52 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



REPORT OF THE ARCHEOLOGIST 



Archeological collections. In the division of archeology and 

 ethnology the activities of the year have been principally directed 

 to the installation of the archeological collections. This has neces- 

 sitated a continuance of the work of last year and in the cataloging 

 and classification of some twenty thousand specimens, which brings 

 the number handled to more than fifty thousand. Out of this 

 number, by careful selection for the purpose of exhibition, more 

 than ten thousand articles have been chosen and installed in the 

 cases in. archeology hall. The limitations of the division made it 

 necessary that the matter of judging the articles for exhibition pur- 

 poses and their installation be personally done by the archeologist, 

 and it was also necessary for him personally to prepare the text for 

 the labels throughout the exhibit. 



The plan of the exhibit calls for the display of archeological 

 objects having different relations: (i) by localities, (2) by com- 

 parison, (3) by usage, (4) by method of manufacture. The 

 advantages of this scheme are apparent when it is seen that by it 

 one may view an Indian implement correlated with other artifacts 

 from single sites, compared with others of its type from any part 

 of the State or continent, its usage shown and with various other 

 implements employed for the same general purpose, and the various 

 tools and processes by which it was made. 



In the exhibition of western New York archeology it has been 

 possible to begin our exhibit by showing first, prehistoric and pre- 

 Iroquoian articles, such as were used by the unknown tribes of 

 Algonkian, stone grave people and the mound-building Indians ; 

 second, the prehistoric Seneca sites ; third, Iroquoian sites which 

 give evidence of having been visited by the early traders but upon 

 which native artifacts predominate and in which European beads, 

 iron and brass are extremely scarce; fourth, a series of Seneca 

 sites of the middle colonial period, ending about 16S7; fifth, a 

 series of cases showing a range of objects found on Iroquoian sites 

 of the late colonial period, consisting almost entirely of trader's 

 iron, brass and glass articles. By means of this exhibition it is 

 possible to delineate the various cultural phases as evidenced by 

 archeology and to illustrate the changes that came after the period 



