480 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



ascertained by means of a compass and tape. The dimensions of 

 the grave, its number and position in the trench and the character 

 of the soil and other items of importance were recorded in the fiekl 

 book. If the burial was of sufficient interest photographs from one 

 or more positions were made. The skeleton when removed was 

 wrapped in excelsior or cotton and placed in a labeled box but not 

 finally packed until dry. The objects found in the grave were 

 placed in a tray with a proper label and afterward marked with 

 the serial field number, this number being distinguished from the 

 museum serial by prefixing the letter " F." Data slips numbered 

 to correspond with the specimens were filleJ out and give all the 

 necessary details. Any information not found on the slip may be 

 found in the field record. The various records thus countercheck 

 each other. 



Extracts from the trench book describing the pits in the 



village site 



The trenches in the village plot began at the v>/ire fence that 

 ran parallel to the edge of the alluvial cliff and 20 feet from it 

 to the south. No excavations beyond a few post holes back of 

 the fence along the bank were permitted by the landowner who 

 believed that should the sod be broken and the bushes uprooted 

 the earth would slide down the bank and thus the loss of his land 

 would be unduly accelerated. 



Pits in the village site 

 Pit I, trench i at 5' on the east side was a refuse pit evidently 

 filled with the sweepings of the lodges that were near it. The 

 pit was circular, 8' in diameter and 42" deep. It contained the split 

 and cracked bones of deer, bear, elk, beaver, various fish and birds 

 and also fragments of the shells of U n i o c o m p 1 a n a t u s . In 

 the pit soil among the refuse of fire-broken stones, charcoal and 

 ashes were 9 bone beads, that is, polished sections of cylindrical 

 animal or bird bones. The pit filling was an almost uniform black 

 from top to bottom where there was a yellow clay-mixed sand 

 through which the pit soil had not drained. In most pits the soil 

 at the sides and beneath is ramified by worm and rodent holes which 

 have allowed the black carbonaceous pit matter to percolate to a 

 depth often much greater than the original pit bottom. For this 

 reason pits often appear much deeper than they originally were. 

 Here, however, there was a sharp line of demarcation between the 

 modified pit filling and the undisturbed bottom beneath. 



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