Report on Neuter Cemetery 



Grand Island, N. Y. 



EXCAVATED FOR THE 



BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 

 By Frederick Houghton 



July 27, 1909. 

 Mr. Henry R. Howland, Superintendent, 



Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. 



Dear Sir: — 



I take pleasure in submitting this, a report of my archae- 

 ologic field work during June and July. 



Early in June I learned of the discovery of Indian remains 

 at the lower end of Grand Island. Investigation showed that it 

 was a large cemetery and worth excavating. Accordingly work 

 was at once begun and has now been satisfactorily completed. 



The cemetery was the burial place of the village marked 

 No. 30 on my map. It is situated on a farm occupied by John 

 Van Son and owned by Mr. Hoffeld of this city. It is on a low 

 knoll, 1/4 mile north of the Long Road and 1/4 mile east of 

 Niagara River. The village seems to have been on the river 

 bank opposite the middle of the "pulp boom", at a point well 

 marked by refuse heaps, though they are now hidden by a growth 

 of sweet clover. The knoll in which the cemetery is, was also 

 occupied by the village at one time, for the surface above the 

 graves and to the eastward of the burial place is littered with 

 potsherds, animal bones and charcoal, the remains of refuse 

 heaps. Many graves are covered with an undisturbed layer of 

 midden earth, showing that the knoll was occupied after the 

 burials took place. That these middens are not recent is shown 

 by the occurrence in them of pottery and flint points. 



