33- ^'EW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



southern end. Only one skeleton was found as a regular burial — 

 which will also be described later. 



Nevertheless we succeeded in finding a surprising quantity of 

 material here, but it was the refuse heaps that yielded it. There were 

 a number of these, mainly in the western j^art, some on the hillside 

 and some on the top but all at the edge of the site. 



Refuse heap "A," at first called the " west refuse heap '' was the 

 largest example of the hillside variety, and was located in a little 

 cave of the west slope of the hill. It was somewhat fan-shaped, the 

 narrow end being at the brink of the bank, the outer edge at the 

 bottom 22 feet distant. Its widest part was 36 feet and it attained a 

 depth of from 30 to 34 inches. At the foot of the hill, as m-'ght be 

 expected, the deposit was full of stones, fire-cracked cobbles and the 

 like, which on account of their weight had rolled to the bottom. The 

 upper few inches of the deposit nearest the surface was composed 

 usually of small ordinary soil ; from this point down a mixture of 

 ashes and soil prevail. Near the bottom were pockets, streaks and 

 layers of solid charcoal or ashes, usually of small extent and rather 

 irregular. The underlying soil wtas usually quite clayey. Sometimes 

 potsherds and other specimens were found embedded in this sub- 

 stratum, as if trampled in while the ground was still soft. Pottery 

 fragments were very abundant in this heap, but mammal and bird 

 stones were rather rare. Fish bones on the contrar\- were quite com- 

 mon, as were Unio shells and charred corn in small quantities. The 

 many implements, utensils and ornaments found here will be 

 described later. This was undoubtedly an ash dump for the old 

 Indian village where everyone came to throw their garbage down 

 the hill. 



Fifty feet southeast of this was refuse heap B, on the slightly 

 sloping ground where the hilltop dips a little before rising in the 

 stony knoll to the westward. It was oval, the longest axis being from 

 east to west, 29 feet, with a breadth of 17 feet. Excavation, which 

 was accomplished by means of these trenches, showed that the 

 deposit filled a roughly bowl-shaju^d cavity, with edges steep in some 

 places and gradual in others, and which was probably natural but 

 possibly dug artificially for a garbage repository. The deposit reached 

 the unusual depth of 40 inches in the (lee])est part, and consisted of 

 a mixture of ashes and soil in varying ])r()p()rti()ns. There were 

 frequent but irregular streaks of ashes and charcoal, sometimes 

 slightly saucer-shaped suggesting a tireplace. In one of these a few 



