74 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY r bull. 60 



down and Ijuilt uj), in most perplexing confusion, and the e\ev active 

 forces of gravity lia\e brought about extensive changes. Forests have 

 been uprooted, breaking up the original order of de[)osition, and man 

 and beast ha\e been continuously active in disturbing the superficial 

 deposits in many Avays. Pitfalls await the unwary 

 rerpiexins Condi- (^.j^^^^.^.^.^.i. ^,^^ e^erv luHid, and the interpretations of ail 



tions _ • ' ^ _ 



finds of artifacts attributed to unconsolidated de- 

 posits are to be accepted with due reservation. A Japanese teapot 

 from the alluvial deposits of a Virginia valley found at a (le])th of 25 

 feet may not ju'ove, in the hands of even the most inexpert and credu- 

 lous, an element of danger, since its origin and period are not liable 



Fig. 3-1. Sand-buried Indian village site, on sliore of Chesapeake Bay. 



to misinterpretation, but a rudely shaped implement or a reject of 

 manufacture of recent origin found at an equal depth may in incom- 

 petent hands take its place in the literature of archeology as pi'oof 

 of great anticjuity and an unknown race low in the culture scale. 

 An Luliaii village site with its nornud complement of relics on the 

 shore of a JNIaryland bay, buried beneath a score of feet of wind- 

 blown sand, may be readily and correctly interpreted by anyone 

 having a little knowledge of such deposits and the contents of such 

 sites (fig. 84). But objects of rudelj' shaped stone, the handiwork 

 of the modern Indian, and such as occur on thousands of sites of 

 random manufacture, buried at corresponding depths in like deposits 

 and unaccompanied by other relics to assist in their proper interpre- 

 tation, may find ready acceptance as testimony of remote time and 

 elementary culture status. The nornuil contents of a lowland village 

 site, incliuling implements and utensils of several kinds, may be plowed 

 up by torrential waters, redeposited lower down, and covered deeply 



by other trans})orted matei'ial without danger of lead- 

 terpretation ^^'^'" ^^^S ^o coufusioii ou the part of expert observers, since 



the various relics included may tell the story of their 

 neolithic origin plainly. But the rudely shaped contents of (juarries 

 and workshops occurring in like situation and in like manner plowed 

 up ami redeposited may result in serious error, especially if encoun- 



