ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY 



General scope of activities. The work of this division of the 

 Museum may be divided into three subsections as follows: office 

 work, research, and field work. Office work covers the routine and 

 special correspondence, the curatorial work incident to the collections, 

 cataloging and consultation. Research covers the field of investi- 

 gation and embraces the work of preparing manuscripts covering 

 reports or accounts covering the subjects investigated. Field work 

 in a measure is research but it is concerned more with original sources 

 than with written accounts. Through field work we conduct our 

 excavations in ancient Indian village sites, through it we inspect 

 the various sites, we explore archeological areas, we collect directly 

 from sites, we acquire collections from those who have already 

 made examinations of sites and we visit the various Iroquois reser- 

 vations in the State and collect ethnological specimens from the 

 living Indians. Museum work includes the sorting and classification 

 of the specimens brought in from the field or acquired from collectors, 

 but equally important is the placing of this material in the exhibition 

 halls of the Museum. 



The direct reaction upon the public of this work comes as a 

 result of our research, exhibition, publications, correspondence and 

 through personal consultation. 



Activities of the Archeology division. The activities of this 

 division may be classified under the following heads: (i) archeology, 

 (2) ethnology, (3) museum, (4) living Indians, including assistance 

 to Indian agricultural and welfare organizations, (5) State Indian 

 Commission, (6) information service. 



1 Work in the field of archeology is concerned with the excavation 

 of ancient sites and a study of the culture of these sites. This 

 work must be done within the next few decades in order to obtain 

 any results whatever. The requirements of agriculture and of 

 building are rapidly causing the destruction of archeological sites, 

 thereby obliterating forever the sources of information concerning 

 our aborigines. The problem of archeology is primarily one of 

 the study of race origin, the relationship of races, migrations and 

 culture characteristics. New York State comprises a particularly 

 important field in American archeology. 



2 In the realm of anthropology, ethnology forms a twin science 

 with archeology. Through our ethnologic researches we examine 



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