REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I913 lOI 



Artifacts from this culture are found in certain portions of New- 

 York State but usually associated with small mounds or stone 

 graves. The State Museum has records of several such sites but 

 unfortunately has never been able to excavate one. No trained 

 observer has watched or recorded these accidental finds. It is to 

 be hoped that in the future it may be possible to supplement the 

 bare objects with their meager data of discovery, by excavating 

 such sites under scientific oversight. 



In one grave opened up in a gravel bank, near Middlesex, two 

 entire stone tubes and one broken specimen were found. With 

 these was a crude clay pipe with a short stem and small bowl, an 

 awl lance head of antler, a bone pendant and a small copper chisel. 



In another grave opened this year was a large black slate gorget 

 of the two-hole type, a double-tailed " bird stone " and the middle 

 portion of a dagger or blade made of mastodon tusk. No other 

 specimen made of such material has been found in the State, as far 

 as is known to the Museum. The gorget is one of the largest in 

 our collections, measuring 6 inches in length, 4 inches in width at 

 top and 35^2 inches at the bottom. The sides are only slightly con- 

 vex, but both top and bottom are arcs of circles. The central point 

 of each arc is the perforation most distant from it. The center of 

 each hole is equidistant from the edge immediately below it. The 

 perforations are all so exactly placed on the gorget that each is the 

 midway point in a line drawn perpendicularly. 



The gorget seems to be divided in approximate fifths with each 

 hole at a point from each end, about two-fifths of the length. The 

 distance between the holes is i-^jr inches. These measurements 

 are given only for the sake of description to show the exactness 

 with which the specimen was made. The surface is covered with 

 arborescent crystals of some carbonate, though originally there was 

 a high polish. 



The range of pipe forms and .pottery as illustrated by the speci- 

 mens from Jefiferson county and contained in the Oatman and 

 Loveland collections, presents a fairly good view of precolonial 

 Iroquoian ceramic art. The pipes are of especial interest because 

 they break away from purely utilitarian forms in outline and con- 

 ventional decoration. The modeling on many represents human 

 and animal forms, sometimes quite natural, and in other instances 

 conventionalized. 



The Iroquoian clay pot, judged by the specimens in these col- 

 lections, is usually a fine piece of work, in the sense that the clay 

 has been carefully prepared, tempered and modeled. Iroquois 



