLATE I MAP OF THE CHESAPEAKE TIDE-WATER REGION

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American Anthropologist, Volym 6