86 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



what he should report to make our knowledge more complete. 

 Perfect examples of New York aboriginal pottery are specially 

 desired for the state museum^ but fragments showing unusual styles 

 of ornament will also be of value and interest. It should always 

 be stated where they were found. In fact articles without a record 

 are shorn of half their value, and become mere curios in many 

 cases. With a good record a simple relic may solve some riddle 

 of history, or bring out truths unsuspected before. This should 

 never be forgotten. , 



In the general treatment of this subject a word may be said on 

 the antiquity of earthenware in New York. The most careful com- 

 parative work has been done between the Hudson river and Lake 

 Erie, and little pottery has been found there to which an age of 

 much over 500 years can be safely ascribed^ unless it may be on 

 small hunting camps. The noted double walled fort in Shelby,, to 

 which a great antiquity has been given, probably falls far within that 

 limit. With the exception of a pair of Ohio shells, not an article 

 has been found upon it which can not be duplicated on historic 

 Iroquois sites of early days, and this is notably true in earthenware. 

 Many of the earthworks of Jefferson county may be allowed an age 

 of five centuries, though probably more recent, and all are pre- 

 historic in a sense, but some certainly show a knowledge of the 

 white man's arts. 



In Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties the case may prove dif- 

 ferent. These formed a border land, and while earthenware is 

 abundant there, little has been definitely described. Towards Lake 

 Erie the earthworks were quite recent, and those farther inland are 

 of the ordinary Iroquois type. In these two counties are upwards 

 of 50 defensive works, and the region seems an early center of 

 Iroquois life. A careful study of its pottery might show how closely 

 related this was to other places and later days. 



It must be remembered that nations of the Iroquois family occu- 

 pied northwestern Pennsylvania 300 years ago^ as well as the banks 

 of the Susquehanna and partially those of the Delaware. The 

 Andastes of the French, who were the Minquas of the Dutch, were 

 of this powerful family, and waged a fierce warfare against the 



