456 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Univ. Stud., s. viii-ix, 1884; Holmes, 2d Rep't, Bur. Am. Eth- 

 nology; etc. 



Wood. Articles made of wood were far more common among 

 the Indians than were articles of more durable substances. This is 

 so far true that the stone, bone and clay articles found on sites con- 

 stitute only a small fraction of the material objects made and used 

 by the natives. Houses were of wood and bark, dishes were of 

 wood, and there were spoons, clubs, baskets, bowls, mortars, cups, 



rattles, masks, arrow and spear shafts, 

 game sticks, boxes, and numerous 

 other things of wood. Bark likewise 

 supplied a useful material for ropes, 

 string, nets, fabrics, dishes, barrels, 

 houses and numerous other purposes. 

 A traveler in an Indian village jn 

 colonial New York might never have 

 noticed a stone implement. These 

 facts point out that the rinding of 

 even a single stone object on a site 

 may indicate a degree of occupation of 

 greater intensity than at first thought. 

 Everything else save the stone imple- 

 ment has crumbled away. 



In some graves and in the bot- 

 toms of swamps and lakes articles of 

 wood have sometimes been found. Colonial Seneca and Onondaga 

 graves where there have been articles of brass to act as a preservative 

 frequently have yielded spoons, bowls, small images, and parts of 

 arrow shafts, all of wood. Figure 68 shows the top of a comb of 

 wood found in an Ontario county Seneca grave. 



Workshops. Places where aboriginal implements, such as flint 

 points, were made are called workshops. These may be located near 

 village sites, on camp sites along trails or near sources of supply. 

 Evidences of workshops are places covered with large numbers of 

 flint chips or partly blocked out stones. In workshop sites or nearby 

 many implements in process of completion may be found. Caches 

 of blank forms have occasionally been unearthed in the vicinity of 

 these places of industry. 



(For Part 2 see N. Y. State Museum Bulletin 237-38.) 



Fig. 68 Top of wooden 

 comb, from a grave in 

 Ontario county 



