86 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITtlTION, 1951 



Whether that indicated five separate occupations of the structure or 

 remodeling activities during the course of a long-continued tenancy 

 is not known, but further study of the data obtained from the digging 

 may throw light on the subject. The structure had been built over 

 a number of burials, and after it was abandoned other graves were 

 dug through the floor, showing that the site continued to be inhabited 

 after the dwelling had burned. A number of the burials were accom- 

 panied by turtle carapaces, which undobutedly were placed there as 

 funerary offerings. They do not seem to have been used as food 

 receptacles, for in every instance they were inverted. Possibly they 

 may have had totemic significance and were placed with the dead to 

 indicate that the individual was a member of the turtle clan. A good 

 pottery series obtained from the site should fill certain gaps in the se- 

 quence for the area. The work on Occaneechi Island indicates that it 

 was not the place where the village mentioned by Lederer, who visited 

 it in 1670, was located and that previous identification of it as such was 

 in error. The current investigations indicate that the Occaneechi vil- 

 lage probably was on another island lying some distance downstream 

 from the one that now bears that name. 



It had been hoped that at two of the sites, where fluted points and 

 other artifacts suggestive of the eastern variant of the Folsom com- 

 plex had been picked up from the surface, some remnants of the de- 

 posits belonging to that period would still be intact. The excava- 

 tions showed, however, that the sites had suffered extensive erosion 

 and that the artifacts previously found there were simply float ma- 

 terial that remained when the deposits were carried away. Addi- 

 tional work still remains to be done at the Buggs Island Reservoir. 

 The survey was made at the Philpott Eeservoir during the last week 

 in June. The archeological manifestations found there are so 

 closely related to those in the Buggs Island area that no additional 

 work will be required. Materials gathered from the surface are so 

 similar to those from Buggs Island sites that they could not be recog- 

 nized if placed in the same collections. 



West Virginia. — The only work done in West Virginia during the 

 year was the brief survey made at the site of the new navigation 

 lock at Morgantown. Examination of the area involved by the con- 

 struction disclosed that practically no new lands will be inundated 

 by the project. The water there is to be kept within the limits of 

 the river channel, which has rather steep and confining banks. Rail- 

 roads parallel the channel on both sides, and any archeological remains 

 that may have been there at one time were long since destroyed. No 

 further investigations are necessary at that project. 



Cooperating institutions. — ^Various State and local institutions co- 

 operated with the River Basin Surveys during the year. Space for 

 field offices and laboratories for units of the Surveys were provided 



