THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK j 



Mound-culture Sites 



Mounds in New York have had no systematic examinations de- 

 spite the large amount of work done by amateurs in excavating them. 

 Jt is safe to say that the possibility of making a methodical 

 examination is now reduced by two-thirds, through the vandalism of 

 inexperienced relic hunters. Many mounds have been scraped down 

 merely to level the ground and others have been scraped into by 

 spade and horse scraper to find what " valuables " they m'.ght con- 

 tain. Few records have been kept and not all that have been made 

 are reliable. An examination of the most reliable records available 

 makes possible the descriptions of the typical -mound-culture sites 

 given below : 



i Mound on a terrace above the Conewango valley at Poland 

 Center, Chautauqua county. This mound was first described by T. 

 Apoleon Cheney in the i8th Report of the New York State Cabinet 

 of National History for 1860. 



\Yhen examined in 1905 the mound appeared to have been con- 

 siderably demolished by excavations, but in size it still remained one 

 of the t\vo highest of which we have any knowledge w r ithin the 

 State. It stands several rods back from the edge of the terrace and 

 amid the gloom of a thick forest growth. It's still 9 or 10 

 feet in height and with a diameter of about 64 feet. There seem to> 

 be the remains of an outer wall and trench surrounding the mound r 

 but the debris from excavations, the deep leaf mold and fallen trees 

 make this difficult to determine. Some fragments of notched flints 

 are to be found in the soil about the mound and it seems to lie in 

 what \vas once a village site but on account of the character of the 

 ground this is not easy to establish. Certain it is, however, that the 

 flat land immediately below' the terrace shows signs of occupation. 

 Numerous celts, notched spears, soapstone pipe fragments, a beauti- 

 fully formed stone tube and several gorgets have been found. The 

 culture represented seems similar to that of the Ohio mound area. 

 It is interesting to note that Cheney claims that eight skeletons bur- 

 ied in a sitting posture were excavated from this mound. Cheney's 

 plan is shown in plate 20. Many of his speculations are specious. 



Cheney's report on this site is as follows : 



The tumulus, represented upon plate III, from the peculiar construc- 

 tion of the work and the character of its remains, appears to belong to a 

 class of mounds different from any others embraced in this exploration. It 

 is located upon the 'brow of a hill, still covered by the ancient forest, and 

 overlooking the valley of the Conewango. This work has some appearance 

 of being constructed with the ditch and vallum outside of the mound, as 



