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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1118 



society for many years, correlating its work di- 

 rectly with the public school system of Buffalo to 

 an extent not attempted elsewhere, and predicts for 

 the future extended work in anthropology as well 

 as in other branches of natural science. 

 Excavation of a Pre-Lenape Site in New Jersey: 



E. W. Hawkes. 



Few regions in North America are of greater in- 

 terest archeologically than the north Atlantic sea- 

 board as throwing light on the possible antiquity 

 of man in America. Particularly in the Trenton 

 area we find evidence of two culture levels — that 

 of the modern Delaware Indians and an argillite 

 culture which has been the subject of much dis- 

 pute. During last summer the author and his col- 

 league, Mr. Ralph Linton, made an excavation of 

 an Indian site near Moorestown, New Jersey, 

 which promises to throw some light on the com- 

 parative age of the two cultures. 



Modern Indian implements were found in the 

 upper stratum of leaf mold, six inches deep ; argil- 

 lite implements of an intermediate type in the 

 center of the next stratum, a layer of yellow sand, 

 five to seven feet deep; and, at the juncture of 

 the yellow sand with a stratum of white glacial 

 sand, extensive remains of a ceremonial site were 

 uncovered, which consists of caches of argillite 

 points and bannerstones grouped in three more or 

 less parallel rows around a great central fire-pit. 

 The fire-pit had blackened the layer of white sand 

 for two feet down, but showed no trace above, 

 thus proving conclusively that the material of the 

 two layers was clearly separate. 



The probable age of the levels rests in the 

 geologic formation of the site, which was in the 

 shape of a mound. If laid down in water, which 

 is geologically probable, the points from the low- 

 est level would belong to glacial times; if wind- 

 blown, which is more probable, the argillite im- 

 plements would be comparatively recent. The 

 presence of bannerstones among them would ap- 

 pear to be an argument against any great anti- 

 quity. The number of types of argillite imple- 

 ments found extends the limits of this culture, 

 but raises the broader question of whether it was 

 continued into a more modern era than has been 

 supposed to date. 



Excavations on the Abbott Farm at Trenton, 

 New Jersey: Clakk Wisslee, C. A. Heeds, and 

 Leslie Spiee. 



This report is on one phase of a systematic in- 

 vestigation of the chronological relations of Coastal 

 AJgonkin culture. Mr. Alanson Skinner will re- 



port separately on another aspect of the problem. 

 In the course of their local field-work the writers 

 encountered traces of what seemed to be the argil- 

 lite culture described by Volk and Abbott as found 

 in the yellow drift at Trenton. Artifacts were 

 found in the yellow drift at a few other points 

 near the terminal moraine, sites that will be ex- 

 cavated in the near future. For the sake of 

 comparative data, and since the Trenton site is 

 about to be destroyed by railway extension, con- 

 siderable attention was given to it. The problem 

 for the next few years will be the study of the 

 yellow drift deposits farther north. This report 

 will deal almost entirely with the site on Dr. Ab- 

 bott's farm at Trenton. 



A. Archeologieal Beport, by Leslie Spier. — Data 

 are offered in support of the following: The ex- 

 cavations so far made in the yellow drift of the 

 Trenton district have yielded artifacts in quantity 

 sufficient to warrant the conclusion that typical 

 conditions are here represented. The artifacts are 

 culturally distinct from those of the Delaware In- 

 dians found in the surface soil. They are dis- 

 tributed throughout the site, lying in a character- 

 istic manner in the upper portion of the yellow 

 drift, and entirely separate from the artifacts in 

 the surface soil. They have not penetrated the 

 yellow drift from the surface soil above, but bear 

 an intimate relation to the geological structure of 

 the drift. 



B. The Application of Statistical Methods to 

 the Preceding Data, by Clark Wissler. — It is shown 

 that the tabulations of artifacts and pebbles from 

 the several trenches give typical frequency curves. 

 Also that they are in each case component parts 

 of a single series. There is here the suggestion of 

 a new departure in archeologieal method, or rather 

 the introduction of the methods of precision used 

 in many other sciences. 



C. Geological Report, by Chester A. Reeds. — 

 The geologic history of the Trenton district is 

 long and varied. The triassic overlap on the rocks 

 of Cambrian and pre-Cambrian age extends from 

 Trenton northwestward. The marine beds of the 

 Cretaceous, Tertiary, and early Pleistocene periods 

 overlap on the Triassic rocks along a line from 

 Trenton to New York. During late Glacial and 

 post-Glaeial times the drainage was in part normal 

 to and in part parallel to this line. The streams 

 of to-day occupy the same relative positions as 

 they did in late Pleistocene times, but their valleys 

 have been modified somewhat by subsequent cor- 

 rasion and aggradation. In the comparatively re- 

 cent geological past deposits containing artifacts 



