246 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



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is Iroquoian, for it yielded the combination peculiar to that culture 

 celt-axes, triangular arrow points and pottery showing the typical 

 constructed neck, rounded bottom and projecting rim. It is not 

 Seneca, for this people did not enter and settle the region until long 

 after the beginning of trade with the whites, relics of which would 

 certainly be found in abundance on any site occupied by them. Here 

 we have but one conclusion open that the site is of Erie origin. 

 It would be very interesting, however, to make a further study of 

 these Erie sites, and compare them with those of the early Seneca 

 in the Genesee valley. Then, and then only, could any absolute 

 conclusion be reached. 



THE RIPLEY ERIE SITE 1 



BY ARTHUR C. PARKER 2 



General Region 



Along the southern shore of Lake Erie between Westfield and 

 State Line, and extending east and west from these points, is a high 

 bluff of Chemung shale rising almost sheer from the water. In 

 various places it is from 15 to 65 feet above the lake level. It 

 forms a most effectual barrier to those who might wish to reach 

 the land from the water or the water from the land. The soil above 

 the shale in general is a loose water-washed sand and gravel 

 beneath which is a substratum of Erie clay which outcrops at 

 denuded places. In this lake border region are numerous springs 

 and brooks. Two miles back from the lake rise the steep Chautau- 

 qua hills which form the watershed that sends the streams on the 

 south into the Allegheny and its tributaries and finally into the Gulf 

 of Mexico and those on the north into Lake Erie and finally into 

 the Gulf of St Lawrence. This region by reason of its physical 

 features afforded an ideal retreat for the tribes of men who found 

 their way there after the subsidence of the great glacial lakes, which 

 receding left their shore lines far inland as terraces and hills and 

 their beds as fertile undulating plains. 



Traces of early occupancy are found here. On the sites of 

 ancient marshes are found the bones of the mastodon and near them 

 fire-cracked stones and charcoal. There are sites which yield 



1 Condensed from N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 117. 



2 In excavating this site we employed Everett R. Burmaster as field assistant 

 and as other assistants William Blueskye and Jesse Mulkin, all of Irving, N. Y. 



