36 



AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS 



Pottery is found abundantly on the 

 majority of the sites in this district; 

 but, while very much more common 

 than in the New England area, it does 

 not equal in abundance that from the 

 Iroquois country. It is rarely found 

 buried in graves with skeletons as in 

 the Iroquoian area; when sometimes 

 found in graves, however, it is usually 

 at some distance from the human re- 

 mains and apparently not connected 

 with them. Whole or nearly whole 

 vessels are exceedingly rare and the 

 number of those found up to date 

 may easily be counted upon the fingers. 

 Potsherds taken from pits or shell- 

 heaps, where they have not been ex- 

 posed to the action of the weather, 

 are often as thickly covered with grease 

 as when they were broken and cast 

 aside. 



ARTICLES OF METAL. 



Beads. Beads of native metal, con- 

 sisting simply of pieces of hammered 

 sheet copper rolled into small tubes, 

 have been found, but they are very 

 rare. Copper salts, but no objects, 

 were found upon the bones, especially 

 on those of the head and neck of a 

 child's skeleton at Burial Ridge, Tot- 

 tenville, Staten Island, which seemed 

 to predicate the use of copper beads. 

 A great many beads of olivella shell, 

 some of them discolored by copper 

 salts, were found about the neck of the 

 skeleton. A single celt of copper is 

 said to have been found in Westchester 

 County, probably on Croton Neck, 

 slightly above the limit of the territory 

 treated in this paper. ' A large number 



1 Native copper occurs in the New Jersey trap 

 ridges, within a few miles of New York City, an 

 important source in Colonial times being near 

 Boundbrook 30 miles from the lower end of Man- 

 hattan Island. Bowlders of native copper occur 

 in the glacial drift. 



of copper beads of the type described, 

 were found with a skeleton on Con- 

 stable Hook, Bayonne, New Jersey, 

 and are now in the hands of a private 

 collector in Brooklyn. 



ARTICLES OF SHELL. 



Wampum. Objects of shell are not 

 at all common, and notwithstanding 

 the coast region of New York was one 

 of the best known localities for wam- 

 pum manufacture on the continent. 

 Wampum beads are almost unknown 

 from local sites. With the exception 

 of completed beads, most of which may 

 have been taken into the interior, by 

 the Indians, wampum may be found 

 in all stages of manufacture. We refer 

 to the white wampum, for traces of 

 the ' 'black" (blue) wampum made 

 from the hard clam or quahog are so 

 far not reported. The process of man- 

 ufacture may be shown by shells with the 

 outer whorls broken away in steps until 

 the innermost solid column is reached, 

 ground and polished at the end, and 

 needing only cutting off into sections 

 and perforations to make the finished 

 white wampum bead. These do not 

 occur on all sites, though they have 

 been found here and there throughout 

 the region. Ninety-six conch shells 

 with the outer whorls broken entirely 

 away were found in a grave at Burial 

 Ridge, Tottenville, Staten Island, about 

 the head and neck of a skeleton. 



Pendants. Occasionally oyster and 

 clam shells, found unworked save for 

 perforations in them, may have been 

 pendants or ornaments, but certainly 

 have little aesthetic value. 



Scrapers. Clam shells seem to 

 have been used as scrapers and some 

 are occasionally found with one edge 

 showing the effect of rubbing and wear- 



