HAWKES AND LINTON A PRE-LENAPE SITE IN NEW JERSEY 59 



connection with all the fire pits was that while the white sand 

 was discolored for some distance down, the yellow layer above 

 was unmarked, proving conclusively that they had no connec- 

 tion with the upper layer. 



ARGILLITE WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS 



All the weapons and implements found in the lowest level 

 were, with one exception, of argillite. The exception was a 

 very large and beautiful point of bluish quart zite, which was 

 found in a cache of ceremonial objects. Mr. Skinner, in the 

 Archaeological Survey of New Jersey, 1 calls attention to the 

 fact that, while the Lenape used argillite, such points are 

 always found commingled with others of jasper, flint and 

 quartz, not isolated, and generally in a different cultural horizon. 

 One argillite point was found in the top stratum of the site, 

 associated with points of the above materials. It was, how- 

 ever, finely worked, modern in shape, and unweathered. The 

 points from the leaf mold show none of the signs of decay and 

 great age characterizing those from the lowest level. The 

 intermediate points show slight signs of decay. 



As far as this site is concerned, the sequence seems to be 

 as follows. First, an early period characterized by crude work- 

 manship and an exclusive use of argillite; second, an inter- 

 mediate period, characterized also by the use of argillite, but 

 with improved workmanship and the beginnings of pottery, 

 and third, the modern period, in which the material corresponds 

 to the ordinary surface finds of New Jersey. The intermediate 

 material resembles the earlier culture rather than the modern. 



Whether the argillite culture represents a race of migra- 

 tion which was pre-Lenape in other places, it certainly pre- 

 ceded the modern culture in this locality. The length of time 

 required for the deposition of the strata, separating the cultures, 

 cannot be determined exactly but it represents a considerable 

 period of time. If the deposit is aeolian, the time might be 



1 Archaeological Survey of New Jersey, Skinner and Schrabisch, p. 19. 



