NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



ornaments, adzes and digging tools. The largest number of coppers 

 have been found in Chautauqua cDunty, about Oneida lake, about 

 Lake Champlain and in the Hudson valley near Catskill. Scattered 

 specimens are quite likely to be found anywhere in the provinces of 

 either the Algonkian or the mound-building people. In early days 

 when the land at the west and northwest end of Oneida lake was 

 cleared, farmers frequently sold native copper implements to local tin 

 and coppersmiths. Perhaps fifty good specimens from this locality 

 have found their way into collections. Otis Bigelow collected about 

 twenty, all in the State Museum, some of which are shown in plate 

 119. Native copper implements seem to have come into this area by 

 trade rather than by manufacture here. All bear evidence of having 

 been hammered out and none are cast. Needless to say not a single 

 native copper implement is " tempered," and, indeed, no aboriginal 

 tempered copper exists in America ; all statements to the contrary are 

 pure myths. Examination proved that one specimen that was reputed 

 to have scratched glass had a flake of dark quartz or flint inclosed by 

 the metal at the point where it scratched the glass. It is interesting 

 to note how the American natives had discovered the value of a 

 ridged back to give strength. Nearly all their copper implements 

 have this ridge as the middle line between the beveled planes. Pro- 

 vision for handling was made by three methods : by insertion in a 

 slit, like an arrowhead; by a spiked projection, like a file neck; and 

 by a flanged socket that allowed the handle to be driven in. Copper 

 implements are far more numerous in Ohio, ^Michigan, Wisconsin, 

 and in the states adjoining the Alississippi than in New York. It 

 is doubtful if more than 250 copper implements and objects, not 

 including separate beads, are to be found in all the New York 

 collections. 



Culture. By this term we mean the motives, habits of thought and 

 the activities of a people, represented by what they produce along 

 material and intellectual lines. The materials manufactured by a 

 people represent their material culture. 



In New York there are evidences of many forms of aboriginal 

 culture, some of which we are unable to identify tribally. Others 

 are recognized as Eskimolike, Algonkian, Mound Builder and 

 Iroquois. 



Cups. Stone cups or small mortars are rare in New York. A 

 few have been found along the Hudson and down the Susquehanna. 



