AN ERIE INDIAN VILLAGE AND BURIAL SITE 475 



culture regiou of that mysterious people for the sake of convenience 

 termed " mound builders." 



RIPLEY SITE 



For a number of years the writer had known of a site in this 

 locality, one on the lake shore 2 miles northwest of Ripley, but 

 until this season had not had occasion to visit it. In 1900 it was 

 reported to Mr. M. R. Harrington and the writer by Prof. John Fen- 

 ton, when we were assistants on the archeological staff of the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History. Mr Harrington did some work 

 on the site in 1904 for the Peabody Museum of American Arche- 

 ology and Ethnology, but, because of various obstacles, left the major 

 portion untouched. The excavations which he made during his short 

 stay revealed the fact that the site was a most prolific, one. In view 

 of the fact that the State Museum of New York had few or no 

 specimens of the Erie culture, and, indeed, as very little was known 

 of this culture, the site was chosen as the field for the season's opera- 

 tions and a leasehold obtained. The Ripley site is situated on the 

 William and Mary Young farm in lot 27, Ripley, Chautauqua 

 county. It covers an elevation locally known as " Dewey knoll " 

 situated on the cliffs of Lake Erie. On the east a stream has 

 cut through the shale and eaten down the bluffs to the lake level 

 so that a landing is easily effected from the water. This landing 

 is one of the few between Barcelona harbor and the mouth of 

 Twentymile creek in Pennsylvania where there is easy access to the 

 land on the bluffs above. The stream has cut the east side of the 

 knoll so that for several hundred feet south from the lake the 

 bank rises steep and in places almost sheer from the creek bed. 

 The place is one, therefore, naturally adapted for a fortified refuge 

 and must have been an attractive spot indeed for the aborigines 

 who built upon it a village, a circular earthwork and who found in 

 the soft sand a most suitable place for the burial of their dead. 



Surface features of the site 



The site was found to be mainly on the level top of the knoll 

 although a number of graves were found on the south and west 

 slopes. The " unoccupied soil " began at the lake bank and ran back 

 inland to the southern slope. The soil bordering the bank line was 

 a light sandy loam heavily intermixed with carbonaceous substances, 

 animal phosphates, vegetable mold and particles of animal bone. 

 Rack to the south it was generally a light shifting sand which rested 

 upon a more compact stratum. At places, especially a few feet 



