42 NEW YORK STATE ^vIUSEUM 



Algonkian peoples lived here, also, and that they werc similar to the 

 " red paint," people best represented in certain Maine sites. It is 

 possible that some of the eastern Sioux have left traces here : it is 

 possible that Miiskhogean bands came up the Susquehanna and 

 roamed the State. It is possible that several or man}- stocks now 

 unknown and perhaps impossible to know left traces behind. 

 Certainly there are many sites that are puzzling and that sug- 

 gest an occupation by people the nature of which we now have no 

 means of determining. 



I THE RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF ARTIFACTS 



In describing the cultural intensity of a single site, of a cultural 

 horizon or of a large geographical area, it is useful to know how 

 frequently certain types of artifacts occur. Relative terms have 

 been used with great carelessness, so much so that records to a 

 large extent are unreliable. Thus, we may never be quite sure what 

 is meant by the term rare, because different persons may not have 

 the same idea of what rarity means. The same is true of such terms 

 as coinmon or abundant. One observer may say that six bone combs 

 from a site mean that they are common; another may cons'.rue this 

 number to mean rarity. A single observer basing his estimates upon 

 different standards, or even upon impulse, may use different com- 

 parative terms at different times, making his statements contradictorv. 



These loose methods of estimating are to be deplored, for they 

 delay the emergence of archeology into a statistical science. To a 

 large extent, also, our knowledge of the relative number of objects 

 prevailing on sites is made difficult by the f^ct that collectors have 

 seldom gathered every specimen showing the handiwork of the 

 aborigine. Only a few observers not on museum staff's have had the 

 forethought to do this. On the other hand, all archeologists employed 

 for field research in New York by reputable institutions, since 1900 

 have been careful to collect every object, from flint chip to pottery 

 vessel, not neglecting any complete or incomplete object of what- 

 ever nature. - For this reason the expeditions of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archeology 

 and Ethnology, the New York State Museum, the Museum of the 

 American Indian and the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences may 

 be relied upon. To the lasting credit of some private collectors this 

 course has also been pursued. 



Comparative lists are valuable in that they show not only what 

 implements were used most or least, but also what new forms arose, 

 what changes occurred and what forms became obsolete. These are 



