THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 339 



/\.mong these are the abundance of stone beads and disks of pottery 

 and slate, the presence of the bear-tooth knife, the perforated gorget 

 of human skull and the pyramidal " gaming bone." Pottery reaches 

 an unusual development here, especially in the occasional use of 

 handles and the exaggerated " high points,'' and the conventional 

 human face is used more here than elsewhere. 



The question then arises. To what branch of the Iroquois did the 

 makers of these articles belong? The information at hand seems to 

 point to the Onondaga. I am not familiar enough with historic 

 Onondaga collections to be sure on this point, but the Onondaga 

 Indians of today, according to Beauchamp,^ claim this more north- 

 ern region as the home of their ancestors in precolonial times and 

 he himself favors this view. 



As to the age of the sites examined, our only criterion is the fact 

 that no European trade articles were found on either s'te, the few 

 bits of crockery and the like found in one small spot at the Durfee 

 farm site being demonstrably not contemporaneous with the Indian 

 remains, but much later. For that matter I have yet to see an article 

 of European make found really associated with the Indian remains 

 on a Jefferson county Iroquoian site, as they can be seen any time 

 in the Mohawk valley or in western New York. We can thus assume 

 that these Iroquoian sites, or at least the two explored by the expedi- 

 tion, are precolonial, and were probably occupied by the Onondaga 

 before they moved south to their present location near Syracuse. To 

 my mind the specimens illustrate the prehistoric Iroquo-'s culture at 

 its best. 



Before leaving the region I photographed certain specimens from 

 Mr Loveland's collection in Watertown, all from the local Iroquoian 

 sites, which illustrate types most of which were either not found 

 by the expedition or were found in a fragmentary condition. A brief 

 description of the specimens is appended with the pictures. In 

 closing I wish to give credit and thanks to ^Ir Homer J. Heath, the 

 owner of the Heath site, and to Air P. W. Kilmer and his sons, who 

 work the Eastman farm at the Durkee farm site, for gifts of speci- 

 mens and their many kindnesses to the members of the expedition. 

 To Mr Robert D. Loveland of Watertown our gratitude is also due 

 for his hospitality and for the permission to photograph his speci- 

 mens. Doctor Getman of Chaumont gave us specimens, and both 

 he and Doctor Amidon of the same place showed us their collections 

 and gave us helpful hints. - 



^ Beauchamp, Al^orisTn-^l Occnpaticn of Xew York, p. 12. 

 2 The Loveland Amidon and Oatman collections arc now in the State 

 Museum. A. C. P. 

 22 



