THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 245 



identified as belonging to any particular culture. It merely belonged 

 to the general Algonkin-Iroquois type of terra cotta pipes. Pitted 

 hammer stones were rather common, as were chips and objects 

 of i^int. As before indicated, a number of liint arrow points were 

 found, mainly triangular. There were also celts, whole and broken, 

 and a peculiar stone chisel. A few charred nuts were found in one 

 pit, but bones of any kind were very rare, although a few, evidently 

 deer, came to light. This scarcity seems very peculiar when we 

 consider the large number of hearths and pits, unless most of the 

 refuse was thrown down the blufT — a custom which seems to have 

 prevailed among the Mohawk branch of the Iroquoian stock, if we 

 may judge from the conditions to be seen on the sites of their old 

 strongholds in the Mohawk valley. But if this was done at Double 

 Wall Fort, we did not find the refuse heap. Perhaps it was washed 

 away or covered by a landslide. Nothing to indicate European influ- 

 ence or contact was discovered. A large proportion of the specimens 

 were found in the surface or village layer and comparatively few 

 in the pits, reversing the usual conditions. Certain spots in this 

 layer seemed richer than others, particularly on the side toward the 

 ravine. 



The small amount of refuse gives the impression that the village 

 was neither very populous nor long occupied. We just consider, 

 of course, that the inhabitants may have practised the Mohawk sys- 

 tem above referred to of disposing of it, but the probabilities are 

 that the site was used mainly as a war-time stronghold and probably 

 never for any considerable period as a regular village. Perhaps 

 the main town was on the now destroyed field at the foot of the 

 bluff, or even across the creek. The fort could not, it seems to me, 

 have been merely a temporary fortified camp or village intended to 

 be used a short time only and then abandoned forever. Too much 

 labor had been expended on it for that, and the Indian rarely likes 

 trouble for nothing. The '' war-time stronghold " hypothesis cer- 

 tainly seems the most probable. 



That the people who erected this work belonged to the long extinct 

 Erie or Cat Nation, a branch of the great Iroquoian stock, seems to 

 me unquestionable. They were the only peoj^le of whom we have 

 any record in the region during early historic times^ when the 

 Jesuits first came among the Iroquois, and doubtless had lived there 

 for some time. The site is earlv, for there are no trade articles ; it 



^Jesuit Relations for 1668. 



