5i8 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Significance of some of the data 



From the data secured in the course of the operations one might 

 construct a fairly correct account of tlie hfe and activities of the 

 people who left so many significant traces. One might picture the 

 scenes of primitive agriculture, the excitement and dangers of the 

 chase, the industries of the pot maker or the flint worker or the 

 home life of the warrior father, his wife and children, but this 

 picture is left for the reader to produce. Our work is rather to 

 tell how the facts were gathered, and, for the guidance of those 

 who wish to revivify the scenes of the past, to Suggest how this may 

 be done. Hasty conclusions and preconceived ideas are to be studi- 

 ously avoided and no theory should be considered more than tenta- 

 tive unless the proof is so strong as to eliminate doubt. 



Indications of an earthwork 



Excavations were not carried on long before enough evidence 

 was secured to point out the former presence of a circular earth 

 ring in the village section. This ring seems to have inclosed the 

 main portion of the village and to have separated it from a group 

 of pits and lodge sites to the south. Just beyond pits 26, 27, 78 and 

 79 the soil became very hard and compact and the occupied soil 

 covered with a layer of sand and gravel. The earth in the center 

 of this belt was hard and compact. It was evidently disturbed and 

 intermixed but exhibited few signs of modification by the sub- 

 stances incident to human occupation such as ashes and charcoal. 

 A few inches of the disturbed subsoil overlay the occupied soil 

 on either side of the barren belt [see text fig.. 18]. From these 

 facts it was inferred that at some time an earth ring or wall had 

 been leveled down and the earth of which it was composed thrown 



Fig. 18 Cross-section of soil beneath obliterated earth ring 



over the occupied soil. The outline of the belt was traced and 

 found to be circular in form or rather crescentic, the ends of the 

 belt touching the lake bank. The original form had undoubtedly 

 been circular, the encroaching lake having undermined the cliffs 



