98 NEW YORK STATE MUSEl'.M 



The Iroquois once establislied culturally, did not copy mound 

 artifacts. Indeed, they seem to have deliberately avoided the use 

 of the distinguishing badges of their vanquished foes. Just as the 

 conquerors of the first mound people of Ohio beat up the mica orna- 

 ments and hammered into shapeless masses the copper tools and 

 gorgets of their despised victims, so did the Iroquois taboo or avoid 

 with deliberateness, the banner stone and the gorget and similar 

 artifacts of polished slate. 



Thus we may account for the difference between the pottery, 

 decorative art, implements and earthworks of the Iroquois and their 

 predecessors. This difference likewise makes it possible for us to 

 define the polished slate area and at the same time to fix the limits of 

 the Iroquoian. 



One final observation remains to be made about the mound build- 

 ers as a people. We are induced to believe that the period during 

 which they occupied this region was a longer one than generally 

 estimated. It appears as characteristic of a certain cultural develop- 

 ment and then totally disappears. 



5 THE IROQUOIS OCCUPATION OF XEW" YORK 



The origin of Iroquoian material culture is a subject of pertinent 

 interest to every student of aboriginal American archeology. This 

 p.articular racial stock, characterized by so many striking features, 

 has long held the attention of historians and archeologists, but 

 hitherto no one has attempted an analytical study of Iroquoian 

 archeology or sought to correlate its salient facts. ^luch remains 

 to be discovered, it is true, but we believe that we may now safely 

 attempt to define the material culture of the Iroquois, so far as 

 we may know it through archeology, and to make some intelligent 

 inquiry into the origin of the culture as well as of the stock itself. 

 By making this start, however faulty it may be, we hope to suggest 

 lines of inquiry that may lead others to the discovery of facts that 

 will point out a full solution. 



Most writers have observed that there are few places where Iro- 

 quoian artifacts are found unmixed with evidence of contact with 

 the European. The few early sites, of precolonial occupation, there- 

 fore are most instructive to the investigator, but. as a matter of 

 fact, the purely aboriginal material found in such sites dift'ers but 

 slightly from those of later date, exce])t those of a very recent 



^ From the author's article in The American Anthropologist, v. 18, no. 4, 

 Oct. — 'Dec. 1916. 



