212 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



indications to mark the graves ; our only guide was the stained earth 

 and similar traces of disturbance above them. Fifty-one of the 

 sixty-five graves yielded articles of utility and ornament that had 

 been placed with the dead — anything from a single bead to pipes 

 and pottery vessels. Most of the yellow soil was deeply stained 

 with black by years of fires and accumulating refuse. We also 

 heard from different Indians that Henry Silverheels, while digging 

 a pit in which to winter his potatoes had unearthed human bones, 

 and had found others later while grading a road from the terrace 

 to the flats. On looking over Beauchamp's "Aboriginal Occupation 

 of New York " we found the site listed and mapped, but not 

 accurately.^ It seemed probable from the accounts heard and from 

 the surface indications that excavation would reveal much of inter- 

 est, so we began work by digging a number of small test pits on 

 " post holes " here and there with a view to determining the depth 

 of the Indian layer and discovering the most promising portions 

 of the site. The result showed that the Indian or stained layer 

 averaged only 8 to 12 inches deep and that traces of deeper dis- 

 turbances were most frequent out toward the point. Most of the 

 Indian layer was badly plow-torn, but in the deeper portions undis- 

 turbed ash beds of considerable size were sometimes met with. 

 A system of 8 foot trenches was then planned not to cover the entire 

 inclosure, for time would not permit, but to run as indications proved 

 favorable. We -did not begin a trench series on the side of the area 

 to be explored and run them in regular order because we did not 

 know just where the best material lay and did not think it advisable 

 with our limited help and time to waste labor on unproductive 

 ground. So we drove one trial trench 8 feet wide in a westerly 

 direction parallel to the edge of the bluff, as shown in plate 71, and 

 another at right angles to it northward. Then we added parallel 

 and adjacent trenches where it seemed most promising. The 

 trenches were always dug a few inches deeper than the Indian layer. 

 Thus, by examining the underlying yellow sand as the work went 

 on we could at once detect the presence of a grave or other artificial 

 disturbance by the stained appearance of this sand and the absence 

 of stratification. These disturbances are classified as graves, ash 

 pits, ash beds, post holes, and unexplained disturbances ; and if 

 sufficiently interesting, described and numbered in order as pits i, 

 2, 3, and so on. 



Out of the one hundred pits thus listed and described, sixty-five 

 were burial pits or graves, and of these six contained more than one 



^ Beauchamp. W. M., "Ahorig:inal Occupation of New York," p. 65. 



