14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



pottery bearing the imprint of textiles, stone gorgets, pipes, etc., 

 have been collected on the site — all proving the former existence here 

 of an extensive, permanent village. 



The site was visited by Fowke about the year 1892. He wrote: ' 

 " The Indian trail from the Shenandoah valley, through Rockfish gap, 

 crossed Jam/es river at an island near Norwood. For 5 miles below 

 in the river there is a succession of pools and rapids, with many 

 large rocks in the channel which are covered only in time of high 

 water. The hills on the south with scarcely an exception reach to 

 the water, there being only a few narrow strips of level ground. On 

 the north the bottom lands are wide and continuous. 



" The only indications of Indian occupancy on the southern side 

 in this vicinity are opposite the island. On the northern side, however, 

 aboriginal remains may be found on every farm. They are most 

 abundant on the lands .... three miles below Norwood. 



" The floods of 1870 and 1877 disclosed numerous small deposits, 

 probably more tlian 200 in all, containing burned stones, pieces of 

 pottery, arrowheads, and great quantities of quartz chips. They are 

 in nearly straight rows, from 25 to 50 feet apart, and extend for 

 several hundred yards along the river." Many stone implements were 

 discovered, and " all these things point to a village of considerable 

 size, but a most careful search of the whole area, especially along 

 the river bank and in the numerous gullies, failed to reveal a bone 

 of any description." 



The material recovered was similar to that found on the site of 

 Monasukapanough, on the banks of the Rivanna, to be described in 

 the following section. The chipped ax- or celt-like implements found 

 on both sites are the most characteristic of all the objects recovered. 

 Three typical examples from the James Riiver site are shown in 

 figure 4, for comparison with others found on the lianks of the 

 Rivanna, plate 5. 



Fowke's failure to discover a cemetery, or to find any traces of 

 human remains, tends to strengthen the belief that this was a Siouan 

 village where the burial customs were the same as those of the 

 people of Monasukapanough, related tribes having the same customs 

 and ways of life. Undoubtedly a large burial mound, or possibly 

 several, once stood on the low grounds bordering the left bank of the 

 James. These, the " Indian Graves " of early records, were probably 

 to have been encountered in many localities, but were destined to be 

 destroyed when the land was cleared and cultivated ; soon all traces 



^ Fowke, Gerard, Archeologic investigations in James and Potomac Valleys. 

 Bull. 23, Bur. Amer. Ethnol., Washington, 1894. 



