THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 493 



heads, knives, celts and occasionally a grooved axe, copper imple- 

 ments, gorgets, banner stones, bird stones and gouges. Pipes are 

 occasionally found of the platform-monitor type. Just who these 

 people were who left these traces is impossible to state. It is evident 

 however, that they were a sedentary people and had acquired con- 

 siderable proficiency in the several aboriginal arts. Their pottery, 

 however, seems to have lacked durability and only small fragments 

 are found. It is possible that they built some of the earthworks 

 within the county but the greater majority of the embankments and 

 earth walls were not built by these people. Their immediate suc- 

 cessors seem to have been an early branch of the Huron-Iroquois 

 stock, which succeeded in driving out the earlier occupants. They 

 built numerous earthworks and palisaded inclosures and within 

 these recent excavations have revealed triangular flint points and an 

 early form of Iroquois pottery. This pottery is interesting from the 

 fact that the high overhanging collar does not seem to have developed 

 although the characteristic, triangular patterns, made by parallel 

 lines, are present. 



This later people used pitted hammerstones as did their predeces- 

 sors but did not use copper implements, gorgets or banner stones. 

 They seem to have succeeded in holding this region up to historic 

 times although they later developed certain other characteristics. 



At the opening of the historic period the county was probably 

 occupied by a division of the Erie or Cat nation which held most of 

 the territory between Buffalo creek and Sandusky, Ohio. They had 

 a number of villages and were responsible for some of the earth- 

 works in this county. 



In 1654 the Erie were destroyed by having their nationality extin- 

 guished in the conflict with the confederated Iroquois. Historical 

 accounts seem to leave the impression that this region then became 

 abandoned entirely and remained so for more than one hundred 

 years. This does not seem reasonable on the face of things and 

 indeed is not corroborated by the evidence of archeology, for it 

 appears that very soon after the destruction of the Erie nation the 

 Seneca had settlements in certain portions of the county. 



The principal archeological centers in Cattaraugus county are: 

 (i) the regions about the mouth of Cattaraugus creek and along its 

 bank as far south as Gowanda; (2) in the valley of the Conewango, 

 in the vicinity of Conewango village and within the township of 

 Conewango ranging northward into Leon along a large tributary on 

 the Conewango creek; (3) the township of Randolph; (4) the 

 valley of the Allegheny from Limestone on the east to Onoville on 

 the west. The Allegheny valley contains numerous remains of all 

 the various occupations mentioned. For considerable time it 

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