A PRE-LENAPE SITE IN NEW JERSEY 



There are few regions in North America which are of 

 greater interest archeologically than the North Atlantic sea- 

 board, as throwing light on the possible antiquity of man in 

 America. Beginning with the much disputed paleoliths of 

 Abbot, which may or may not represent glacial man, we pass 

 to the so-called argillite culture, which is characterized by the 

 exclusive use of this material and the entire absence of pottery, 

 and from this period to the culture of the recent Lenape of 

 Pennsylvania and New Jersey, represented by well-chipped 

 implements and the manufacture of pottery. In the excava- 

 tions made in the vicinity of Trenton by Volk, these three 

 culture levels were found conforming to three geological strata: 

 a surface black loam, in which the recent implements were 

 found; a layer of yellowish sand of varying depth, in which 

 occurred the crude implements of the argillite users; and the 

 underlying glacial gravel, where the paleoliths are said to have 

 been found. A similar arrangement of the strata, with the 

 exception that the gravel was replaced by white glacial sand 

 overlying cretaceous marl, was found in the site excavated 

 by the authors. The location of the excavation, which is about 

 fifteen miles south of Trenton in an air line, and about six 

 miles from the Delaware makes it fall well within the region 

 of the earlier investigations. As in the sites excavated by 

 Volk, the modern implements were found in a surface stratum 

 of leaf mold, but the argillite implements were found at the 

 bottom of the yellow stratum, lying on the white glacial sand. 

 A few scattered points of argillite exhibiting better workman- 

 ship and less signs of decay, were found in the yellow soil in a 



(49) 



